Happy Weekend Mighty Humanities Educators!
I wanted to share a strong start reading strategy that I used in my classroom called Hollywood Reading. This was a great alternative to “popcorn reading”, which I’ve never really liked. Hollywood Reading (also called “Control the Game” in the language of its origin–Uncommmon Schools) is a great way for you to ensure that all of your students are reading and staying accountable, while also providing a safe environment where no student will be asked to read anything he or she cannot read.
Before you teach a text, you would highlight the sentences in different colors that correspond to the relative difficulty of the passage. Thus you can call on students whose reading levels relatively correspond with the difficulty of the passages (see my attached House on Mango Street copy). Each portion of reading is unknown in length for students, so it keeps your entire class on its toes! See my anchor poster (perhaps the poster I am MOST proud of in my entire time in the classroom) below for the five expectations. An added note: If a student fails to pick up and does not signify that they are lost (before you call on them) with their fist in the air, we start over at the beginning (of the reading for the day/page)! See me try this strategy in an ELA Lesson Demo later this coming week!
Also check out this great teacher modeling this strategy at Uncommon Schools: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuO7VHyY1sc
TFA Bay Humanities 