Jaime Steading's Blog Post 6--Routman Chapt. 10: Examine Guided Reading

When thinking about guided reading, I often think about a small group of children that are on similar reading levels reading the same book, with the teacher focusing on the difficulties the students encounter when reading.  While this is an adequate description of guided reading, Routman describes guided reading as "any learning context in which the teacher guides one or more students through some aspect of the reading process".  She also emphasizes that guided reading should build on a student's strengths rather than always focusing on their weaknesses.  I agree that this is an important part of teaching any subject.  For a student to assume ownership of their own learning, it is important that they are aware of their strengths, as well as where they have difficulty, in order to grow as a learner.  

Routman also discusses how we should and should not group students.  She believes that after second grade, students shouldn't necessarily be grouped by ability or reading levels.  Although I have students in my classroom above second grade, all of my students are reading on a 1st grade reading level or below.  Since my students are in a self-contained classroom and need much intervention, ability grouping is necessary in my classroom.  However, I agree with Routman that students need opportunities for flexible groups that are based on their needs and interests.  I would like to incorporate more buddy reading and literature discussions in my classroom.  I feel like I have done a good job of grouping my students and have stayed within Routman's suggested number of 4 students in a group for low performing readers.  

In the next part of the chapter, Routman focuses on scheduling.  This is an area I struggle with.  Since I have so many different grade levels in my classroom, students are coming and going literally every hour of the school day.  This has made it very difficult to have an effective read aloud time, shared reading time, and independent reading time.  I am working on my schedule for next year to help reduce the amount of times students are pulled out, so that I have longer periods of time that my entire class is present.  This will allow me to conduct more whole group or large group instruction.  Hopefully, this will help reduce the amount of time we spend in smaller groups and make my reading instruction more effective.  

Routman concludes the chapter by giving examples of lessons taught during guided reading and tips for teachers to use during these lessons.  I love her idea of giving the students an assignment to work on independently after leaving her small group.  She makes sure that it is a task that every child will be successful at completing.  I also like that she writes the assignment on a white board so that students can be reminded of the task without interrupting her teaching.  Finally, Routman offers suggested teacher talk to focus on words and to focus on meaning.  I plan on putting a copy of this at all three teacher tables in my classrooms.  This will be a great reminder for myself, as well as a useful tool for my assistants to use when students encounter difficulties in their reading or need to expand on their learning.  

Overall, I feel like I have made improvements in my reading instruction this year.  I still have a long way to go and there are many things I still hope to implement, but I feel like I am headed in the right direction.  I hope that by simplifying my schedule, it will be easier to implement many of the strategies I have learned this year.

Kristen Duncan Blog Post #6 Routman Ch. 3 Share Your Reading Life

                Reading is key.  Reading is what we focus on most and want to make sure our students do well in.  We emphasize “read for fun, read for homework, read during silent reading, read, read, read…now let’s talk about what you read”.  We never actually talk about what WE as teachers have read.  We quiz them, and conference with them about what THEY read, but make it very little about us.  I feel like our students to some degree like what we like.  I like basketball, therefore we play a lot of basketball and my students will tell you “I like basketball”, mainly because they see it a lot.  They are exposed to it.  Same goes for teachers when it comes to reading.  When we talk about our reading life, our interest in books, the books we enjoy; students become more interested.  “She likes it so maybe I should enjoy it too”.  Instead of always talking about what our students read, we should tell them what we read over the weekend.  We should talk about our favorite books and the authors we like to read from.  Reading when our kids have silent independent reading could also be an option.  Students model what we do and learn from watching and demonstration, so by them watching us enjoy a good book at silent reading time they might tend to do the same thing.  Talking about summer reading can also be an encouragement to students.  Tell them your plans on what you are going to read this summer, and then ask them theirs.  Have a discussion based on past, present, and future reading.  I think sharing with our students about our reading habits, libraries, and interests is very beneficial and is a good teaching approach when teaching how to have a passion for reading. 

Dawn Mitchell's March/April Blog Post "Examine Guided Reading" Routman Chapter 10

Dawn Mitchell's Examine Guided Reading Chapter 10

During the month of February we are learning about Literacy Development.   In both our choice and our required readings this month educational researchers explain the different ways our students grow and develop as readers and writers and their articles provide us with insight and suggestions in how we can best support and foster the literacy growth of our students. 

In March’s blendspace you will find a variety of resources we’ve included for you including the Notes/Thinking chart from Jennifer Serravallo’s Reading Strategies professional development text to use as you navigate through making connections with the four readings from this month.  Also included is the ATLAS Looking at Data protocol that we introduced to you to help analyze authentic student assessment data that can help you determine where students are as readers and writers and what support they need to grow next.   You will also find in our blendspace this month’s tech tool to take called storybird (www.storybird.com) which is a great web 2.0 resource for student publishing of their own books as well as poems. 

