I always welcome the return to school in January as an opportunity for a “mid-year correction,” a time to rethink classroom practices that aren’t working as well as I’d like or a chance to try out new structures or routines.
As we take advantage of the turning of the calendar to reflect on our practices, it’s worth recalling Dick Allington’s recommendations that, every day, every student should have the opportunity to:
- read something they have chosen themselves;
- work with texts they are able to read with accuracy and comprehension;
- write something meaningful to them;
- talk to someone else about their reading and writing;
- listen to a fluent, expressive reader read aloud.