Once a student has a couple of reading goals (that are generated from reading conferences), they need deliberate practice—concrete, targeted, actionable ways to work on their goals. We provide a bank of ten IDR activities that are widely applicable to students’ challenges and discoveries as they take their next steps with comprehension. Each activity lists the genres and comprehension and reading strategies that it’s best suited for and is accompanied by a sample conference showing how a teacher matched a student with that activity. Each activity also includes:
- Examples of what a student might say in a conference that could lead the teacher to offer this activity
- The purpose of the activity
- A description of what the activity entails
- A possible follow-up activity
- Variations that can be used to fine-tune the matching process
As you confer with students, listen for the most interesting observation the student makes about their book, and then follow up with a series of open-ended questions to help the student dig deeper. As you follow up, listen for something the student is just beginning to figure out or be curious about. Once you hear that, you can:
- Name it for the student
- Explain why it’s important
- Help the student practice it right then and there with their text
- Offer an activity related to it