11 Alternatives to "Round Robin" (and "Popcorn") Reading

[elleng]

Round Robin Reading (RRR) has been a classroom staple for over 200 years and an activity that over half of K-8 teachers report using in one of its many forms, such as Popcorn Reading. RRR's popularity endures, despite overwhelming criticism that the practice is ineffective for its stated purpose: enhancing fluency, word decoding, and comprehension. Cecile Somme echoes that perspective in Popcorn Reading: The Need to Encourage Reflective Practice: "Popcorn reading is one of the sure-fire ways to get kids who are already hesitant about reading to really hate reading."

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/alternatives-to-round-robin-reading-todd-finley?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

[TexasProgresive]

1. RRR and popcorn sound like tools for lazy masochistic teaching

I liked all 11 some that really stood out to me are; Choral reading and the teacher reading aloud to the class. The former used to be done by parents but doesn't seem to happen as much. Children can understand at a higher level what is read to them, so it builds comprehension and vocabulary. This is quality time.

[Igel]

2. It's a kind of formative assessment.

That's how it should be done. "Can this kid read this work? Well, I can find out by giving him a test or by having him read out loud." One is faster, immediate. The other requires grading.

Is it used this way consistently? No.


It's also used to make sure kids read the text. In high school I've seen it done when the teacher was fairly sure that the students weren't doing the reading, but instead relying on other students' answers and teacher-centered instruction.

I did it when I realized that my students had trouble reading the assigned texts. They'd gotten information about the texts from tutors, from others students. They could write essays--with a lot of help. But reaction journals were beyond them, and they couldn't answer squat given cold reads. Their literacy skills weren't up to the 6th or 7th grade lexile. Yet they were college seniors on an athletics team, in which they'd gotten through high school and a lot of college lit classes using choral reading, teacher reading, readings on CD or tape, watching movies, and generally being scaffolded beyond imagination.