Customer Reviews

Growing Readers: Units of Study in the Primary Classroom

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I got this book over the summer, and am using it daily to guide my instruction. It takes you step by step in how to implement and teach reading workshop in the primary classroom, and gives units of study for the year. I hadn't previously organized my instruction this way, but she sold me on it with her book. It is also an enjoyable read since Collins is very funny.

Kathy Collins is a true expert on Reading Workshop. She writes in such a captivating tone while challenging you to truly reflect on your own teaching. This book will guide you from start to finish on how to take your reading instruction to a level you never thought possible. Collins gives practical advice on teaching reading successfully even when you have a large class with no assistant and readers on each end of the spectrum and several in-between.

This book is excellent for any teacher who is launching reader's workshop in their classroom. I will be teaching first grade this coming school year and have been reading this book to help me prepare. What I really love about the book is that it gives you a scope and sequence for what units of study you could teach throughout the school year, provides examples of mini-lessons you can teach, as well as being very explicit about what a reader's workshop mini-lesson should look like and what reader's workshop should look like in general. Kathy Collins writes in a way that all teacher can relate and includes some funny anecdotes about her own teaching-this is a must have!

As a literacy coach for a large public school system, I feel every 1st grade teacher should challenge themselves to strive for a classroom that resembles Kathy's. In this book, she shares insights on exactly how to do this. What an outstanding text and a MUST for every primary teacher!

This is an excellent source to guide teachers on how to teach Reading Workshop. It gives dialogue on mini lessons and ideas of how to set up your room. It is a must read for Reading Workshop teachers. It is a down to the minutes guide of what to do.

This was a great and useful book. It helps readers think about how to apply the reading workshop to the clasroom of young children filled with emerging readers. Collins writes in a conversational way with important suggestions and backround. She shares openly and intelligently how to do the work and relays how the plans worked in her classes. Very helpful and readable!

For those teachers who are NOT into mediocre reading programs that are teacher proof and, quite frankly, student proof at times...this book is for you...it's for the teacher who wants to create a room that emphasizes volume of reading, being flexible to meet the needs of each student, teachable moments, and using the love of reading as a technique to increase student achievement...think JAZZ rather than CLASSICAL...think ER doctor or surgeon rather than general family practitioner...this book is NOT for the teacher who just wants to be comfortable and "nest" in their rooms...

This book is one that may seem to have great ideas--in theory! In practice? Well, that's another thing. There are a number of things I agree with wholeheartedly: think-pair-share, conferencing in which you meet with the child rather than vice versa, opportunities to immediately apply the concepts and strategies of a lesson, time to "debrief".... BUT, my teaching cannot be via a multitude of mini lessons--the scope of what must be covered in a school year does not allow for this. I also felt that the author's approach was a bit "me, me, me" with the children; she recommends the teacher making the summation in order to control time. In this vein she also mentions the importance of student participation yet she wants to strongly control this. When children share, it is good for the whole group to be included rather than just one partner--yes, this takes some time and it is an art to keep things moving smoothly but many ideas can be shared. This is a great opportunity to have children exposed to thinking outside the box or, perhaps, outside their comfort zone. I agree with the author that young children appreciate a routine but to do the same thing day in and day out can encourage the children to begin to perform like automatons. With today's demands for differentiation, this would create a lot of extra work for teachers.
I felt that this book presented concepts that looked wonderful on paper but would leave holes in practice. Now, I am NOT bashing the book. I look at it as I do when attending professional teaching conferences--if I can walk away with one or two useful ideas to implement in my classroom, I am satisfied. I did get a few ideas to try out in my own classroom. The book did not prove to be what I had expected but I have not come away empty-handed. It would be futile to expect to fit someone else's classroom management, procedures, and scheduling into your classroom and I did not embrace this book expecting that to happen. I am not a new teacher but I am always looking for new ideas. I did get just that; however, it required a lot of time spent reading on my part so if I knew the content of this book a bit better I would not have purchased it. (It was one of the books Amazon recommended to me.)

I thought this was a great book for new and seasoned teachers alike. Well organized and easy reading. I'm a Reading Specialist returning to my field after taking time to raise my family, Growing Readers helped to renew my enthusiasm to get back into the classroom and share the gift of reading with my students!

We just finished a Book Study @ school using this book! We all thought her suggestions were great (especially the one about not ONLY using running records & DRA levels to "label" readers) but using individual conferencing also.
Mini Lesson Ideas abound! Specifics are included throughout! A must-have in your personal/professional library for ANY Elementary School Reading Teacher!