First, of utmost importance, is a
universal understanding of exactly what guided reading is. Routman describes guided reading is most
often defined as that time when a teacher meets with a small group of students
while guiding and supporting them through manageable text (p.150). Routman broadens her definition as a time when
the teacher guides a student or students through some aspect of the reading
process. While she acknowledges the
small group model is perhaps the mainstay of guided reading, it is not in and
of itself the entire strategy of guided reading.
Guided reading can be equated to
the concept of guided practice. It is
the time when students begin to exercise a level of independence under the
watchful eye of the teacher who ‘guides’ the process. Another important
understanding is that guided reading can only be successful if the students
have experienced quality teacher models prior to exercising their own practice
with the process. During read alouds, conferences, and shared reading activities;
students gain the skills necessary to branch beyond this level of support and
begin to practice concepts and skill on their own.
The grouping is an interesting
aspect of the strategy for me. I agree
with Routman in acknowledging that flexible grouping is a necessary key to
success. Students cannot hope to make
progress if they are not permitted to flex in and out of the groups that will
be of the most help to each of them.
Students who get ‘stuck’ in the same group throughout the year have not
had an opportunity to experience valuable input from other students, have
generally not received adequate challenge or support for their reading
processes, and have not experienced a variety of techniques for supporting them
as learners.
Selecting appropriate texts is also
important. Students must have adequate
challenge, be able to understand a text in order to make reasonable predictions,
and must be able to read most of the text with minimal teacher support. It is also helpful in my opinion, that
students have opportunities to read materials with others that are engaging, of
student interest, and supports their curriculum to help reinforce integrated
learning. Time is also needed for
opportunity of students to evaluate the materials that they are reading. A goal also needs to be to guide students to
becoming independent readers beyond the teacher’s guidance at grade level.
The guided reading time should be a
time to address those mini-lesson topics and can be one way to group students
for learning. Routman suggests that
guided reading at the kindergarten level may be less successful due in large
part to the necessity for K5 students who are not in the group to be on their
own independently for periods of time. I
would say that I agree with this premise knowing the necessity of teacher attention
to kindergarten students roughly every 4-5 minutes, leaving students
independently for periods of about 20 minutes of time during guided reading
seems counterproductive. K5 guided reading requires extreme attention to those
independent activities to genuinely allow for practice in needed activities. I
especially like the comment that the goal must be learning-centered reading
instead of group-centered reading leading to best practice decisions by all
teachers of reading. The independent
activities that are happening during the guided reading time does seem to be an
integral factor in success of the technique.
Successful guided reading groups
depend upon a multitude of ideas. The
literacy centers of work used by the other students must be of value,
worthwhile to the learning process, and have a meaningful purpose, Teachers must model what they expect students
to do during guided reading including the concept of no distractions or interruptions. The text provides excellent examples of
guidelines, possible activities for those not in the reading group, and even
suggestions for when a problem or emergency occurs. Consistent evaluation of the process is an
important idea to consider as one constructs the lessons for all of the
students. The chapter provides excellent samples and scripts for dealing with a
variety of levels for reading. The
greatest challenge to guided reading I would think is the extreme amount of
planning. Were I to do guided reading
groups, I believe I would write sample scripts designed for the lesson and
level of the students as part of the planning process and use anecdotal records
on post its to note issues, problems or general information during the lesson
for future reference. I do like the idea
of chunking the lessons into about 20 minutes of time which allows all students
a minimal amount of time to be on their own independently.
Nice post, Sharon. Enjoyed your perspective on the guided reading groups. There is a book that many of us are using right now that has great "scripts" for teaching a multitude of learners in a variety of reading comprehension areas. I am loving it!
ReplyDeleteGreat summary of the text, Sharon! It is true that Guided Reading groups take considerable planning; however, there are a multitude of resources through STAR, online, and in trade books (like Kelly referred to). Sometimes, I would use the same lesson (or resources) for more than one group but modify to meet the needs of the specific group I was working with.
ReplyDeleteI was also interested in Routman's notion that guided reading on a K5 level might be less effective. I recently observed a K5 class involved in Daily 5 and while the students who were working with teachers were engaged and on task, the ones who were working on writing or word work without the direction of a teacher were less engaged and easily distracted. I would be interested in more research on this subject.
Fabulous post, Dr. Doyle. You put a lot of thought into this. You are an asset to WHES in so many ways!!
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