Pinnell Article

I found this article to be very empowering and encouraging! As a future teacher it is scary to hear about all the politics that is involved in the profession, however this article reminded me why I want to teach and the future we can create for our students. We CAN teach them that learning is fun and help them to build foundational skills that they will use years to come. The eight guiding principles Pinnell discussed in the article seemed like eight principles that are valuable to apply in your teaching in general, not just for teaching children literacy. One article that I found to be the most powerful was, "Many efforts focus on middle and high school programs to increase school retention, but my own experience and research suggests that real prevention begins in kindergarten. Elementary teachers can make a real difference." I strongly agree with this statement. I feel that elementary teachers really set the tone for learning for a child. Knowing that I can make this much of a difference in a child's life in their learning is so motivating to me encourages me to continue to better my teaching practices and to continue to learn about learning.

"Matching texts and readers", Rog & Burton

I believe that this article has been the most insightful and informative article I have read this semester. It is definitely an article I know that I will be holding on to as guidance for choosing books for the children in my classroom. What I liked about this article was the extra information it provided as well as how it compared this leveling system to other leveling systems. Additionally, I really enjoyed the detail the article went into to provide the reader with more in depth information about specifics for each level. It described what books at paticular levels should contain as well as the reading strategies that readers show when they are ready to move on to the next level.
I have currently already begun to collect books for my classroom collection and find it difficult not to just pick out my childhood favorites or "cute" books. I learned in a previous class that just because a book is cute does not mean it is good literature or is an appropriate book for children in the classroom to read. There is much more to choosing books. This article is a great reminder on how to choose appropriate books for the emergent readers in your classroom. Until this article, I never knew so much goes into choosing a book for your students and what all you must consider. This information will be significant in helping me choose appropriate books for my classroom library and for the books my students will be reading according to their level.
Below is a photo I found for a great way to organize all those leveled books in your classroom to help children quickly find the books for their particular level! To match this particular leveling system from Rog and Burton, write levels 1-10 on bins instead of using Level A, Level B, etc.