Dawn Mitchell's March/April Blog Post "Examine Guided Reading" Routman Chapter 10

Dawn Mitchell's Examine Guided Reading Chapter 10

During the month of February we are learning about Literacy Development.   In both our choice and our required readings this month educational researchers explain the different ways our students grow and develop as readers and writers and their articles provide us with insight and suggestions in how we can best support and foster the literacy growth of our students. 

In March’s blendspace you will find a variety of resources we’ve included for you including the Notes/Thinking chart from Jennifer Serravallo’s Reading Strategies professional development text to use as you navigate through making connections with the four readings from this month.  Also included is the ATLAS Looking at Data protocol that we introduced to you to help analyze authentic student assessment data that can help you determine where students are as readers and writers and what support they need to grow next.   You will also find in our blendspace this month’s tech tool to take called storybird (www.storybird.com) which is a great web 2.0 resource for student publishing of their own books as well as poems. 

This month for my blog post, I have chosen to read chapter 10 “Examine Guided Reading” from Routman’s Reading Essentials for many reasons.  First, this is a classroom structure that many teachers I have the honor of working with utilize in various grade levels in multiple ways and for multiple purposes so I wanted to find out some basic criteria for effective guided reading that could provide a foundational basis for us as a whole for guided reading. 

Second, this is a classroom structure that I have had experience with as a fourth grade teacher and appreciated the structure it provided to work with a small group of students around a shared text to provide support that scaffolded students towards independence, and I wanted to expand my knowledge base.  Second

To fulfill my first purpose for reading I discovered that Atwell’s holistic definition of guided reading is, “…most often defined as meeting with a small group of students and guiding and supporting them through a manageable text.  Students are grouped with others at a similar reading level and supported to use effective reading strategies.  Often, there are “before, during, and after” activities and discussion in which students talk about, think about, and read through the text.” (page 150) Routman goes on to explain that her view of guided reading is broader and can be any context in which the teacher guides one or more students through some aspect of the reading process. 

To fulfill my first purpose for reading to grow myself as an educator I decided to use Seravallo’s Notes/Thinking Chart to hold what I learned from Routman and what it compelled me to think about.

