Jayna Lehrer - Chapter 10: Examine Guided Reading Blog #6 (Jan/Feb)

Routman defines Guided Reading as “meeting with a small group of students and guiding and supporting them through a manageable text. Students grouped with others at a similar reading level are supported to use effective reading strategies.” Here at AMES I personally feel that this is one of the most vital components of our kindergarten curriculum. We accomplish these goals through our Read Well curriculum along with literacy centers.

In my Kindergarten classroom I use the Read Well curriculum along with literacy centers to achieve this goal of supporting the students where they are in terms of reading. In read well our role, much like that of 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 is given as part of the read well 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. My literacy centers work much of the same way only focusing in on certain skills that the students need extra practice with.

I appreciate the framework that Routman provided on page 170-173 of this chapter. It is a flexible guide that gives numerous possibilities for applying what I have already been practicing with my students. The other component of this chapter that I took solace in was his advice “to ignore distracting behavior” and to not intervene unless it’s an emergency. It is important to let the students take ownership of their own learning, even if it sometimes may not go exactly according to “my plan.”