Shayna Miller Post #6: Routman Ch. 10 (Examine Guided Reading)

I found this particular chapter to be very interesting and most helpful since I deal with guided reading for a large part of my day! I noticed that the book actually addressed many of my concerns and mistakes while also comforting me in knowing I am doing some things right! :) What jumped out at me the most throughout the whole chapter is the idea of flexible grouping. Teachers have had it drilled into their heads that we must meet the children where they are functioning. In order to do this, grouping by ability seems to make sense so we can meet the students where they are currently functioning. Many of us still group by ability, but Routman recommends not doing this past grade 2. Students are very observant and can pick up on which group they are in when we group by ability. This can easily affect self-esteem and motivation in many students. I can see this happening as I spend time in classrooms and see that students are grouped by ability. From what I have seen, students, especially from third grade on, recognize why they have been placed in particular groups. This grouping also seems to have a noticeable affect on some students' confidence. I could not agree more that it is beneficial to have flexible grouping. In a sense, I ability group from the very beginning of the year when I try to schedule students in reading and math groups according to their current level of functioning. However, from there on, I have noticed such benefit in flexible grouping. Since my students struggle with confidence and independence, I often group lower functioning or less confident students with students that are more confident or higher functioning. I have found these groups to work so well because the lower functioning students can learn to work more independently or the students lacking confidence gain some by keeping up with the higher functioning students in the group.