"I tried every way that I could think of to get some of my reluctant older readers in the Emerging Phase to become involved in independent reading. Finally, I told them I would tap dance for them at the end of every day that they read and I would teach them to tap dance. That worked!"
- a Saskatchewan teacher



















































The most important aspects of independent reading are that:

• children are supported in choosing their own texts
• it is a daily routine
• a variety of materials are available from which children can choose
• the collection of materials for independent reading is changed, added to, or renewed on a regular basis.

Guided and Independent Reading

Guided Reading³⁸

• Sets of leveled³⁹ books, one for each child in a small guided reading group (Many commercial reading materials listed by Saskatchewan Education include sets of leveled books--see English Language Arts bibliographies and annual updates.)
• Easel, chart paper, and markers.

1. Decide when children in the emerging stage of literacy have developed sufficient foundations to participate in a guided reading group. Your decision would be based on the extent to which students show:
   • interest and confidence in attempting to read books independently
   • some basic understanding of print concepts
   • the ability to read a few sight words
   • knowledge of some letters and sounds.
2. Select a text from the first level of a set of leveled books. Gather the small group of children together in your class meeting place and give each child a copy of the book selected.
3. Be sure to mention your belief in their abilities to read the book independently with a little support.
4. Introduce the book in the way that you would if you were reading it to the children, noting the title, author, and illustrator and eliciting their ideas about what the book might be. Using the adjacent easel and chart paper, draw students' attention to key vocabulary the book uses and/or any words that you feel they will not be able to decode independently.
5. Read the first page with the students. Books in the earliest levels will make use of a similar sentence pattern throughout and contain very little text.
6. Invite students to read the rest of the book by themselves making use of the strategies you have modeled in Shared Reading and demonstrated many times. Do not have children take turns reading the book aloud as this practice can place too much pressure on individuals to "perform" well. You want them to try to figure out words independently, and with the confidence that miscues are not mistakes but rather an important part of the process of learning to read.
7. Monitor students' progress through the book offering encouragement to children who require it. Use reminders that keep the focus on the story events and on retaining the meaning.
8. Take a few minutes at the end of the session to reread the book together and to review a print concept or letter-sound combination that some children appeared to find difficult.
9. Make the books available for independent practice.
10. Use other books from the first level (of a set of leveled books) on subsequent occasions. Move to using books from the second level and higher as children show that they are ready. Form new groupings as necessary.

Supporting Independent Reading

• Fiction and nonfiction books that students have chosen from the school library, your local library, or brought from home
• Variety of other texts to read including those on walls, in centers, and in your classroom library.

Materials to include in Classroom Library Big Books Baskets of books sorted by author, illustrator, or theme Baskets of books sorted and labeled by level Browsing Boxes (p. 61) Poem box Books or albums written and illustrated by the class Books authored by individual children in the class Magazines and newspapers

Procedures

1. A common way to undertake independent reading is to have a daily period in which everyone including the teacher engages in reading a book of choice in a quiet atmosphere. This practice is known both as Silent Sustained Reading⁴⁰ (SSR) and as Drop Everything and Read (DEAR).
2. Other possibilities for independent reading include sharing a book of mutual choice with a classmate and the Read Around the Room strategy (p. 141).
3. Find a time for children to discuss the book/s they have read independently in pairs or small or large groups, and to develop personal responses to favourite books.

In addition to Read, Talk, Act, Draw, Write (p. 63), see the following strategies from English Language Arts: A Curriculum Guide for the Elementary Level (1992) for other ways for children to respond to the books they have read: Book Talks (p. 87) Illustrating Stories (p. 105) Reading Logs (p. 124).

A mentor is "one who provides one-to-one support and attention, is a friend and a role model, boosts a child's self-esteem, [and] enhances a student's educational experience" (Brodkin & Coleman, 1993, p.21).

Mentor-supported Literacy Development

Mentoring programs have been developed as holistic responses to the needs of children whose learning is "at risk" due to such social factors as poverty, racism, and abuse. While many kinds of mentoring programs have been developed, the goals of Mentor-supported Literacy Development Programs are to provide children with the moral support of a caring adult while working on literacy learning. Evaluation of such programs has demonstrated "their immediate value and long term promise" (Ellis, Small-McGinley, & Hart, 1998, p. 161).

The procedures for mentoring described here focus specifically on providing the support for learners in the Emerging Phase of literacy to develop their independent reading abilities.

Procedures

1. Collaborate. Discuss the idea of establishing a mentoring program with colleagues in your school. If possible, develop it as a school project. Show the description of Mentor-supported Literacy Development in this resource to your principal and other relevant administrators (vice-principal, language arts/early childhood consultant, etc.) and enlist their support.
2. Describe. Jointly develop a short description of the role, time commitments, and rewards of becoming a literacy mentor to share with parents, friends, and relatives of your school's staff, community groups such Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Senior Centers, etc. and local high schools, community colleges, technical schools, or universities. In the description, you might:
   • stress that mentors need to make a commitment to meet regularly (for example, once a week for one half to one hour) and for an entire school term if possible
   • describe the role of a mentor as that of one who listens to, talks and has fun with, supports the independent reading of, and generally encourages and shows interest in an individual child.
   • describe the rewards of mentoring as including contributing to the self-esteem and literacy development of a child and to feelings of personal satisfaction for the mentor. You might want to incorporate a few quotes from a recent evaluation of two mentorship programs in Alberta (Ellis et al, 1998) to show the nature of the mutual benefits. See quotes that follow.