This month for my blog post, I have chosen to read chapter 10 “Examine Guided Reading” from Routman’s Reading Essentials for many reasons.  First, this is a classroom structure that many teachers I have the honor of working with utilize in various grade levels in multiple ways and for multiple purposes so I wanted to find out some basic criteria for effective guided reading that could provide a foundational basis for us as a whole for guided reading. 

Second, this is a classroom structure that I have had experience with as a fourth grade teacher and appreciated the structure it provided to work with a small group of students around a shared text to provide support that scaffolded students towards independence, and I wanted to expand my knowledge base.  Second

To fulfill my first purpose for reading I discovered that Atwell’s holistic definition of guided reading is, “…most often defined as meeting with a small group of students and guiding and supporting them through a manageable text.  Students are grouped with others at a similar reading level and supported to use effective reading strategies.  Often, there are “before, during, and after” activities and discussion in which students talk about, think about, and read through the text.” (page 150) Routman goes on to explain that her view of guided reading is broader and can be any context in which the teacher guides one or more students through some aspect of the reading process. 

To fulfill my first purpose for reading to grow myself as an educator I decided to use Seravallo’s Notes/Thinking Chart to hold what I learned from Routman and what it compelled me to think about.

Notes – What Routman Says	Thinking – My Thoughts
“Be Cautious About How You Group Children.”  Routman says “Once students are already reading, grouping students so narrowly is unnecessary…Personally, I am no longer comfortable ability grouping beyond second grade.  I worry about the message such grouping sends to students – a message that they are somehow less capable.  If you group by   ability, make sure you keep it short (ten to fifteen minutes) and provide daily opportunities for more varied groups – whole-class shared reading, heterogeneous small groups, partner reading, independent reading.	I agree with this thought 100%.  I have ethical issues with ability grouping students in the same homogenous group all year long.  I have seen how this unintentionally labels students and in doing so, limits what instruction we provide and what they can do. I do appreciate the suggestions Routman provides in her section on opportunities for flexible grouping and have tried several of her suggestions. (page 153) *literature circles *Re-reading and discussing a story with a group *Reading with a partner *Reading a small chunk or passage from a *book with a group during whole class interactive reading. *Engaging in reciprocal teaching *Rereading part of a familiar text as Readers Theatre.
“Be sure the texts you use are of the highest quality.  Your guided reading lesson will only be as good as the text you use.” (page 154) “Because the quality of books varies widely, be sure you carefully examine the ones you use for guided reading…For older students, put more emphasis on interest than on levels.  Once a student is a competent reader, you don’t have to worry so much about exact levels.”	YAASSSS!  Preach it Routman!  Too many times we provide students with mass produced “leveled readers” that are boring, have poorly done illustrations, and are not interesting enough to provoke discussions and extended thinking.  I loved the checklist Routman provides on page 155 to identify qualities of an excellent test for guided reading.
“…you don’t need to meet with every group every day…Once students are independent readers at their grade level, you will not need to see them every day in guided reading group:  two or three days a week is sufficient, especially if you have a strong shared reading program and a well-monitored independent reading program.	This is reassuring to here because I have found that many times I need to adjust my structures depending on my students’ needs and what the data tells me they need.  For example, there have been times students’ needed an extended independent reading block because they were “into” their books and we’d extended stamina and I was conferencing with students.  There’ve also been times when we were in a really in the zone with writing workshop and I needed to spend longer one or two days a week to maximize student motivation for the task and to make progress with their student driven products.  Knowing that consistency that you meet with students takes priority over consistency when you meet with students matches what works for me in my practice.
“Make Time for Independent Reading Your First Priority…Be consistent about reading aloud, maintain a daily (monitored) independent reading program, and implement shared reading and guided reading flexibly as contexts for demonstrations, strategies, and practice.” (page 158)	Yes!  I definitely appreciate this clarifier in this chapter.  Everything I’ve read points to independent reading of choice texts is the number one factor in promoting reading growth.  I know firsthand when implementing a new structure it can take over and dominate your literacy block crowding out any time for other equally or even more meaningful structures.  Independent reading and writing are the priority.  Guided reading supplements this.
“Keeping your focus on learner-centered reading instead of on group-centered reading enables you to make the best teaching decisions for your students.  Once again, you teach students, not programs.  Decide first what it is you want and need to teach and then what the best contexts are for teaching to ensure students are learning and enjoying learning to read.” (Page 160)	This needs to be a bill board…A giant poster…A commercial… A required public service announcement that plays repeatedly on all airwaves…Seriously I love me some Regie Routman! #makethebestteachingdecisionsforyourstudents
“Modeling exactly what we expect students to do must start the first day they enter our classroom.  When we have established a classroom where we have bonded with our students and treat them respectfully, they return that respect… Expect students to manage their own behavior. My single best piece of advice is to ignore distracting behavior. Do not intervene unless it’s an emergency.  You are letting students know that the teaching you are about to do is critically important and that they are now in charge.”	Can anyone say Harry Wong?  I had major flashbacks to The First Days of School Text but Routman and Wong and Marsha Tate along with a host of other experts in promoting independent behaviors in students suggest that we must teach students what we expect and showing, not just telling is effective in helping to create consistency in our classroom procedures and routines.  Excellent anchor chart ideas that also reminded me of the suggestions for I-Charts from the authors of The Daily Five on page 164 and 165.
“If the first question we ask students after reading is, “What words did you have difficulty with?” we are giving them the message that reading is about getting the words right.  I always ask first – even with nonreaders – “Tell me about what you just read” so students always know we read for understanding.” (page 167)	Yes! Reading = Meaning We must not reduce our reading instruction to isolated word de-coding, skill and drill, or fact/recall questions.  We read to learn, to know, to grow.
“Don’t jump right in when a child makes an error.  Students need opportunities to problem-solve in order to learn to monitor and correct themselves.” (page 174)	I believe in this whole-heartedly but find that at times I struggle controlling my first impulse to jump in and help students.  I am not helping them when I am doing the work for them.  I am actually sending the message to them that I don’t think they can do it themselves.  I want to build capacity not limit it.
“Underlying all purposes for reading is the question, “How is what I am doing today going to help students become more independent readers?” (page 168)	Yep!  That is the ultimate driving essential question for us as reading teachers.  How are we growing readers into leaders?
*Excerpts From Guided Reading Groups from page 175-182	Must Keep for Future Reference – These transcripts of actual guided reading lessons are a great resource for any teacher, myself included when planning to implement guided reading with their grade level.

