Reading With a Teacher's Eye, Ear, and Imagination

Franki and I have been working together and growing together as teachers for so many years, there's not much more I can add to her list of questions she asks herself as she reads with a teacher's eye.

I'll just say, "Ditto for me."

The one thing I would like to add is the role my imagination plays in making decisions about books for my classroom. If it's a book that seems like one I might want to use for a read aloud, I imagine myself doing just that. I "hear" what the words would sound like read aloud, and I "listen" to the conversations we might have at certain points in the book. I can imagine what individual children might say, and when the class might laugh out loud.

If it's a book I think my best readers will enjoy independently, I imagine, as I read, what I will tell them about the book as a hook to get them into it. Because I know my students' reading tastes and reading histories, I think of ways I can pitch this new book in the context of what they've been reading in the past few months.

If it's a book for my struggling readers, I imagine myself seated next to them as they read, and I try to find the parts they might struggle with so that I can build their prior knowledge before they start reading, or mark a few pages with a sticky notes to let them know they need to come talk to me when they get to those parts.