Guided Reading Experiment

From WikEd

Contents 1 Rationale 2 Preparation 3 Sample Guided Reading Lessons 4 Successful or Not?

Rationale

As teachers, I believe it is our job to to experiment with different teaching strategies in order to give our students the best education possible. In the first grade classroom that I student taught in, my cooperating teacher taught using Guided Reading and Balanced Literacy.I had a really good example set for me, and it became my goal to implement the same instruction into my classroom some day.

When I was hired as third grade teacher, I found that no one else was using guided reading as their method for reading instruction. Every student was reading the same story at the same time. All of the stories came from a basal series that each student had in their possession. I tried to implement some literature group instruction, but I was never happy with the overall outcome.

This year, as a second year teacher, I had the opportunity to go to a seminar on guided reading. The seminar gave me several helpful ideas, but most importantly it gave me the motivation to revamp the way I was teaching reading. I have only been teaching using guided reading for about eight weeks now, but the information below will give you an idea of what it's like to switch from one type of reading instruction to using the guided reading method.

Preparation

There were three major areas in which I had to prepare for before I could even introduce guided reading into my classroom. The first being reading material, the second being activities for students to be doing while I am meeting with a group, and the third was grouping the students.

Reading Material

A major part of teaching using the guided reading method is having a wide range of materials. Each child should be introduced to fiction, nonfiction, plays, poems, etc. The key is not to just introduce them to the materials, but to introduce it to them using literature that is at their "just right" level. This means that the text should have a few challenges as far as decoding and comprehension, but the child should be able to read it with about 90% accuracy. The text should not be so easy that they are not learning, and it should not be so challenging that they become frustrated. The text needs to be at their instructional level.

I did have some access to multiple copies of books through the school library and in my own classroom library, however it was not enough to sustain guided reading throughout the rest of the school year. My budget would not allow for me to spend the money necessary to buy several new sets of books. In order to acquire the necessary materials, I decided to use magazines purchased by our library. The library subscribes to magazines such as Time for Kids, Cricket, National Geographic for Kids, and Sports Illustrated for Kids. By making copies of these articles, I was able to add to my collection of leveled literature with some nonfiction and some fiction pieces. I bought a book of fractured fairy tale plays, and found some sites on the internet with free readers theater scripts. I also sent home several scholastic book order forms, and used my points to order sets of books. The process is ongoing, but I now have enough materials for the rest of the school year.

Not only is it important to have the appropriate materials, but then I had to go through those materials and level them. I did this by reading them, looking at the difficulty of the vocabulary, and the amount of text on each page. My leveling method is probably not completely accurate, but it will give me a good place to start.

After the texts had been leveled, I started reading them to find good teaching points. This is a very time consuming task, and I am doing a lot of that as I do my weekly planning. I am writing down my thoughts and keeping it in a binder with a copy of the text so that I won't have to work as hard to plan for my groups in future years.

Student Activities

Finding activities for students to do while I was working with my groups was a little bit more challenging for me. I had a board of activity choices that I called "Now What Activites" but I didn't know how to keep track of what the students were doing and how they were spending their free time.

When I was at the guided reading conference, the speaker mentioned creating a student choice card. The card would have some things that were required of the students, and some places for the students to make choices. I decided that this would be a really good way for me to keep track of the choices my students were making. I split the "Now What Activities" into two parts, literacy and math activities. I then designed a student choice card. The student choice card looks something like this:

Name:	My letter is due: __________________
Silent Reading: (minimum of 25 min.) Day one:__________ Day two:__________	Choice Activity:
Choice Activity:	Choice Activity:

• In the first box, they write only thier name.
• In the second box, they write the day their letter to me is due. This letter is written about one of the books they have read during their silent reading time. They might tell me about questions they had, make a connection to the story, tell me whether they liked or disliked the book, what they thought of the illustrations, how the story made them feel, or what they thought about the characters. They have a whole sheet of ideas to write about, and they have to choose three. This must be turned in on the due date, but they can choose when they do it during the week. I then read each letter and write a short response. I might answer their their questions or recommend a similar book that I think they might like. It has proven to be a good way for me to get to know my students a little bit better. They also seem to enjoy the individual attention.
• In the third box, there is a place for students to record the dates that they chose to read silently at their seats. The minimum amount of time that they can read to mark this activity off is 25 minutes. They are responsible for keeping track of the time. When they are finished, they simply write the date and move on to their next activity.
• The fourth, fifth, and sixth boxes simply say Choice Activity. These are the boxes in which the students record the literacy activity that they chose. Some examples of these activities include practicing spelling words, reading with a stuffed animal, reading from the trivia box (a tupperware container filled with space trivia, brain quest cards, etc), doing a synonym or analogy puzzle, making sentences using magnetic words, doing a file folder activity, or playing an alphabetical order game. These are only a few of the choices offered during this time.

