Chapter 10
Examine
Guided Reading
“We need to think about our own
guided reading program and how we use it to support students in becoming more
accomplished readers” Guided reading groups are a big part of my classroom. I love this time of the day. I spend a lot of
time choosing books that will be enjoyable for each group and love watching students
interact with one another using the same text. I really loved Routeman’s
suggestion of making grouping flexible. I love the idea of doing a “book club”
for a few weeks where students are not grouped by reading level, but rather by
reading interest. Routeman also points out that we spend a lot of our time on instruction of
reading for accuracy rather than comprehension. It is so easy to spend a lot of
time focusing on decoding words accurately rather than if students are
comprehending the text. She points out that both comprehension and accuracy are
important and that we should spend our time wisely teaching for both of these. I
also really loved her suggestion of giving students a quick check by assigning
a new reading or rereading before they leave the group. The information from this
quick check allows the students to demonstrate, discuss, and practice what they
got form the group.
I hope you give the book club a try! I feel sure your second graders would love it! You could also try grouping students by the skills they are ready to learn instead of even interest or reading level! The idea is you share text with them and demonstrate the strategy. You practice the skill with them in a group, then they practice the skill with whatever book they are reading for Independent Reading (no matter what level it is). Let me know if you want to give it a try and we can talk more in depth!
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