Ch. 4 Guided Reading

            With younger children guided reading helps children develop an appreciation and understanding of the story and at the same time stimulates problem-solving conversations about how to apply reading strategies in context which leads to competent independent reading (p. 41).  This chapter details the elements and types of guided reading that can start in Kinder and 1^st  then onto 2^nd and 3^rd grade .    When children show signs of print awareness such as:  knowing the difference between letters and words, explore print on walls, notice that same words appear over and over in different contexts, etc… it is time for guided reading.

            Book selection should be based on children’s level of knowledge and experience as well as meets the goal of instruction.  The focus at the beginning is to prepare kids through matching one-to-one, using first letter cues, noticing chunks, or what do students do at point of difficulty?  As students become more competent they can discuss characters, plot, author’s writing style, characteristics of the genre or literary devices used by the author.  During the book introduction the teacher helps children build meaning with a brief overview, exposes them to structure by identifying language phrases and patterns and introduces the children to visual or graphophonetic cues by finding frequently encountered words they know or predict words using first letter cues which are all sources of information that independent readers use.  

            I have seen teachers use guided reading and have done this myself and round robin reading seemed to come into play here but the book stated “Each child begins reading at his or her own pace.” Instructional interactions with the children are determined by children’s’ strengths and needs. In this small group activity, class size is important and ability levels have to match so that the support matches the level of the group.  I have observed students less capable of reading at their own pace so they begin to parrot a more able reader sitting next to them.  I have also seen guided reading begin as partner reading when developmentally students are not at the stage of helping one another effectively.  The important aspect of guided reading at the kinder and first grade level is the teachers’ ability to observe children’s processing behavior and responding appropriately because this is where students are learning to read.

            For more fluent readers say in 2^nd and 3^rd, book selection is based on interest, content, thematic units and story genre with complex structures such as repetition, cumulative, cultural, chronological, problem-centered, and rhythm and rhyme.  This is where students begin reading to learn as they see how information is presented in a variety of ways, make comparisons and contrasts between texts, explore author’s style, develop comprehension skills, and increase mastery of story elements.  One of the statements that caught my attention was when the authors stated that instead of introducing vocabulary words or potentially difficult words before reading the story the teacher should select one or two appropriate words  to discuss and build knowledge of the word or to use magnetic letters or white board to illustrate problem-solving techniques after the first read.  This contrasts with most reading programs where vocabulary is introduced before the first read.  So students have to incorporate their reading strategies full force during the time students are reading silently.  The scenarios in the book give explicit examples of how guided reading should look like and the role of the teacher.

            What happens to guided reading when questions at the end of a story becomes the priority rather than reading to learn?