Jennifer Jowers - Blog Post 4 - Routman Chapter 10: Examine Guided Reading

This year one (of the many) struggle I have had has been wrapping my head around guided reading and the best way to implement it. I have watched videos, attended training classes, read books, researched online and I still don’t feel like I have a good grasp on this concept. I liked the author’s description of what guided reading is on page 151. It is a way to build on the child’s strengths while supporting and demonstrating the necessary skills to move a child towards independence. This made me stop and really focus on what my main target is for guided reading. I know that I want my students to love to read as much as I do, have confidence and gain the necessary strategies to become better readers. Now that I have figured out what my main purpose is for guided reading, I feel like I have a direction to go in. Before I felt like I was just trying to squeeze it all in and read, read, read even if it wasn’t very effective and practice writing a sentence that goes along with the text. After reading chapter 10 I feel like I am not locked into the traditional guided reading.

In years past when we had reading groups, very often students were moving around from group to group but it was all based on how they compared in reading to others in the group. Since we have started using the miscue analysis to better understand our students reading abilities I can begin to group them more effectively. I can put them with others who need help on the same skills. I feel like I am headed in the right direction.

One of the hardest things for me to do to prepare for my groups is to pick out guided reading texts that fit my groups. The lesson will only be as good as the book stated on page 153 made me stress a little. We have had the same leveled readers since I started almost 12 years ago, and as far as I know have not added any new ones recently. I can bet that there are much better leveled readers available today. Here is where I get a little frustrated. If having the right books is so important in guided reading then what can we do when we are limited with our texts. Often the texts are outdated or pertain to subjects our students have no concepts of. When we do find a text we think will be great there are only 3 copies and non-fiction options are extremely limited. I understand that budgets are tight, but it is difficult to push the importance of something when we don’t have the proper tools to do it with. I love building my own classroom library and try very hard to buy books that I can use, but I can only provide so much and buying 6 copies of a book can get costly. I would love to know how to best utilize the titles we already have. As a grade level we try to look at the books and decide what works best for our students and what we think would benefit them, but we have limited options available to us.

I said a loud Amen to the section talking about flexible kindergarten guided reading. It is so true that we feel the need to push through everything and having students reading by the end of kindergarten is a necessity nowadays. I feel like my students are getting all the reading and writing and math they can handle but they do not know how to socialize, play together, or any of the great lessons they learn when they get to play in centers. The problem is we can’t go back and teach like we used to unless all grade levels drop back. I loved reading about the kindergarten teacher who did not have guided reading groups. Her students are much like ours and the experiences with books are few and far between. Having a print rich environment and books always available along with experiences was her way of teaching students to read and it was successful.

This chapter was very helpful in my understanding of guided reading and calmed my crazy a little letting me know that guided reading is not the only way to teach reading. However, I would like to be able to see what other kindergarten classrooms are doing. I am very visual and I can read books until I am cross-eyed but I have to see it to understand. Like it said in the chapter, students need constant demonstration and opportunities to practice what they learn and that is exactly what I need when it comes to guided reading. I need to focus on what is the best way to teach them and since I am the one that knows my kids the best it is my job to make the best decisions I can to help them be successful. I just hope that I make the right ones.