Stamina

Reflection

There are two and a half weeks of school left this year. It is a crazy busy time of year. It is the time of year I always wonder—will I have the stamina to make it to the end? This got me thinking about the concept of stamina in reading. Many people define “stamina” in reading has a child’s ability to read over a prolonged period of time, typically 30-45 minutes of sustained independent reading. But I would argue that the definition of stamina should also consider the types of text a child reads in addition to the length of time. In a world of instant feedback and short bursts of text, students have difficulty maintaining comprehension over a longer piece of text. 

Reflection to Practice

To address this issue of building reader stamina across longer pieces of text, my mind is synthesizing the work of several literacy experts. DIY Literacy: Teaching Tools for Differentiation, Rigor, and Independence by Kate Roberts and Maggie Beattie Roberts; Understanding Texts & Readers: Responsive Comprehension Instruction with Leveled Text andA Teacher’s Guide to Reading Conferences: The Classroom Essentials Seriesby Jennifer Serravallo. Next year, I want to focus on using micro-progessions to teach readers about text complexity during reading/small group conferences. By synthesizing and applying the work of these literacy experts, I hope to help kids redefine the idea of a just right book—a book they choose because the text is a good match for the reading goal they set. By understanding what makes a text complex, students can use that knowledge to better comprehend what they are reading and effectively participate in discussion groups.