A Close Up Look at Teaching Reading

Many teachers would like to address students' individual learning needs, but don't always know how to proceed. Other teachers, while having their students' best interests in mind, create classroom environments that work against, rather than with, children.

"A Close-Up Look at Teaching Reading" takes you inside Sharon Taberski's classroom revealing what is possible when teachers are clear about their goals and realistic about what they and their students can accomplish. Sharon understands the pressures teachers face both to address students' individual learning styles and to assure their maximum growth as readers.

Her new video series shows ways you can help your own students become fluent, independent readers - how you can assess students' reading in authentic ways, demonstrate effective reading strategies, create plenty of opportunities for children to practice strategies, and provide for genuine response from both the children and yourself. 1. Independent Reading and Reading Share

This video begins with a brief tour of Sharon's classroom, during which she explains the importance of materials and room organization in helping her and her students achieve their goals. She begins her day sitting alongside the children as they read, to learn as much as she can about their reading progress. This information will guide her teaching over the course of the day. Throughout the independent reading portion of the workshop, her students are given many opportunities to read and practice their reading strategies. Later, they reconvene at the meeting area to discuss what they have learned about themselves as readers. 2. Read Aloud and Shared Reading

Filmed during the meeting portion of the reading workshop, this video shows Sharon demonstrating reading strategies as she reads aloud to the children. Later, Sharon guides the children in the shared reading of a text. During read aloud and shared reading, she provides the children with opportunities to respond to literature, demonstrates effective reading strategies, and teaches skills in a supportive, meaningful context. 3. Reading Conferences

This third video focuses on ways you can confer with children to assess their reading needs and then use that information to determine what to teach next. It highlights several methods for making these assessments, including retellings, reading discussions, and running records. Sharon also demonstrates ways she uses her assessment notebooks and clipboard to record observations and plan classroom experiences to address children's needs. 4. Guided Reading

In this portion of the reading workshop, Sharon expands the notion of guided reading to include situations where small groups of children are called together to work on specific reading strategies. The children are grouped for varied lengths of time in response to their particular reading needs as assessed during reading conferences and independent reading. Sharon focuses on one strategy at a time, provides opportunities for the children to practice the strategies, and offers support as she helps them move toward independence in reading.

A User's Guide accompanies the set, explaining how the series can be used in a variety of contexts.

"Time: Each about 20 minutes Publication: 1996."