Round Robin or Popcorn Reading

A second-grade student named Mary was nervously looking at her book while also checking out those who were seated in front of her.  There were three people ahead of her in her row.  The teacher was calling on students in their seating order to read their weekly story.   Mary knew that she would read the fourth page.  She turned to that page and started to read silently to make certain she knew all the words and would not embarrass herself when her turn came.  She did not listen to the other students nor comprehend the other pages that the students ahead of her read because she was so tense about her turn.

The example above is just one of the reasons why research tells us that Round Robin Reading is a practice that should not be used in classrooms.  In spite of what the research shows, approximately 60% of all classrooms continue to use the practice.  "It is listed as a major reason while fragile students continue to read below grade level." (Tatum, 2004, p. 29)

As I have been reading about this subject, I found some great ideas to use instead of Round Robin or Popcorn Reading.  I would like to share some of these ideas with you.  Maybe you will find an idea or two that you would like to try in your classroom.

Whisper Reading--all students whisper the words in the story or passage independently.  The teacher leans in to listen to one student while the others continue to read.

Shared Reading--the teacher reads aloud modeling fluent reading.  The teacher stops and shares comprehension strategies and thinks aloud as she moves through the story.

Echo Reading--students follow along in their books while the teacher models intonation and then the students read the same part back to the teacher using the phrasing and intonation modeled by the teacher.

Jigsaw--teacher assigns students to groups and then assigns a part of the text to each group.  Each group reads their part and becomes responsible for teaching the class the content of their assigned section of the passage.  This is especially good to use for Science or Social Studies reading.

Paired or "Buddy" Reading--two students sit together and take turns reading a page at a time.  They stop at the end of the page while the student who is not reading tells the reader what he/she has just heard as the page was read by his/her partner..

Part Reading--one partner reads the character's voices while the other partner reads the narrator's parts.

Silent Reading--students practice reading the material silently before oral reading.  This gives the students the opportunity to practice decoding skills on unknown words.  The teacher is giving assistance to students as she walks around to listen to students as they practice their reading.

Cloze Reading--The teacher reads part of the material and then stops and the students continue by reading the missing words.

A great resource with at least 25 strategies to use instead of Round Robin Reading is a book called "Goodbye Round Robin" written by Michael Optiz and Timothy Raskinski and published by Heinemann.  It is very easy to read and has some great ideas.  I highly recommend it!  Tune in next week to hear more on this topic!