These activities are all designed to involve reading or working with words. The students really enjoy them because they get to choose, and the activities seem like games. They are expected to work quietly at their seats. In my experience, most students have been successful with this part of the guided reading method, although some students need assistance with making an activity choice. I think this will get easier as they get used to the freedom.

Grouping Students

Fortunately for me, I had already been working with these students for a semester, so I already knew their reading abilities. I grouped them based on similarities in decoding and comprehension ability. During this eight week trial, I found that I had grouped some of them well, and others needed to be moved from one group to another. The good thing about guided reading is that the groups are not fixed for the entire year, so as students abilities improve, they can move up to another group. Groups can also be changed to meet based on interest instead of ability. The groups are meant to be fluid and not fixed. If a student needs to work on fluency, they could just be put into a certain group for a few days and then move back to the old group or work with an entirely different group.

Sample Guided Reading Lessons

Sample One

This lesson was designed for one of my lower groups. These students are reading at about a second grade level. This lesson is a little longer than the suggested twenty minutes because of the time it takes them to read and comprehend the story.

For this group I chose a Tommy Tales book called Tommy and the Remote Control. I started off the lesson by doing a picture walk with the students. As we looked at the pictures, we made predictions about what we thought would happen. I then introduced them to the main characters and we talked about the the words remote, clicker, and ordinary. These were three words that I thought might be challenging for these students.

After the introduction to the book, the four students each read the book silently. I sat with them at the table so that if they needed help decoding any words that I would be there to help them. As they finished, I handed them an envelope that had sentence strips in it. While they waited for the others to finish, they tried to put the sentences in the order that they happened. Some of the sentences included minor details, that forced the students to look back into the story. This is a good strategy to teach, especially in preparation for those wonderful state tests that third graders have to take.

We wrapped up the lesson by going over the order of the sentences together and making predictions for what we thought would happen in the next Tommy Tales book that was called Tommy and the Animal Shelter.

Sample Two

This lesson was designed for one of my higher groups. This lesson stayed within the twenty minute time frame that is suggested by Fountas and Pinnell.

For this group, I chose a fictional story called A Rat for Dana that I had copied out of a magazine from the library. To begin the lesson, I wrote down about eight important words from the text. Some of those words included Nezumi, rat, bicycle, birthday, and surprise. I had the kids read the list of words and make a prediction about what kind of story it would be. Then we talked about any words that they may not know or that could have multiple meanings. I then passed out the story and told them that when they finished reading, I wanted them to write a summary using the eight words that we had just talked about. They read silently, and then began writing when they were finished. I stayed at the table to help with any decoding or comprehension questions. When everyone was finished reading and had some time to do a little writing, we shared the summaries. We talked about the importance of the eight words and why I might have chosen them.

Successful or Not?

I am very excited about implementing this method of teaching into my classroom. I am only beginning the journey. I have a lot of preparation, planning, and practicing ahead of me, but I am very excited about the changes that I have seen. I have noticed an excitement about reading that I didn't see before. My students look forward to the time they get to spend with me in a small group. They enjoy the individual attention that they get from the correspondence with me through letters. They also enjoy that this format allows them to make choices about their learning. There are still expectations for what will be completed and when it needs to be done, but they get to make choices about when they work on each task. I see disappointment on their faces when we don't have Reading Workshop, and I see lots of excitement on days when we do.

Not only is it exciting for my students, but it is exciting for me. Teaching through guided reading has allowed me to make more connections with my students. It helps me to connect to them on a more personal level and to be able to hear each of their voices. I really enjoy teaching reading now, and I feel like I am doing a better job. I feel like my students are getting a much better education now than they were a few weeks ago, and I have heard positive comments from parents as well. They really enjoy reading the letters that we write to each other because it gives them a concrete idea of what their child is doing in my classroom. This has been a really good learning experience for me, and I hope that other teachers will move in this direction with their reading instruction in the future.