Thanks Regie Routman for the wonderful suggestions and advice.  Thanks to Jenniffer Serravallo or the great structure that helped me hold my thinking.

Sincerely,

Dawn

Cindy Black - Blog Post #6 - Routman Chapter 8 - Teach Comprehension

I chose to read this chapter because I wanted advice on how to teach students who can read almost anything you place in front of them but lack the understanding what they are reading. We spend so much time teaching students in kindergarten the phonics and the ability to sound out a words that comprehension sometimes seems to be lacking or missed. I have a student who can read beautifully and read higher grade level texts but when it comes to asking questions after she reads, she has a very hard time responding and remembering exactly what she read. I believe she spends so much of her reading ability trying to get all the words correct that she lacks the comprehension side of why we are reading in the first place. The strategies in chapter 8 for proficient readers- making connections, determining what's most important, visualize, ask questions, make inferences and synthesize were identified as key for achieving full understanding when we read. I feel we do a good job teaching these but maybe we don't dig deep enough or have enough time. This chapter also explains that just because we teach our students these strategies doesn't mean they know how to apply them. An example used in the text was that a student can get all the spelling words correct on a weekly spelling test but misspell the words in their writing. One strategy is to model and to think aloud as we go through the process so they can practice and be able to apply the new strategy. I believe that rereading is the BEST way to obtain comprehension. I know today that if I read something in a hurry and didn't understand exactly what I read I have to go back and reread it, sometimes a little slower and not so much in a hurry. In kindergarten we read a lot of books out loud and talk in whole group, smaller groups and sometimes with a partner retelling and acting out the story. The students can come up with ideas and thoughts that I myself may have overlooked. I always can learn from them just as much as they can from me.

Kristen Duncan Blog #5-Routman Ch 2

First and foremost we as teachers have to love what we do because students can see it.  The can tell whether we enjoy them and our jobs, and when we don’t.  Before anything else in the classroom happens we have to show them we love them, we love our job, we care about their success, and we will do everything we can to help them reach their potential.  They see it, just as we see it.  It is important to reach out to our students on their levels, not always be “BIG BAD TEACHER”.  Get on their level and learn about them.  Learn about their lives, their strengths, their weaknesses, hobbies, and passions.  Not on an academic level, but on a personal level.  From there we can bond with them.  Genuinely bond with them, and care about them outside of just academics.  Students that see you care past a good grade on a math test, are going to be more apt to work and work harder than a student that is just going through the motions because you as the teacher are.  We take grades, we take test, we take from our students all the time, but we as teachers also need to give.  We have to personally give some of us to them as well.  Our stories, our strengths, our weaknesses, our hobbies and interests.  Students can bond with us and relate to us just as we want to bond and relate to them.  Student’s lives matter and our report with them needs to show that and demonstrate that at all times.  We tell them we love them, we tell them we care about their success, and tell them we want them to reach their dreams….but we as teachers need to model and demonstrate that at all times to them before they trust us and believe that!

