Blog #3 - Chapter 10 – Reading Essentials “Examine Guided Reading” (Angela Anderson)

I enjoyed reading this chapter of the Routman book and found many helpful ideas and insightful thoughts.  Second grade classrooms are busy places and facilitating guided reading groups with only one adult in the classroom has definitely proven to be a challenge to me.  This chapter’s noticings that I found to be most relevant include these:

·        The guided practice that occurs in the reading program is more important than the reading group itself.

·        Students need ample support before we “hand over” the learning responsibility to them.

·        After second grade, the ability grouping in reading groups should no longer occur.

·        Page 153 had some good ideas for flexible grouping activities.

·        Leveled texts must be high quality to promote reading for understanding. *

·        Books should be current and relevant. *

* I particularly like the leveled readers on the Reading A-Z site.

·        You need to try to meet with your lowest students every day.

·        4-5 groups make sense.  I do this with my Daily 5 rotations.

·        Focus on both accuracy and comprehension.

·        You can often tie reading instruction to other curriculum areas.

·        Groups should meet for only 10-15 minutes each time.

·        Flexibility with instructional reading, daily independent reading, and read-alouds is necessary to create a schedule that will work and may not always be exactly the same each day.

·        A large amount of time for the students not working directly with the teacher during reading groups should be spent on independent reading.

·        Working on Writing – a good idea is to first write a class story and then have the students write this as a little book to take home/read.

·        Page 162 has some good ideas to refer back to for Independent Activities to try.

·        Guided reading groups must not be interrupted for any reason other than an emergency. 

·        Evaluating the issues at the end of group time can help to address the problems/find solutions/prevent future issues. (See Page 166 for good end of session evaluation discussion help.)

·        Having a student monitor to help the independent work going on may be helpful.  Page 165 has good ideas for how the monitor can help when a problem arises.

·        When working with guided reading groups, focus on words first.

·        The Teacher Talk on Page 169 is a good page to refer back to when working in a guided reading lesson.

·        I love the Framework for Thinking about a Guided Reading Lesson on pages 170-171.  I especially thought the ideas for using oral cloze to monitor if students are “with you” and following along as you read together.  Having students read silently for a specific purpose and briefly respond in writing to check everyone’s comprehension makes a lot of sense to me.

·        Page 174 – Save This Assignment – Using a white board to write and post assignments is also a great idea so when you meet back together, you can get focused quickly.

After reading this chapter, I am excited about trying some new ways to facilitate reading groups in my classroom.