teaching even a grade younger. In sixth grade, though, they want to feel accepted, and if I bar them from participating in a book club that’s reading something that’s a grade level or two above what they can read independently, they will hate me for it and they will believe that I don’t believe they can do it. If they can come to the realization that the book isn’t working for them, then we can readjust in a healthy conversation. Also, when everyone else moves onto a new book, they can re-read the one they already read and experience greater success the second time around with new peers. Choices matter, and the more choices I remove for a student, the more they see the limits I place on them as a limit in my belief in their abilities rather than a logical choice based on their zone of proximal development. Will they get everything out of that book at the same level as their on grade level peers? No. Will they learn more if they’re happy? Yes. Will they learn a lot from the models of their on grade level peers? YES! They will learn so much by being in a book club. Even if they mostly listen in on their conversations and don’t add as much as other peers, they’re still gathering valuable cues of what a reader does. Does this mean I let them just struggle and sort of shuffle along? No! I also am going to be extra vigilant reading with this student pivotal passages of the text and teaching them in small groups. Also, they should be getting instruction at books in their levels perhaps in guided reading or strategy groups, depending on their level. They will not always be stretching themselves by reading challenging books for book clubs.
Students who “seem” fine but also seem, well, not fine
I write a lot more about the path I take for older students who are missing foundational skills and might need intervention here. In short, I often see sixth graders who struggle with phonics, phonological awareness, decoding and spelling multisyllabic words, basic punctuation and grammar rules, fluency, phrasing, and expression. These students require instruction in these areas. First, I do more assessments to gain information such as the CORE Phonics survey and running records. Then, I will pull them in small groups to teach them these foundational skills. If possible, this is going to happen at least 3x/week for 20 minutes following an intervention program or curriculum of some kind. This will serve as documentation should I need to move forward with some other process within my school.
So what does that schedule look like?
I don’t do it all every day. I currently have a 60 minute language arts block and a 30 minute intervention block. I would be happy with two blocks of 45 minutes as well. If I did not have the two separate sessions because I taught middle school, I would essentially flip-flop between these models I describe below and probably build in 10 minutes of independent reading or 10 minutes of freewriting depending on the focus of the current unit to balance it out.
My 60 minute block is dedicated to language arts projects that involve some kind of written final product – whether that is a reading response or one-pager, a book talk/trailer, a picture book, a memoir, a website, a research essay, a notebook of poems, etc. That block of time almost always follows the same structure of minilesson, work time and conferences, and closing. I find conferences most beneficial for teaching writing although I will occasionally call a group of students all struggling with one skill together with me. More often, I will offer students to come to me if they need help with the minilesson skill or if they’re behind or whatever my prompt it. This often gets students asking for help that need it that’s more open since it’s self-directed. I am not singling anyone out for support, but I can by going to them later. I definitely do not distribute conferences evenly; many students need more time with me and that is okay.
During the 30 min intervention block, I center this time on independent reading, so we do multiple lessons on fix up strategies, rea