A Reading Lesson (A Child's Perspective)

Rereading Familiar Books

In each lesson everyday I get to read lots of little books.  I get to pick some of my favorite stories that I have read before.  This is easy for me.  I try to read my book like a story and make it sound like people are talking.  My teacher says, “That’s good reading, that’s how good readers sound.”

Taking a Running Record

Now I have to read a book all by myself! My teacher will check on me and won’t help me unless I have a problem.  If I can’t figure out a word or get all mixed up my teacher will tell me the word or say, “Try that again.”  I read this book yesterday.  My teacher helped me work hard to figure out the tricky parts.  Now I think I can read it pretty good all by myself.

Letter Identification or Word Analysis

Sometimes I need to do work on learning about letters or important “chunks” of words.  My teacher knows all about the things I need to learn.  I like to move magnetic letters around on the chalkboard.  They help me understand what I am learning.

Writing a Story

Everyday I get to think up my own story to write in my writing book.  I can write lots of words all by myself.  My teacher likes my stories and helps me to figure out how to write all the words.  We use boxes and I say the word I want to write slowly so I can hear the sounds, and then I write the letters in the boxes all by myself.  I like to read my story when I am done.

Cut Up Sentence

I read the story and my teacher writes it on a long strip of paper. My teacher cuts up my story.  I can put it back together.  I have to think real hard to get it all back together.  Then I have to check myself to see if I got it right.  Most of the time, I do!

New Book Introduced

I like this part of the lesson the best!  My teacher picks out a new story just for me and tells me what the story is all about.  We look at the pictures and think about what the people and animals say in the book.  My teacher also helps me think about some new important words in my story.  Isn’t it fun to hear about the story and look at the beautiful pictures before you read it!  I think it helps me read the story too!

New Book Attempted

Now it is my turn to work hard again but I like this story and I know my lesson is almost over.  When I come to a hard part my teacher will ask me questions to help me think or might show me what I should think about or do.  My teacher is trying to teach me to do all the things good readers do. If I have to work real hard on this story we will probably read it again together.

Taken from the Reading Recovery Model