Notes – What Routman Says	Thinking – My Thoughts
“Be Cautious About How You Group Children.”  Routman says “Once students are already reading, grouping students so narrowly is unnecessary…Personally, I am no longer comfortable ability grouping beyond second grade.  I worry about the message such grouping sends to students – a message that they are somehow less capable.  If you group by   ability, make sure you keep it short (ten to fifteen minutes) and provide daily opportunities for more varied groups – whole-class shared reading, heterogeneous small groups, partner reading, independent reading.	I agree with this thought 100%.  I have ethical issues with ability grouping students in the same homogenous group all year long.  I have seen how this unintentionally labels students and in doing so, limits what instruction we provide and what they can do. I do appreciate the suggestions Routman provides in her section on opportunities for flexible grouping and have tried several of her suggestions. (page 153) *literature circles *Re-reading and discussing a story with a group *Reading with a partner *Reading a small chunk or passage from a *book with a group during whole class interactive reading. *Engaging in reciprocal teaching *Rereading part of a familiar text as Readers Theatre.
“Be sure the texts you use are of the highest quality.  Your guided reading lesson will only be as good as the text you use.” (page 154) “Because the quality of books varies widely, be sure you carefully examine the ones you use for guided reading…For older students, put more emphasis on interest than on levels.  Once a student is a competent reader, you don’t have to worry so much about exact levels.”	YAASSSS!  Preach it Routman!  Too many times we provide students with mass produced “leveled readers” that are boring, have poorly done illustrations, and are not interesting enough to provoke discussions and extended thinking.  I loved the checklist Routman provides on page 155 to identify qualities of an excellent test for guided reading.
“…you don’t need to meet with every group every day…Once students are independent readers at their grade level, you will not need to see them every day in guided reading group:  two or three days a week is sufficient, especially if you have a strong shared reading program and a well-monitored independent reading program.	This is reassuring to here because I have found that many times I need to adjust my structures depending on my students’ needs and what the data tells me they need.  For example, there have been times students’ needed an extended independent reading block because they were “into” their books and we’d extended stamina and I was conferencing with students.  There’ve also been times when we were in a really in the zone with writing workshop and I needed to spend longer one or two days a week to maximize student motivation for the task and to make progress with their student driven products.  Knowing that consistency that you meet with students takes priority over consistency when you meet with students matches what works for me in my practice.
“Make Time for Independent Reading Your First Priority…Be consistent about reading aloud, maintain a daily (monitored) independent reading program, and implement shared reading and guided reading flexibly as contexts for demonstrations, strategies, and practice.” (page 158)	Yes!  I definitely appreciate this clarifier in this chapter.  Everything I’ve read points to independent reading of choice texts is the number one factor in promoting reading growth.  I know firsthand when implementing a new structure it can take over and dominate your literacy block crowding out any time for other equally or even more meaningful structures.  Independent reading and writing are the priority.  Guided reading supplements this.
“Keeping your focus on learner-centered reading instead of on group-centered reading enables you to make the best teaching decisions for your students.  Once again, you teach students, not programs.  Decide first what it is you want and need to teach and then what the best contexts are for teaching to ensure students are learning and enjoying learning to read.” (Page 160)	This needs to be a bill board…A giant poster…A commercial… A required public service announcement that plays repeatedly on all airwaves…Seriously I love me some Regie Routman! #makethebestteachingdecisionsforyourstudents
“Modeling exactly what we expect students to do must start the first day they enter our classroom.  When we have established a classroom where we have bonded with our students and treat them respectfully, they return that respect… Expect students to manage their own behavior. My single best piece of advice is to ignore distracting behavior. Do not intervene unless it’s an emergency.  You are letting students know that the teaching you are about to do is critically important and that they are now in charge.”	Can anyone say Harry Wong?  I had major flashbacks to The First Days of School Text but Routman and Wong and Marsha Tate along with a host of other experts in promoting independent behaviors in students suggest that we must teach students what we expect and showing, not just telling is effective in helping to create consistency in our classroom procedures and routines.  Excellent anchor chart ideas that also reminded me of the suggestions for I-Charts from the authors of The Daily Five on page 164 and 165.
“If the first question we ask students after reading is, “What words did you have difficulty with?” we are giving them the message that reading is about getting the words right.  I always ask first – even with nonreaders – “Tell me about what you just read” so students always know we read for understanding.” (page 167)	Yes! Reading = Meaning We must not reduce our reading instruction to isolated word de-coding, skill and drill, or fact/recall questions.  We read to learn, to know, to grow.
“Don’t jump right in when a child makes an error.  Students need opportunities to problem-solve in order to learn to monitor and correct themselves.” (page 174)	I believe in this whole-heartedly but find that at times I struggle controlling my first impulse to jump in and help students.  I am not helping them when I am doing the work for them.  I am actually sending the message to them that I don’t think they can do it themselves.  I want to build capacity not limit it.
“Underlying all purposes for reading is the question, “How is what I am doing today going to help students become more independent readers?” (page 168)	Yep!  That is the ultimate driving essential question for us as reading teachers.  How are we growing readers into leaders?
*Excerpts From Guided Reading Groups from page 175-182	Must Keep for Future Reference – These transcripts of actual guided reading lessons are a great resource for any teacher, myself included when planning to implement guided reading with their grade level.

Thanks Regie Routman for the wonderful suggestions and advice.  Thanks to Jenniffer Serravallo or the great structure that helped me hold my thinking.

