Casey Lyles- January/February Blog #6: Ch. 10 Examine Guided Reading

I personally feel that guided reading is one of the most important times of the school day.  While our Read Well program in kindergarten is not an official guided reading program, it has some of the same components and the same goal can be achieved. Guided reading is a time where the teacher can work with a small group of students who have similar reading abilities and hone in on specific skills that meet the needs of that particular group.  It is important that the teacher build on student’s strengths and support and demonstrate whatever is necessary to move the child towards independence.  Our role during guided reading is to evaluate the child’s progress, teach the child what he most needs to know, set goals with the child, and move him forward in the reading process.  Guided practice should be given as part of the guided reading program in which the students receive practice through means such as partner reading, reciprocal teacher, reading one-on-one with a teacher or tutor or shared reading.  The chapter stresses that we need to be cautious about how children are grouped.  The text states that once children are already reading, grouping students so narrowly is unnecessary in upper grades.  Ability grouping is still appropriate for K-2 as needed.  The groups should be flexible meaning that they are based on student’s needs and interests and that students are not “stuck” in a group for the whole year.  Students need to experience guided reading in many contexts and it is crucial that the text used is of the highest quality so that students are able to problem solve and read for meaning. I found the framework for a guided reading lesson on page 170 very helpful.  A plan is presented that teachers can utilize to examine their guided reading practices.  While our reading program is scripted, I feel like it is important to utilize some of the points made within this chapter in order to make the most of this time. I make a point to teach to my students needs rather than stick strictly to the reading program.  Sometimes what the program asks me to do is not what my students need.  As good teachers, we assess our student’s skills and teach them based on their needs. I feel like I naturally use a lot of the guided reading components during our reading time but there are many more ideas presented in this chapter that I can implement in my classroom.