Effective Literacy Practice - Part 3

Guided Reading

ELP pages 96-100 or on the TKI website

Guided Reading probably takes up most of my planning time, but the more thought I put into it, I definitely find the better the lessons go.

From the ELP it says...

Guided reading provides a framework in which teachers can use instructional strategies to:

• Help students to develop an understanding of what is involved in reading and an expectation of success;
• Help students to learn, practise, and integrate their reading strategies;
• Help students to read new text successfully;
• Monitor students closely while they engage with and process texts;
• Develop students’ comprehension of and critical responses to text;
• Build students’ confidence as independent readers;
• Show students how the processes of reading and writing are integral to each other.

After teaching for a while and knowing the students, all these points come quite naturally when planning and thinking during lessons, but each of them definitely hold as much importance on their own as they do together. 

Successful guided reading is pinned on students feeling confident to give things a try. These sessions are when the new teaching happens. I as the teacher need to ensure that the student feels safe and confident in the group before starting to integrate the new learning and challenging the students in what they already know. 

From the planning, to the session to the followup, the lesson needs to be student appropriate, engaging, challenging at the right level and fun. Students need to want to be there, and need to want to learn. 

Reading during these lessons is always done as a whole group approach. I'm so glad that they've done away with the, what I call 'creeping death' approach. 

During the session it's the chance when I give feedback to the students on their reading. I've been working on giving feedback on writing, and as a class we're getting pretty good at knowing our next steps and star points now, but reading is something I need to work on more with them, so that they can articulate and know more clearly where they are, what they're working on, an where they're going to next/what they need to do to get there. 

I definitely find writing down the WALT with my students helps me keep focussed as well as remember to reflect back on it during and in conclusion of the guided reading session. 

Finding meaningful activities for followup, I find to be hard sometimes. So it's a nice reminder to read the end of this section with a list of ideas, but also with it saying...

"often the reading is sufficient in itself, and the best follow-up activity is simply lots more reading."

ELP Page 100