Sincerely,

Dawn

Angela Speer’s Blog Post #7 March/April: Chapter 12; You only Have So Much Time by Reggie Routman

I have to admit, I struggle to leave school at a decent time because I love for my desk to be completely neat. If I do leave at a decent time, I do my work at home. Uhhh! Routman says to leave it at school, but I’m not sure that will happen. I do; however, have days that I do nothing so that I can get some rest. I am guilty of going home early, at like 4 or 4:30, and playing with Easton, my son, having dinner and talking. Then I stay up late working. This year has been the worse because of all that I have going on. Like Routman states on page 202, I like to plan with the idea of my students. I cannot plan for a whole month or unit until I understand what my students know, their interests, purposes and goals. Routman’s chart on page 203 reflects the questions for Safe-T, which I am finishing up this year. Yay! The questions make everyone reflect on what the students need to know, all the way to what needs to change. Modifications are necessary for all class plans because every student learns differently, based on the topic or subject. Routman discusses having “authentic reading and writing in which students have some challenge, choice, control, and opportunity to collaboratively motivate students most” (204). This is the reason why I have believe in Balanced Literacy and Reading and Writing workshop!!! I want my students to create reading and writing on the spot!!! To think and analyze like little Einstein children. Most of all, I want them to be responsible for their own learning! Routman discusses authentic learning a lot in their chapter, she wants teachers to do this. So I can now pop out an assessment quickly to ensure that my students have an authentic assessment. I can create questions that make them think, but I want them to do the same. I feel that Routman would agree. The section in which Routman wants us to keep work simple is relevant because with only so much time, the students need to have experiences, but complete them. I feel that last year, when I used the textbook and the textbook assessments, the tests were way too long and made the students and I have to figure out what it was asking exactly. It did not build on their understanding or make any moments count as Routman wants on page 205.  Although I feel that my relationships with my students in the past are still reflected, I do feel that I have connected with my students on their reading and writing more this year. I do understand where Routman is coming from when she talks about assessing, then teaching, then assessing. I feel that the only way that I can truly believe in Reading and Writing workshop is to do this. She talks about doing Running records. These are done through conferencing each day with my students. Conferencing has allowed for me to work one on one with each of my students. While conferencing, Routman believes that we should tell students their strengths and weaknesses (205). I do feel that I struggle with allowing students to know their weakness because I do not want to upset them or make them feel negative about their reading. I try and find everything positive about their reading, but do understand that they need to understand both to become stronger readers and writers.

I love everything on page 206 of Routman’s tips because I find that I also call on students that do not volunteer to give ideas and I have my distracted students in the front closest to my desk. However, I am constantly moving so I have to make the students feel that the desk is close to me. I also agree with “Keep a lively pace” because some of my students get distracted if there is too much time spent on one topic (206). On another hand, I like to keep my students hanging so that they want to read more, or explore the activity more. I do want more time with my struggling students (207) because I feel that they have so much that they could offer the class if only they could get past their struggles! Also I would love to try the “mystery words” (208) with vocabulary words or with spelling words. It would be a fun way to get them to play with their words.

I feel that this year, I have used the resources in the room for students. Last year, my library was there with little interaction. This year, my students use it almost every day, which makes me excited. I also feel validated in not using my crayons as much for coloring. I find with our new curriculum, we don’t have enough time to color. I also find that my students will draw better if I tell them that they can only use their pencils (210).

Routman really wants us to communicate with other teachers. I agree, building relationships will help you teach more purposely. Even though I am not in control of the list on page 216, I do agree with hiring roving subs, having a late start once a week, which I have done for Bullying meetings, loved adding paid days to school calendar and adding more time to the school day. With only so much time, I would like for the school days to be longer, but with less days. I feel that when I am teaching, I do not want to continue the same idea the next day, I want to finish my work for that day. Extending the day would help this to happen. I also agree with Routman on page 217 because I feel that professional development and reading does keep me learning and growing as a learner and in turn, as a teacher. I expect my students to grow, and they expect me to as well. I want to try new things and introduce new, interesting learning/teaching techniques (217-218) to keep my students and I engaged!