     Participants in two Mentor-supported Literacy programs in elementary schools were interviewed after 6-8 weeks in the programs. They described the many rewards of their involvement. For example, Children said: "It makes me feel happy and proud when she comes." "He reads books and he likes me a lot." "She helps me read books that I can't read … and she loves me." Mentors said: "And just to be able to see that when I walk into the room he knows that it's our time, and he has a big smile on his face and he's very excited. That just gives me a good feeling all over." "She sees me and she's all happy and smiles." "When he's with me he talks now the whole time … I get great satisfaction out of knowing that that's going to benefit him too just by having a wonderful, really good interaction with somebody." From Mentor-Supported Literacy Development in Elementary Schools, Ellis, Small-McGinley, & Hart, 1998, p. 157.

   • Train. Develop a short (one session) training program and a handout for mentors which stresses that mentors do not need to be experts or persons with strong academic backgrounds. Inspire confidence in mentors that they will be helpful simply by establishing a positive relationship with a child. You might want to make your "tips for mentors" include ideas such as those in the chart on the next page.
   • Teacher's Role. Your role in the program includes the following actions:
     • choose the children who might benefit the most from being paired with a mentor and do the matching of mentors and children
     • lead or co-lead the training session and provide handouts or guidelines on cards for mentors to use
     • develop an assessment profile of children's literacy abilities at the beginning of the program including their beliefs about themselves as readers and writers and attitudes to reading and writing, and their present book knowledge, sight vocabulary, graphophonic abilities and use of problem-solving strategies for spelling and decoding.
     • support the children in choosing new reading materials for each visit with their mentor and familiar texts for rereading
     • show interest in, and encouragement and support for, mentors and children throughout the program.
     • monitor children's progress and feelings about participation in the program.
   • Celebrate. Plan a small celebration of some kind for mentors and children towards the end of the program.

     Ideas for Literacy Mentors As a mentor, you might: Begin each visit with the child with a friendly chat. "How are you today? What's new with you?" (If the child describes a problem s/he is facing, sympathize but do not try to solve it. Just by listening, you are showing support.) Have the child show you any artwork or other items s/he wants to share with you and talk with the child about them. Share something about yourself and your week--funny stories will be appreciated. You might want to bring a favourite book, a family photo, postcard, or other item to show the child. You want to make your time spent together as mutual as possible--you show an interest in the child and s/he shows an interest in you. Ask the child what s/he would like to do first--reread a familiar book or work on a new book or text with you. Leave time to do both each visit or alternate these on two consecutive visits. When a child has difficulty with a word, do not jump in too quickly. Wait, encourage, and suggest strategies s/he might use such as, "What might make sense in that sentence? Do you know any of the sounds in that word? Do you know any other words that look like that?" Use your judgement about when to supply the word and when to help the child figure it out for her/himself. Find ways to help the child keep track of the meaning of the sentence and of the story as a whole. You want her/him to understand that reading should make sense. Find ways to make the reading time fun for both of you. As time permits, use a small chalkboard, magnetic letters, or paper and pencil to work on some letters and sounds, word families, or sight words from the class Word Wall each visit. Choose letter-sound combinations that the child struggled with in the reading that day or previously. Monitor your reading time and any follow-up activities that you do so that you have time left for a short, enjoyable, child-selected activity at the end of your visit. Appreciate every accomplishment of the child (however small) during the time spent together.

Remember to use the samples of environmental print, experience charts, labels, etc. on display in your room for reading experiences on a regular basis. "The classroom print must not become like unnoticed wallpaper. Instead it needs to be clear, purposeful, and used by the teacher with the children so that it adds to the children's literacy learning. (Campbell, 1998, p. 81).






In the beginning, emerging learners in Pre-K or K may only recognize their name or know a few labels based upon knowing the name of the object that is labeled. Even if they are not actually reading the labels at this stage, they are learning what a "word" is and that words stand for something, two very important concepts in literacy development.

Read Around the Room

The purposes of this activity are to:

• help children view themselves as readers
• support independence
• provide practice in using the cueing systems.

• Pointers of various lengths made from bamboo garden stakes or dowel rods, chopsticks, or rulers
• All the print on the walls, bulletin boards, shelving units, etc. This would include labels, attendance charts, calendars, alphabet charts, Word Walls, experience charts, lists, recipes, bulletin board captions, reminders, etc.
• Copies of favourite rhymes and songs, etc.

1. Demonstrate how to "read a room" using a pointer, moving from text to text and encouraging all children to join in. Model the use of cues/problem-solving strategies by thinking out loud (see Questions to Ask when Reading or Rereading Books chart, p. 136). Do not read everything--just a few examples.
2. Invite children to find words in the room that they think they can read and give children a pointer. Have them take turns finding a word (or phrase, sentence, or whole text) that is on display, framing it, and reading it aloud. Encourage and appreciate all efforts.
3. Include Read Around the Room as one of your choices at Center Time. Children can work individually or in pairs. Acknowledge their efforts to use problem-solving strategies and the amount of reading they can do.

After most children are familiar with many of the labels in the room, remove them and invite children to "Write Around the Room". Give out blank cards to any children that feel they know how to write any of the names of objects in the room. Allow them to attach the new labels.

"One of the most important ways adults can foster literacy development is simply by responding positively to children's attempts at reading and writing. We facilitate literacy growth when we treat children as already readers and writers, when we accept approximations and errors as necessary to growth, and when we convey the feeling that 'of course' they will become proficient at reading and writing." (Weaver, 1994, p.86).