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Guided Reading
| Guided
Reading is ….
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Guided
Reading is not …
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| …using
leveled reading materials to support the reader at each level.
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…consistently
using the basal with some or
all students. The basal does
not provide leveled text support
for the reader.
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| …working
with students with a common need. A
good assessment will give the teacher this data.
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…working
with a group of students who appear to be on the same level because of a
test score.
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| …developing
independent readers by helping them to internalize their strategies and
having them reread the same text several times to gain fluency.
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…encouraging
students to read text once or using round robin reading with the teacher providing the corrections.
The skill instruction is isolated from the text.
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| …modeling
what good readers do: predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing.
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…asking
the student to read without establishing a purpose to read and
without making
connections to the reader’s experience.
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| …word
study to understand how words work.
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…
asking the readers to write vocabulary
definitions without making connections back to the text.
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| …writing
to make meaning of the text.
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…writing
to fill in blanks or copy the text.
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| …changing
group membership every 6 weeks by re-assessing the strategies and
comprehension of the students.
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…leaving
the group membership the same for long periods of time or all year.
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*What Guides My Teaching?
*Running Records
*Flexible
Groups
*Text Selection
*Instruction
*Lesson Formats
*Comprehension
The teacher works with a small group
of students who have similar reading processes.
The teacher selects and introduces new books and supports children
reading and whole text to themselves, making teaching points during and after
the reading.
Fountas, Irene C. and Pinnell, Gay Su,
Guided reading:
good first teaching for all children.
(1996) Heinemann
“The goal
of guided reading is to assist new readers to move as quickly as possible
through the developmental stages of reading so they become strategic,
thoughtful, and independent fluent readers.”
Milner, Debbie. Guided
Reading, CRCJ, p21
What
Guides my Teaching?
Assessments:
Assessments and instruction each inform the other of information that the
teacher needs to best meet the needs of the students.
A variety of assessments are needed to give the teacher an accurate
picture of the student, to match the reader to a book level, and to group the
students based on like-needs.
*Developmental Reading
Assessment (D.R.A.-Joetta Beaver)
This assessment will accurately place the student at their instructional
level. It gives you a simplified
running record and a comprehension analysis.
*Running Records:
What
is the purpose of using running records?
A running record is a tool for
coding, scoring, and analyzing a child’s precise reading behaviors.
Marie Clay’s book, An
observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement gives a complete
description of this technique.
Taking a running record of children’s reading behavior will become part of
your teaching. It will document children’s reading behaviors, such as what
strategies they are or are not using, how often they are self-correcting and
their fluency. This process will
help the teacher sharpen their observational skills and understanding of the
reading process.
Accuracy Rate:
Independent level:
95%-100%
Instructional level:
94%-90%
Frustration level:
below 90%
Reading at a 90% or above provides good opportunities to observe reading
work. The accuracy rate lets the
teacher know whether she is selecting a book at the child’s instructional
level... a “just right book.” A
reader needs just the right amount of success, yet struggle to be kept on their
toes while reading. This will let
the reader use the strategies that they have learned.
When the text becomes too hard, the reader cannot use what they know and
reading for meaning is lost.
The teacher will use the running record to look for evidence that the reader
is using reading strategies, such as cross-checking information.
She will examine each incorrect attempt and self-correction made by the
reader and hypothesizes about the information sources the child might have used.
A reader will use all these information sources in an integrated way
while reading for meaning.
There are three major categories of information (cues):
*Meaning: Does it
make sense?
The reader may attempt to use background knowledge, picture information,
and meaning in the sentence.
*Structure: Does it
sound right?
This refers to whether or not the sentence sounds right when read.
*Visual information:
Does it look right?
Visual information includes the way the letters and words look.
Self-correcting: This
is the reader’s ability to notice mismatches, search for further information, and make another attempt that accomplishes a precise fit
with the information already known.
Example:
A reader might look at a word, make the sound of
the first letter, search for a word that would make sense and sound right in the
sentence, and check this prediction against other visual features of the word. The reader has initially used visual information, searched
for and used meaning and structure, and then checked against visual information.
This happens very quickly and most readers are not aware of the process
because the reader’s focus is on meaning.
When should I begin using running records?
Begin using running records as early in the year as possible.
This is an ONGOING assessment tool that can be used with any book.
Can I use the same book more than once with the same child?
NO. Each running record that is
used for assessment purposes or report card purposes should be based on a COLD
read. That means that you give the
child a book introduction and invite the child to take a picture walk through
the book (you do not talk during the picture walk) and then the child reads the
book aloud independently.
