Something
that hasn’t happened in my classroom in a few weeks happened today. I was able to talk books with my students! I knew I was missing this valuable time, but
didn’t realize just how much I was missing it!
The last few weeks have been hectic.
Going to the NCTE convention, the short Thanksgiving week, administrating
reading assessments and district writing prompts, and completing report cards meant
something had to be sacrificed.
Unfortunately, it was talking about books with my students. They had time to read, but since I only see
each group for a 90 minute block of time, I haven’t been able to meet with
them.
With
the district mandates finally completed, I was so excited driving to school
today. I couldn’t wait to be able to
reconnect with my students as readers. After
reluctantly finishing other work, we transitioned into reading. The students knew I was excited to be meeting
with them again and quickly settled in around the classroom, eager to discuss
their books with me. Time seemed to fly
by as I met with reader after reader. Over
the next forty five minutes, I reconnected with old characters, was introduced
to new books, challenged my reader’s thinking, left some of them wondering about
upcoming events in their book, introduced some to new books, etc. There were no charts to fill out, data to
collect, papers to assess, or time restrictions (except for lunch, of course!)! It was just my students and me, our
notebooks, and genuine talk.
With
all of the mandates and data collection, the information I received today by simply
talking to my readers about their books is the most important data I could ever
receive. I also realized that I wasn’t
the only one who was missing this treasured time. So were my students. As we were packing up, one of my students
told me they planned on finishing their book tonight and that she couldn’t wait
to talk to me about it tomorrow. “Neither
can I!” I thought!
