Leigh Holliday, Blog 3:
Ch. 10: Examine Guided Reading
(Routman)
Guided Reading is
going really good in room K5. I have my groups leveled and students are making
progress week by week. On the average, we read two books a week in a guided
reading group. We are definitely working on becoming independent readers. I
like what Routman says about Guided Reading “your guided reading lesson will
only be as good as the text you use.” High quality texts are the best to use
because they are better for reading for meaning as well as problem solving. She
suggests asking basic questions when evaluating books for guided reading.
Number one: Does the book adequately support the student as a reader? To answer
this we should consider things like:
·
size
and placement of text and the overall page layout
·
pronounceable
words and repetition of common words
·
the
number of unique words compared to familiar words
·
sentence
patterns and language sophistication
·
the
degree of predictability
·
familiar
vocabulary and concepts
·
illustration
and visual support
·
genre
and content
·
length
of the book
Number two: Does
this book support reading for meaning? Consider whether the story and language
make sense, and is it a good text to apply the strategies you’ve been teaching.
Number three: A good overall judgment – will the student enjoy reading the
text? Will it be of interest and relevant to my readers?
This has been a
bit of a struggle as a kindergarten teacher acquiring leveled reader texts that
are not out dated. My team works together to borrow from the reading closet and
share classroom sets of leveled readers.
Presently, we are anxiously awaiting the books promised from PTO. My
goal is to be excited about reading and my students will share my enthusiasm.
Finally, as my
students continue to progress throughout the year. I will adjust to meet their
changing needs. I like the small guided reading groups because it helps all students
to succeed at their level and we can have intimate conversations and
reflections.
Guided reading is definitely an important way that we can provide support for our beginning readers. Providing interesting, quality texts is the most important aspect for guided reading as well as all of the components of our balanced literacy approach through which we provide many layers of engagement and support to make reading something they can and want to do. Providing this well in kindergarten puts them firmly on the path to success. Believing that they are readers is the starting point. I am so excited to hear about their reaction to all of their new books and look forward to somehow getting more to meet their needs.
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