Chapter 4 Teach WIth a Sense of Urgency-VIckie Thompson

           This chapter, Teach with a Sense of Urgency grabbed my attention because isn't this our goal each day ... to race against the clock to cover as much material/standards as possible?  It is imperative that we make every moment in the classroom count! To ensure that this happens, our instruction must be engaging, our evaluation and reflection must be effective and we must make focused, smart teaching decisions.

I agree with her "Top 5 things she does to ensure students become excellent readers."  Her main point being that we need to intentionally teach  strategies that students  need to know to process  and understand text as well as evaluate students. Another key point which I have been implementing in my classroom is allotting more shared and independent reading time and less guided reading time.  I am trying to really "study" my students strengths and weaknesses and base my whole group and small group instruction on what they need right now to foster their growth as a reader.

Another key component of building confident readers and leaders is through demonstration and shared demonstration.  The latter is essential since it is through this process that the student interacts with both teacher and other students and is very engaged. This allows the teacher time to evaluate and address both strengths and weaknesses. This is a rich teaching context!