The idea of ‘guided reading’ in the Science of Reading foundation classroom is a simple, yet muti-faceted proposition. In most schools guided reading is based on the reading level that arises from the benchmarking assessment done by the teacher and focuses largely on comprehension and learning to use a variety of ‘strategies’ to decode words. During these small group lessons children read predictable texts at their ‘instructional level’. This approach exposes children to instructional practices that are ok for some, but questionable and downright counter productive for most.
The main difference that I see between whole language (predictable texts, sight word based) approaches and those practices that arise from the Science of Reading comes from the differing view of how children learn to read.
Whole language approaches assume that by getting children to read texts, they will get better at reading texts. This seems sensible, but this only works if the child has the phonics and decoding knowledge necessary to read the text in front of them.
The Science of Reading based approaches, however, work on the premise that text level reading is part of a progression of text complexity and that children need to read at sound level and word level before we ask them to read a text.
These differing foundational assumptions have significant implications for how we teach reading to children in their first year of school.
When it comes to grouping children and conducting a ‘guided reading’ lesson in the foundation classroom it is necessary to base that grouping on the skill level of the children. Again, this seems obvious but let us have a look at a breakdown of those skills.
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness
The first level of decision making is whether children can blend orally or not. That is, if you say the sounds /t/ /a/ /p/ , the child can tell you that you are saying tap. Children who are not blending orally will need a lot more support, scaffolding and explicit instruction in oral blending than those who can.
Phonics Skills
In order to enable children to learn phoneme grapheme correspondence in a systematic way AND incorporate revision and review we need to group children based on their phonics knowledge. One way to do this is to divide your phonics progression/sequence into chunks of 5 – 6 sounds and make sure that children have these sounds before you move them on to the next ‘set’.
Once children are blending orally and know some sounds you can then move them onto blending with graphemes. ‘Knowing sounds’ means that the child can look at the grapheme (letter) and say the phoneme (sound) without thinking about it.
Blending with graphemes ‘in my head’.
Blending graphemes ‘mentally’ and saying the word quickly is the key to building fluently. A child who continues to need to sound out every word sound by sound aloud is not going to achieve the level of fluency needed to read more complex texts. Fluent reading comes from orthographic mapping (decoding words so much that they map as a letter string for almost instant recall).
Continued Phonics Knowledge
Once children have these basic skills established you can continue to group based on phonics knowledge.
You can see that the grouping decisions in this approach are much more about building up the skills required then about matching children to a book. Indeed, once children can blend with graphemes you will absolutely give them a book to read during small group time, but books will not be a feature of ‘guided’ reading for some time or until children have the word level reading skills to enable them to decode what is in the book using their blending and phonics skills.
This small group work will not be your main instruction for many of these skills. They will be taught whole class (particularly phonological and phonemic awareness) and your daily review work will also be done whole class. The small group work is an opportunity to drill down into exactly what the children need to provide highly specific and targeted learning opportunities.
This can all feel like a huge departure from your ‘normal’ practice and can even bring on a degree of anxiety about whether or not children are learning if they aren’t reading books. Whether we realise it or not, whole language practices are so embedded in our core teaching identity that it can feel incredibly risky to let some things go or alter them to match with a more systematic approach. When you have this feeling, have a long breath out and know that everything is going to be ok. A little leap of faith can take you a long way. Your student learning will tell the story. Give things a term and then evaluate the progress. THAT will be evidence you need to let you know you are on the right track. Of course, that means altering the way you assess and evaluate learning and growth.
To help you get your head around the grouping I have described, I have created a handy class grouping and teaching guide that you can download below. Next week I will cover exactly what you can teach during your small group lessons with each group. If you haven’t already subscribed to Jocelyn Seamer Education you can do so by entering your details and clicking subscribe at the bottom of the page.
Researchers who study reading groups say that ability grouping can be effective under certain conditions—if the practice focuses on specific skills that students need work on rather than general reading levels, and if the groups are flexible enough so that students can move once they have mastered those skills.
Flexible grouping is considered an effective practice for enhancing the knowledge and skills of students without the negative social consequences associated with more permanent reading groups (Flood, Lapp, Flood, & Nagel, 1992).
Well, instead of grouping students and only moving when they “graduate” from a level, students will move through different groups depending on their specific needs. It also means that maybe you have to create a whole new group because a need has resurfaced.
Students can work as part of small groups, depending on the task and/or content. Centers can focus on specific reading skills (e.g., phonics or vocabulary) or provide activities that center on a theme of interest. For a book report, students can work in interest groups with other students who have read the same book.
Students with similar learning needs are brought together for a short time. Students are assigned to groups based on need for additional help, time and practice in order to master the content and skills covered in a particular unit or lesson the teacher already has Page 2 taught to the entire classroom group.
Critics of ability grouping point to the danger that students' abilities could be incorrectly assessed as a result of subjective appraisers. Additionally, student placement into ability groups can impact students' self-esteem and create a self-confidence gap between students of higher and lower abilities.
Grouping students for Guided Reading first requires that teachers 'know their students. ' Teachers assess their students, using the tools they know—letter/sound checks, a fluency passage, a benchmarking kit.
What it is: Flexible grouping is at the heart of differentiated instruction. It provides opportunities for students to be part of many different groups based on their readiness, interest, or learning style. These groups may be hom*ogenous or heterogenous. They may be student-selected or teacher-selected.
In these small groups, students are grouped by reading levels for activities, such as guided reading. Guided reading is when the teacher leads a small group through an instructional level text while working on decoding and comprehension strategies.
Small-group reading instruction focuses on differentiating instruction by teaching specific skills to support students who have been identified as needing targeted instruction.
Flexible grouping is an important teaching strategy that can help you differentiate instruction and meet the diverse needs of all learners in your classroom. By creating flexible groups, you can ensure that each student is working at their own level and receiving the support and challenge they need to make progress.
At the beginning of the year, group kids by preferred genre or interest and have them read, discuss as a group, and then turn the group work into a bigger conversation by sharing it out to the class. Inquiry is a powerful energy source for readers, and it comes from within.
The grouping methods are techniques "for taking what you have observed and classifying the relevant groups for further study and comparison. A specific type of grouping method uses exploratory study to compare sets of data and to look for patterns and correlations between the data for causal effects."
The bottom line: The science of reading is a body of evidence that tells us how students learn to read, and includes evidence supporting phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics and word recognition, fluency, vocabulary, content knowledge development, and comprehension.
To improve students' reading comprehension, teachers should introduce the seven cognitive strategies of effective readers: activating, inferring, monitoring-clarifying, questioning, searching-selecting, summarizing, and visualizing-organizing.
Skim and Scan: Begin by skimming through the material to get an overview of the content. ...
Active Reading: Engage with the text by highlighting or underlining important points, making notes in the margins, and asking questions about the material.
Group students based on standard/skill that's needed at the moment. Students can be at different reading levels. Data typically comes from exit tickets, assessments, or classroom observations. Short term grouping, typically a week or two.
Introduction: My name is Twana Towne Ret, I am a famous, talented, joyous, perfect, powerful, inquisitive, lovely person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
