A New Idea – The Reader’s Chair

Yesterday I thought a lot about the Author’s Chair, but today I read about the Reader’s Chair. In the Four Blocks model, every day students spend at least 30 minutes engaged in self-selected reading. The block begins with a teacher led read aloud followed by movement into independent reading. As in the writing block, the teacher conferences with students regarding their reading and reading comprehension. This is also an informal assessment time for the teacher to make observations and anecdotal notes about the child’s reading development or book choice.

When I read this I reflected on the fact that Four Blocks is a framework designed for students in grades 1-3. Although slightly different, this sounded very similar to Fountas & Pinnell’s framework in Guiding Readers and Writers, which is written for grades 3-5. Although a key difference is that in the F&P model the teacher can meet with guided reading groups during the block instead of conferencing. The times are also slightly different as Four Blocks assigns 30 minutes and F&P assign a minimum of 60.

The Four Blocks Self-Selected Reading Block closes with the Reader’s Chair. In Reader’s Chair several students share what they have read that day. I think that this can give closure to the block, share books with peers that others may like, and offer an opportunity for students to understand the connection between reading, and learning. If this was the end of the literacy block, it would also be a great way for students to apply knowledge regarding literacy skills and strategies that may be a focus during that week. For example, if the strategy is “author’s purpose,” the student might wrap up their sharing by offering the author’s purpose for writing the text. I always like to see echoes of learning throughout the day and the more relevant and real learning can become, the more likely it is to be internalized and understood by students.

I often think about how different elementary school is today than from when I was there. As a child I

 loved, loved, loved to read. When I was in about second or third grade, my mom introduced me to the “old” Nancy Drew mystery series. I was hooked. I loved this series so much that I used to read at the foot of my bed at night which was the only place the light from the hall provided enough light to read. When I heard someone coming I would quickly rush to the head of the bed and pretend to be asleep. Pretty soon I got the idea that I should be reading Nancy Drew at school, too. During math I would pull my book out and read it under my desk. I am sure my fabulous third grade teacher knew, but never stopped me (I guess I was still doing OK in math). J

This is kind of round about way of saying that in the past few years when D.E.A.R. time and S.S.R. and reading workshop have become so huge, especially in the upper elementary grades, I am completely and totally jealous. Where was this when I was in school – this would have been my dream time every day!!! On a separate note, when I started teaching fourth grade, I was completely convinced my students would love Nancy Drew, too, and started reading her first book, The Secret of the Old Clock, to my kids at the end of each day. In short, it never really caught on with my kids, but I still got excited about seeing what adventure Nancy was going to get into that day and, of course, how she was going to get out of it!