Strategies for Focus & Stamina in Reading and Writing
If you could wave your magic wand and make your biggest focus and stamina challenge disappear; what would it be? I totally get it, teacher friend. Getting students to read and write for long chunks of time without distractions isn’t a easy task. Especially at the beginning of the school year. But, I also know the quicker you can build up your students’ independence and stamina…the sooner you’ll be able to consistently follow through with your weekly conferring schedules.
Unfamiliar with conferring schedules? Check out this blog post.
One of the biggest ways you can grow your students faster is by consistently meeting with them in conferences and small group instruction. But if they only can read or write for 5 minutes…it’s going to be challenging to do so. So let’s talk about THREE strategies for focus and stamina in reading and writing.
STRATEGY #1: Smart Readers recognize when their focus and stamina is starting to fizzle out and use a strategy to jump back into reading.
Have you ever started reading for a while and something caught your attention? Maybe you felt your energy dropping or just wanted to do something else. I completely understand it’s not always easy to read for long periods of time. Which is why I can’t wait to show you one tool that will help you stay focused during independent reading time.
Need more student tools for focus and stamina charts?
Stamina reading charts are a great tool to track how the entire class is doing with their stamina goals. You can also give students individual stamina chart if just a few students need to continue growing their stamina.
Don’t have any stamina charts yet?
My Reading Engagement Focus & Stamina bundle has a whole class stamina chart and an individual student stamina chart inside.
Another way to increase reading stamina and help your students stay focused during independent work time is encouraging them to take a quick break from reading and do a new reading activity. For example, if their focus is starting to fizzle out, your students can ask themselves:
“Is my environment causing me to lose my focus? If so, I need to change it.”
“Do I need a stretch break?”
“Would picking a different reading spot help me stay focused?”
“I’ve been reading a long text for a while, it’s time for a short read.”
“Let me retell what I just read and write it down in my reading notebook.”
Would it be amazing if your students could just pause their reading and know to ask themselves these kinds of focus questions? I know…it might be wishful thinking that all of your students will do this every time they lose their focus. Which is why I created the Independent Reading Focus Cards for your students.
The Reading Engagement Strategies for Focus & Stamina will help you build reading engagement, during independent reading time. This is so important because if you send your students back to independent reading and they don’t read; they won’t make the progress you’re hoping for. So inside this resource you’ll have over 50 Independent Reading Focus Cards including:
- General Focus Cards
- Fluency & Pacing Focus Cards
- Visualize Focus Cards
- Questioning Focus Cards
- Before Reading Focus Cards
STRATEGY #2: If you use Reading and Writing Workshop, utilize the Mid-Workshop Teaching Point
After your students have been working independently for a while, you stop them and offer a quick strategy that you feel the entire class could benefit from. It is one way to reach all your learners and to try to hold them on course for another chunk of independent work time. Maybe it is a strategy from a one-to-one conference you just did or from a small group lesson you had that you want everyone to hear and try out. Watch this quick video where I explain what the Mid-Workshop Teaching Point is.
STRATEGY #3: Help your readers and writers be socially collaborative by incorporating partnerships and clubs.
When it’s independent reading and writing time, make sure it’s not always a solo task. Give your students the opportunity to interact in partnerships and clubs. This will likely produce more engaged students in your classroom.
To help students who are struggling to collaborate and contribute to the conversation; scaffold their practice during a whole-class conversation. Support their conversation and comprehension skills, and explain that what they are practicing during this whole-class time is the same work they need to practice when they are with their partner or club mates.
Need more student tools for partnerships and clubs?
Grab the Classroom Expectations Posters for Partnerships and the Move It, Talk About It Boards.
The Classroom Expectations Posters for Partnerships resource will help you explain, demonstrate, and provide a visual reminder of the routines for successful partnership time. Now, your students will know exactly how partnerships are suppose to go…and you’re not constantly explaining it to them.
Our Move It, Talk About It Boards for partnerships or clubs is a great speaking and listening activity for reading and writing workshop. Supporting your students conversation and collaboration work is great way to help your students grow as readers or writers.
But it can be a challenge to build up your students speaking and listening skills and get them to talk long and strong with their partner or club mates. Which is why I created the Move It, Talk About It Boards. Now your students have a way to learn, share strategies and ideas with their peers without you being right by their side.
Let's get all your students "in the reading zone" by building their focus and stamina in reading and writing together!
Join for my next Live Coaching Week and let’s build that stamina together so you can meet with more students in conferences and small group instruction. Also, don’t forget to grab my free Conferring with Readers and Writers Guide. It will give you a jump start in creating a weekly conferring schedule that you can consistently do. And give the 3 best methods of teaching you should use during conferring time and so much more.
