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.