Sunday, September 23, 2012

The Power of Partners

Lessons 11 and 12 in Lucy Calkins' Building a Reading Life focus on creating and using reading partnerships.
 

 
Students learned what they can do with their partner to discuss and interact with their books.  I modeled each activity and then they practiced. I've used reading partnerships in the past, but by providing students with specific ideas for how to interact, it made the partnerships more focused and purposeful. Students were on task for the majority of the time I heard great conversations about reading.
 
 
Show each other your sticky notes and talk about what you marked.

 
Read a favorite part to your partner.

 
Act out part of your book.

 
Partners reading the same book aloud.

 
Taking turns reading aloud together.

 
I created my partnerships by pairing up students with similar reading levels.  The books in their reading baggies are at their reading levels and partners have a couple of books that are the same. One partner is written in yellow and the other is blue.  This is so I can sometimes give the yellow partner a task and the blue partner a different task.  I find this more user friendly than having the students remember who is Partner A and who is Partner B.


 
This girl went to do her weekly book shopping in the classroom library and I questioned her choice to get two of the same books.  She replied, "I got my partner exact copies of my books so we can do it together."  I was so excited that she has made her reading life one that includes her partner!
 
 
 
 

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