Guided Reading has been around for many years. I remember my student teacher experience with
guided reading. The teacher that I was
under used a strategy that is frowned upon by the author of the text. “Be Cautious about how your Group Children”
from page 152 disagrees with grouping past 2nd grade. Being an educator of children in preschool, I
have had my high with my low and noticed the high children correcting the lower
children. I had no intentions of helping
the students with reading, the purpose was actually to address social
issues. Reading has many psychological
benefits that can be helpful for students to develop social issues.
The “Flexible Grouping” with Readers Theater is
one of my favorite tools as an educator.
During my years in general education, Readers’ Theater was great for
nonfiction material. I have been entertaining
the idea of doing Readers Theater with Nursery Rhymes.
“Qualities of an Excellent Text for Guided
Reading” reminds me of the suggestions for helping to develop a fluency in
reading. For students whose IEP’s goal
is colors, I am having them read a color book.
They are to look at the picture, name the color, then predict the color
word. This is one of the first
suggestions to help the child to “Figure out and understand the words.” Using
“… the illustrations or photos to support understanding,” helps my students to
use their working memory to look for words that have the beginning sound.
Another suggestion is to give books that are not
appropriate for guided reading to use at home. The other day I purchased for my
students a book as their Winter Break gift.
This way, my students will have an opportunity to read at home with
their family over the two weeks from school.
Love the “… guidelines I set for my students.” For my class, I have really been stressing
being quiet, and respecting each other’s learning. I needed this section to help emphasize that
my modeling needs to be practiced more than once. I thought that my instructions were not
clear. From this chapter, I have
discovered this is an ongoing process.
Lovely thoughts! You make a good point about using grouping not just for academic purposes, but also for social ones. I think Routman is concerned with using levels to label students by sticking them in inflexible groups. I can't wait to hear about your students' reactions to their winter break gift! :-)
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