Hi Everyone -
I'm student teaching this semester and my cooperating teacher has asked me to take over responsibilities for reading. My students will be reading a trade book and my cooperating teacher wants me to do "Guided Reading", but hasn't modeled the process for me, hasn't even done it this year with her class and tells me that I get to figure out exactly how it will work. So, here I am.... I've been searching the internet for a while now and have found many sites that deal with "Guided Reading", but mostly for younger students and none of them reference using trade books as opposed to picture books. Anyone out there implementing Guided Reading in their classrooms with a trade book. The one we will be using is "A Week in the Woods". I would be more than grateful to hear the basics of how you are implementing Guided Reading. I don't even know where to start! Thanks!
I think it is totally ridiculous that she has told you to figure it out on your own! I'm sorry, that is beyond ridiculous! Her job is to guide and mentor you and to model how things are done. I would be willing to be that she doesn't know how to do it. Therefore, she knows very well, that she can't model it for you. Which is fine! However, she could have been upfront about it.
Anyway, I didn't have anyone model the guided reading process, either. I am in my 4th year, and just now am feeling like I am getting the feel for what it *should* be like. So take what I do with a grain of salt. I am sure veteran teachers have better advice. I hope I'm doing it somewhat correctly! Like you, I had no one to model the process for me.
I assign the novels, and at our first meeting, I introduce the book, we talk about what it might be about, etc. I pull words from the text that I think they might not know/struggle with, and we discuss those.
Then, I send then off to read a chapter (or 2) on their own. While they read, they are to mark in their novels with stickies 1) any thing/words they found confusing/did not know. 2) any thing they would like to discuss.
When we meet again, we discuss what they have marked, clear up any confusions, etc. 1x per week, I will keep 1 student and have them read a couple of pages to me, and I do a running record and ask some comprehension questions. I then send them off to read the next 2 chapters.
Hope this helps. And if anyone else feels I need to be doing something different, PLEASE let me know. I am always up to learning and improving!
I do a similar process as the above poster, but I assign comprehension questions for every chapter. I don't think that doing so is part of the "guided reading protocol" but I find that without the questions, there are students who read without attending to the important ideas. My questions usually are a few content/literal events type questions, a figurative language and/or inferencing question, and a "put yourself in a character's shoes" type question.
Hope this is helpful.
I do a mine a lot like the earlier posters, but another idea you could do is Literature Circles. Then, each person would have a job....you can find these on the internet pretty easily.
I'm guessing that your cooperating teacher doesn't know how to do guided reading; therefore, wants you to do the dirty work and see if it works for you!
thank you, thank you, thank you for getting back to me and letting me know how you go about it! i have a few questions about specifics... do you meet with your whole class together or do you seperate them into groups ? as for the stickies.... do the kids really follow through and mark their books ? how do you manage the stickies...do you give each student a set amount at the beginning, make them available in the classroom?? how's it work? my final question is, if you keep one kid 1x/week how do you get through everyone?
Guided reading is small groups! I don't like any more than 5!
(I teach 3rd, so maybe 5th is different). My kids definitely use the stickies! They like using them. It is on our supply list, so they are in the common area, where anyone can use/take them.
You don't *need* to give a running record on EVERY child every single week! I only do running records regularly on my low kiddos. The high ones, I rarely. We use DRA assessments 3x per year, so that gives me what I need for my very high kids.
If you want to do running records on 2-3 per day, you could do that, too! You meet with 2-3 groups per day, anyway, so just choose 1 kid per group to do a running record on. That would give you 10-15 different kids per week that you have an assessment on. For the high kids, if your school dictates that you must do a running record, surely 1 every 3 weeks would be sufficient. However, the high kids generally don't make many decoding errors, so it really isn't necessary to do them as often.
I would consider it whole group reading if everyone is reading the same trade book. To me, guided reading would have the class divided by ability with each group reading something at their instructional level. Our last round of guided reading had a group reading "Chocolate Fever" one reading "Runt" one reading a Cam Jansen book and the last one reading "A Wrinkle in Time." If I have a short week I will use a more advanced picture book--like "The Quiltmaker's Gift" and tie in writing craft after we read.
I currently have a student-teacher and I've been in this field for approx.15yrs. This is how I address G.Reading. I begin by giving each student a tablet. The first couple of pages are designated for assignments. We then tab the following sections: Vocabulary-this is for words they don't know, they must write the page and then look up the definition. Wonder section: Reserved for their questions and discussed on the day we meet Work Completed Section: Obvious to complete the assignments and just recently we came up with a section for Writing --this section is for words or phrases they like and might use during their writing time. It somewhat helps when students have to incorporate voice in their writing. I have 5groups therefore I meet with each group once a week. Each group has a particular day to meet. When we do meet I assign work that will keep them busy until the next time we meet which means they have one week to complete the reading and the assignments. In the groups we discuss such things as the characters, problems, solutions, text to text, to self and to the world. Anyway I hope this gives you some idea of where to begin. Everyone seems to have a different style of accomplishing the Guided reading topic. I also hope you know that Guided Reading is also a leveled reading which allows students to read at their own ability.It is to help with fluency and comprehension.
02-09-2008, 10:56 AM
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