Laying
the Groundwork for Effective Guided Reading Instruction in Your
Classroom Arlyne LeSchack
Unless you work in a school
with a scripted reading program like Success For All, you will most
likely be expected to teach reading and writing using a balanced
literacy program. The components of a balanced literacy program,
according to the Wright Group (1995) are: Reading Aloud to
Children, Shared Reading, Guided Reading, Paired Reading, Independent
Reading, Language Exploration and Writing and Reading: The Balanced
Writing Program.
This article will focus on the Guided Reading Component and
will specifically address things the teacher needs to do in advance
to run a successful guided reading program in her classroom.
Literacy instruction and classroom management are both included.
Guided Reading is a small group approach to teaching reading.
The teacher works with a small group of students with similar reading
ability. The book must be at the students' instructional level.
The teacher spends the first part of the lesson discussing concepts
in the book and scaffolding information. This lays the groundwork
for reading success.
There may be as many as 10 developmental levels of reading- from
Preconventional to Independent. Students at each developmental
level need an appropriate format for Guided Reading sessions.
Gradually the amount of support by the teacher and group is reduced.
In another article the characteristics of the 10 groups will
be described. Within one typical classroom there will probably
be 3 or perhaps 4 different levels.
How do you know which students go into which group? What do
the other 2/3 or ¾ of the class do when you are working with the
Guided Reading Group. You need to spend the first six or seven
weeks of the school year assessing your students. In New York
City, in the Early Childhood grades, most likely you will use the
Early Childhood Literacy Assessment System or ECLAS. Use the
results of this assessment to group your students into 3 or 4 groups
depending on the number of children in your class. A small
group shouldn't have more than six students. In the upper
elementary grades you should have access to the Grow report which
will help you group your students according to how they performed
on a standardized reading test given the previous school year.
Of course you should do your own assessments as well.
Use the classroom time when you have to administer the ECLAS individually
to teach the rest of the class how to use materials independently.
This will pay off later when you are working with your Guided Reading
groups. If your class is not ready for centers, you could
post the following chart (Fountas & Pinnell,1996):
Things
to do During Reading Time
- Read
around the room with a pointer
-
Read from your book box
-
Read a book to a partner
-
Read a big book
-
Read a fairy tale or folk tale
-
Read an ABC book
-
Read a book at Listening
-
Read books our class has written
-
Read from your journal
-
Read from your writing folder
-
Read at the overhead projector
-
Read an information book
Ideally
you want the other 2/3 or 3/4 of your
class to be engaged in a meaningful literacy activity while you
are working with your Guided Reading Group. Look for the next
article on how to manage your class for effective guided reading
instruction to learn more about this.
References
Fountas, I. C. and Pinnell, G. S.,(1996) Guided Reading, Heinemann,
Portsmouth, NH
Wright Group Publishing (1995) Guided Reading: A Practical
Approach for Teachers, Bothell, WA
Please e-mail
me if
you have any questions. |