Blog #7 Chapter 6 Independent Reading Jenny Blanton

Independent reading is one of those areas that I know I need to make sure I have time carved out for it each day, and I need to utilize it the best I can, but truthfully sometimes if I am running out of time in my day it gets pushed to the back. I can totally relate to the friend she mentions at the beginning of the chapter. Also I am having to re-evaluate how effective my independent reading time is.  I do meet with my students as much as I can to conference and guide their selections, but there is only one of me so I don't get to as many students as I would like in a week.  Katrina has started coming in once a week to try and help so we can get to more students more frequently. I try to keep records, but it is often hard because I like to keep our conversations casual, and it takes a lot of my time so that I can't get around to as many kids in one day.  I  also realize I may not be giving my students enough time to read daily.  I have some students who naturally pick up a book any time they have extra time during the day, but others will only read during their independent reading time.  I do not do a great job of setting goals with my students.  We set goals a few time earlier in the year, but with time constraints I usually do not make this part of my daily conferencing.  I do have a good classroom library, but I need to take the time more often to go through it and make sure it is still organized appropriately.  One thing I do not do in my classroom (except during science/social studies) a lot is partner reading.  I think my kids would really like this and it is something I would like to try in my classroom  more.  The hardest thing I believe during independent reading is getting my students to pick just right books.  We are told that students should have choice, but often times if they get a just right book, it is really hard to find one they are interested in.  This is especially true of my lower students, because the books appropriate for them they are embarrassed to read, or they find boring.  I really have to look hard for them on our class library trips.  Overall I feel like I am on the right track to making sure my students have time daily to read and make it beneficial for them.  This chapter had some good thoughts on how I can tweak it to make it more meaningful.

Blog #6 Chapter 3 Share Your Reading Life Jenny Blanton

This chapter did make me stop and think about my own reading life.  I do enjoy reading, but unfortunately my crazy busy life doesn't allow much time for it.  Usually my bible,online articles, reading for class/school and a quick magazine are about all I seem to be able to get into these days.  However I do love to go to places like Barnes & Noble and browse the different books.  Typically I end up buying something for my children! Truthfully I enjoy reading to my children more than just reading alone.   I do believe showing and modeling a love of reading to my students is important, and I have been reflecting on how I do that, and ways I can improve that strategy.  I often times discuss a book I read or what my favorite books were when I was a kid.  I read one of my favorites to them over the course of a couple of weeks, and it was crazy to see how many of them have checked it out of the library since then!  More than me, my students are very interested in what my children like to read.  Any time I bring a book from home that belongs to my children, they can't wait to get their hands on it.  This also shows my children that we have a personal library at home, which is something I of course would love for all of my students to have. One thing I don't do that the book encourages, is mentioning my favorite authors.  I guess I assumed they wouldn't be interested, but I can see how this will encourage them to get to know the authors of books they love. One other suggestion that I love is creating a book club based on favorite author/book and mixing with other classes! I believe our students would love this.  I am hoping I can get my grade level on board.  I like how she suggests having students keep up with their reading at home instead of having parents sign off on it.  I feel like if the students have to own it, it is more meaningful to them. Again this chapter really made me step back and reflect on what ways I share my enjoyment of reading with my students.  There are lots of ways I connect with them on a personal level, but I took away a lot of ideas I am eager to implement in my classroom.

Jenny Blanton

Brandi Nolan Blog 6: Routmann Ch. 9 Empahsize Shared Reading

                I read Routman’s chapter called Emphasize Shared Reading.  I learned many things that I have been lacking from this chapter.  We do read aloud stories in my room, although not as often as I would like.  We do guided reading every day in my classroom.  However, we rarely do shared reading.   I really think it is a great strategy to use.  The kids who know how to read can help me read and those who aren’t quite ready can follow along as we read.  I always feel silly to do the “think out-loud” but I know how important it is to model how we think about the text.   I need to do this more often.  I love how the author said “Perhaps best of all, shared reading is fun, and these days fun is sadly missing in too many classrooms” (p. 131).  I enjoy sharing poems and chants with my students.  They learn how to rhyme, how to write sentences, capitalization, descriptive words, and so much more.  I will continue to share my poems and chants but do it more so in a shared reading model.  I will print them out a copy to have themselves and follow along as we read.