“Doing
Running Records”
Who should take running records?
The classroom teacher should take running records because they are the
teachers who work directly with the children.
It is not recommended that reading specialists do running records in
regular classroom situations: it is
classroom teachers that must become adept at helping children to become
strategic readers.
What’s the difference between a COLD
read and a WARM read?
When teachers use running records as part of their ongoing instructional and
assessment program, they sometimes have children do warm reads.
That means it is alright that they have heard or read the book before.
When running records are done for report card purposes and or Title I
purposes, it must be a cold read. That
means that the child has never read or heard the story before.
What is a picture walk?
A picture walk is when the child looks at the pictures prior to reading the
book in order to get a general idea of what the story might be about.
It sets the stage for reading. Teachers
should teach children how to take a picture walk through a book during shared
reading and guided reading sessions. When
used for instructional purposes, the teacher and children talk their way through
the pictures, anticipating what might be happening. When a child is going to take a picture walk for a running
record, the teacher does not talk. The
purpose is to see how the child uses this strategy independently to help himself
read.
What about comprehension?
After the child reads the story, the child must retell the story.
If he doesn’t readily retell the story, the teacher can prompt the
child with questions from the Running
Records Analysis Form.
Scoring
Running Records
(for a complete form on scoring running records see:
Running Records Scoring
Guide.)
If a child makes a substitution for
the same word more than one time, do I count it as an error each time?
Yes, For example, if a child says, “I am” instead of “I’m” six
times throughout the story, it counts as 6 errors.
The only exception is for proper names; each name counts only as 1 error
no matter how many times the child makes a substitution.
Using
Running Records to Plan for Instruction
How can I use running records to plan
for instruction?
By using running records as an assessment tool the teacher will be able to
see what strategies a child needs strengthened.
The teacher can incorporate these reading strategies during Shared
Reading, during Guided Reading, and during Writer’s Workshop mini-lessons.
Analysis or running records enables the teacher to match children with
appropriate levels of books for instruction and for independent reading. Information gained from running records can help teachers
make informed decisions about grouping children for instruction.
*Teacher Observation and Anecdotal
Notes
“Kid-watching”–observing your students is an extremely
valuable activity. This allows you
to watch the students “in the process” of actually reading and writing.
You should be on the teacher look-out for what the child is already doing
and what areas they need to be supported with.
The anecdotal note page might include
such things such as, the level of book, date, strategies used or attempted,
notes on the child’s fluency and comprehension.
The teacher can refer to this
sheet when making instructional decisions about the
reader.
Flexible Groups: Planning
Flexible patterns of grouping children are important for effective
instruction.
Flood, J., Lapp, D., Flood, S., and
Nagel,G. (1992). Am I allowed to
group? Using flexible patterns for
effective instruction. The Reading Teacher, 45,(8), 608-616.
Groupings:
*Groups are formed by specific assessment for
strengths in the reading process and appropriate level of text.
*Groups are kept flexible, and changeable on a
regular basis. The teacher will meet with the group
with a specific focus in mind. When
the student has mastered the focus, and is reading
and
comprehending at that book level, the student will be regrouped.
*Books are chosen for the students on their
appropriate level. The groups will
probably not follow
the same sequence of books.
*Skills will be incorporated into reading as the
students are ready for them. Skills
will be taught in the
context of the reading.
*Different groupings for other purposes are used:
(interest, author study, cooperative groups...)
*Evaluation is based on daily observation and
regular, systematic individual assessments.
This information will help guide the teacher as to the appropriate time
to move a student up a reading
level.
Planning:
Initial Placement:
When the initial assessment (DRA or Running Record) has been given to each
member of the class, the teacher will then want to gather the information and
look at it as a whole for the purpose of combining students with like-needs and
forming flexible groups. The
teacher will form groups based on the strengths in the children’s reading
process and the appropriate level of text.
The teacher will meet with a group with a specific focus in mind, once
the focus has been met by the student and he/she is reading and comprehending on
that reading level, the student will be regrouped based on what he/she needs
next.
Some questions that the teacher might ask as she/he looks through the
assessments and notes:
*What are the students already doing well?
*What strategy are they ready for next?
*Were they reading with fluency?
*How was their comprehension?
Ongoing Placement:
After the initial placement in a guided reading
group, the teacher will continue to monitor, model, teach and assess each
individual student. She/he will
always be aware of what the student needs next to continue growing as a reader. A helpful guide for further instruction that you might find
helpful might be the “What’s
Next Continuum?” included in the
D.R.A. kit.
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