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Growing Readers: Units of Study in the Primary Classroom
Primary-grade teachers face an important challenge: teaching children how to read while enabling them to build good habits so they fall in love with reading. Many teachers find the independent reading workshop to be the component of reading instruction that meets this challenge because it makes it possible to teach the reading skills and strategies children need and guides them toward independence, intention, and joy as readers.
In Growing Readers, Kathy Collins helps teachers plan for independent reading workshops in their own classrooms. She describes the structure of the independent reading workshop and other components of a balanced literacy program that work together to ensure young students grow into strong, well-rounded readers. Kathy outlines a sequence of possible units of study for a yearlong curriculum. Chapters are devoted to the individual units of study and include a sample curriculum as well as examples of mini-lessons and reading conferences. There are also four “Getting Ready” sections that suggest some behind-the-scenes work teachers can do to prepare for the units. Topics explored in these units include:
print and comprehension strategies;
reading in genres such as poetry and nonfiction;
connecting in-school reading and out-of-school reading;
developing the strategies and habits of lifelong readers.
A series of planning sheets and management tips are presented throughout to help ensure smooth implementation.
We want our students to learn to read, and we want them to love to read. To do this we need to lay a foundation on which children build rich and purposeful reading lives that extend beyond the school day. The ideas found in Growing Readers create the kind of primary classrooms where that happens.
In Growing Readers, Kathy Collins helps teachers plan for independent reading workshops in their own classrooms. She describes the structure of the independent reading workshop and other components of a balanced literacy program that work together to ensure young students grow into strong, well-rounded readers. Kathy outlines a sequence of possible units of study for a yearlong curriculum. Chapters are devoted to the individual units of study and include a sample curriculum as well as examples of mini-lessons and reading conferences. There are also four “Getting Ready” sections that suggest some behind-the-scenes work teachers can do to prepare for the units. Topics explored in these units include:
print and comprehension strategies;
reading in genres such as poetry and nonfiction;
connecting in-school reading and out-of-school reading;
developing the strategies and habits of lifelong readers.
A series of planning sheets and management tips are presented throughout to help ensure smooth implementation.
We want our students to learn to read, and we want them to love to read. To do this we need to lay a foundation on which children build rich and purposeful reading lives that extend beyond the school day. The ideas found in Growing Readers create the kind of primary classrooms where that happens.
296 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
31 people are currently reading
259 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
July 1, 2009
Kathy Collins uses a lot of best practices that I found very helpful; however, if you are reading this resource as a source for new material...not likely. She spends a lot of time stroking the back of Lucy Caulkins. If you are unfamiliar with Caulkins, then you may find this very helpful. However, as a teacher who uses several of Caulkins' strategies, I found this book a little hard to finish because it felt almost cult like.
June 21, 2011
This book is amazing! I read this book together with Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller and Mosaic of Thought by Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmerman (1st edition). I learned so much about teaching children to understand and not just read words and pump out books.
Units of study are meant for a readers workshop in early grades which is meant for a classroom. Fortunately, I feel like most of these techniques are easy to implement at home to teach children during read aloud. Like a good readers workshop would do, I can identify areas my kids need to work on and give them mini-lessos. Plus, I can enhance what they already know and call attention to it, maybe making it stronger. These lessons are simple, but they seem like they would be effective. I loved the lessons about teaching kids to research using non-fiction texts, reading poetry, studying characters, and becoming an expert on authors. This book's lessons encourage deeper thinking about reading, including author intent. I liked how the author reminded how the topics are strengthened during the other elements of literacy during the day, which helped me better understand what balanced literacy really is. (It is brilliant!) Lucky is the child who enjoys reading workshop and balanced literacy the way it can be (your kids are lucky Mrs. Stone)! This book answered questions I had when helping my kids with school projects. I love it! I would really like to find it's equal meant for upper grades!!
Units of study are meant for a readers workshop in early grades which is meant for a classroom. Fortunately, I feel like most of these techniques are easy to implement at home to teach children during read aloud. Like a good readers workshop would do, I can identify areas my kids need to work on and give them mini-lessos. Plus, I can enhance what they already know and call attention to it, maybe making it stronger. These lessons are simple, but they seem like they would be effective. I loved the lessons about teaching kids to research using non-fiction texts, reading poetry, studying characters, and becoming an expert on authors. This book's lessons encourage deeper thinking about reading, including author intent. I liked how the author reminded how the topics are strengthened during the other elements of literacy during the day, which helped me better understand what balanced literacy really is. (It is brilliant!) Lucky is the child who enjoys reading workshop and balanced literacy the way it can be (your kids are lucky Mrs. Stone)! This book answered questions I had when helping my kids with school projects. I love it! I would really like to find it's equal meant for upper grades!!
February 17, 2010
I struggled with giving this book 3 or 4 stars. It IS scripted which many seasoned teachers get annoyed with but I think that for new teachers the "teacher talk" and scripted aspect of this book can be a very helpful springboard for their own lesson planning.
December 30, 2014
Wish I had read this book earlier. Lots of ideas for organizing standards into units to study with mini lesson ideas. Based on a workshop model with readers always engaged with books and not busy work.
October 1, 2017
"Growing Readers" was a text I wish I had found two years ago when I first started teaching reading in the workshop format. One of the parts of reading workshop I've always struggled with is establishing a well-structured independent reading time, as well as student conferences. Kathy Collins was really helpful in sharing plans for making independent reading time successful, such as seating options for children and the books that should be in their book boxes. She also shared tips for creating conferences with students, such as how long they should be, language to use, and sample strategies targeting different skills. I recommend this book to any teacher who is in their first year of teaching, or is new to using the units of study. A great resource to keep in the classroom!
August 22, 2010
A good, user friendly book on implementing reader's workshop. Kathy Collins gives some step-by-step examples of mini lessons for each of her units and also some other great ideas to continue them. I really liked her chapter on teaching nonfiction texts!
June 27, 2013
Must read for any elementary school teacher who teaches reading! Not only did it give a years worth of units and suggested lessons it reminds us what our end goal should be... Educating life long readers!!
Want to read
March 8, 2009This book has been ordered for the 2009-10 school year on the advice of Katherine Casey who led the NESA Literacy Coaching group meeting in Jordan in November, 2008.
June 4, 2009
Excellent book!
Read
August 1, 2009Great book for teachers about setting up and organizing reader's workshop in your classroom. A little too scripted, though.
February 26, 2010
I read this book a few years ago and find that I still refer to it when I do teacher workshops. Perfect for primary teachers who are using best practices for developing good reading habits.
February 16, 2011
Good choice for ideas of mini-lessons. My philosophy about leveled reading does not perfectly match the one in this book, but there were many valuable suggestions/ideas in this book.
July 24, 2012
Excellent. Spending a week with her at the UNH Summer Literacy Institute causes me to appreciate this book even more!
September 5, 2012
Love, love, love it! Great text for K-2 teachers using a workshop approach!
June 29, 2013
An excellent read for 1st and 2nd grade reading teachers!
June 26, 2013
Not as strong as Debbie Miller or as organized, but if you have a background in the topic, the two together worked well!
July 8, 2015
A wonderful resource for the reading workshop teacher. Practical and inspiring ideas.
August 6, 2015
Very helpful book! Excited to use it this year!
June 9, 2016
I enjoyed this book. It was very informative.
August 22, 2018
Kathy Collins does a good job of writing for educators. This book has strong ideas for reading workshop units for the younger readers and educators.
August 16, 2009
Fantastic! I highly recommend this to primary grade teachers. Thanks Annie!
July 12, 2013
A great book to read to find out more info on Reader's Workshop.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews