Guided Reading Groups

 I will setup Guided Reading Groups. I will evaluate students’ reading levels at the beginning of the year by getting a record of a child’s oral reading performance . A running record will help me understand what the students are struggling with. According to Clay(2000) " running records capture what the readers said and did while reading the books or texts. Having taken the record teachers can review what happened immediately, leading to a teaching decision on the spot, or at later time as they plan for next lessons" (Running Record for the Classroom Today pp. 4). Clay describes "one use of Running Record is a check on whether students are working on material of appropriate difficulty, neither too difficult nor too easy, but offering a suitable level of challenged to the learner"(Running Record for the Classroom Today pp. 4). This allows the teacher to see the child's weaknesses and strengths in reading. I will choose the leveled based on the student running record performance. The teacher can use the running I will divide the class into “same level” reading groups. Each group will have a chance to read together and to discuss the book with one other. I will meet with the different leveled groups in order to check students’ progress. Goldberg & Serravallo (2007) state "I find it to be very effective to use conferring to individualize a reader’s needs based on skill and strategy work that a particular level demands. Sometimes,I
preteach some content to help a student with prior knowledge in a new book" ( Goldberg, G. & J Serrvallo Conferring with Readers Supporting Each Student’s Growth and Independence pp.88-100). During the conference the teacher needs to realize what the student understand to do when reading and what the child needs help with. According Goldberg & Serravallo (2007) " My goal in this conference is to help support a student with one of the demands of this new level.I teach the student one strategy to help with
this new skill.Here is one example of how a conference like that might go" (pp. 95). The ultimate goal is guided reading groups is for the student to move up to the next level of reading materials. It is important for the teacher to provide guidance on how each student moves up to the reading level.
While meeting with reading groups, I will set up literacy centers. In these literacy centers, I would create activities to practice literacy concepts. At the centers, I will incorporate technology including listening to sound of words on tape and posting on the class blog. These centers give students the chance to explore literacy concepts in a manner other than teacher-directed instruction. Also, the centers are a great way to bring in different learning styles because at some station you might be listening to words, other stations might be drawing a picture about the book you are reading. The station ideas are endless and the students can be part a of creating the stations as well.