Guided Reading Assignment

1.    Guided reading is when a teacher works with a small group of students to help them develop better reading skills. The teacher provides different elements of teaching to the students to fit their particular reading levels. The elements that must be included in guided reading are: before reading, during reading, and after reading.


2. Guided Reading Graphic Organizer

Before Reading	During Reading	After Reading
·         Teacher discusses topic students have been working on which is weather. She relates the book to the topic they are already familiar with. ·         She asks students to make a prediction about what they think the book will be about. ·         Discusses the cover of the book with the students and has them put their finger on the title and then on other pictures in the book. ·         Asks students a few questions. For example, “What do flowers have to do with the weather?” ·         Has students read title with her while pointing to the words. She also has them say the days of the week with her. ·         She has students “notice” the pictures. ·         She asks the students what sounds they hear and she sounds out the words with them. ·         Discusses the types of weather with the students. They say their most favorite and least favorite types of weather. ·         Look at pictures once again and students point out which pictures they like. ·         She repeats some of the above steps from page to page. She asks students what clues the pictures give. ·         Continues to really work on sounds of the words. ·         Answers any questions that the students have, she is very helpful and encouraging. ·         Explains to students what they are about to do as readers.	·         Listens in and takes notes as each student reads quietly to themselves. Goes around from student to student. ·         Helps students sound out words. ·         She points out details to students, such as the pictures on the page to help them get a better understanding. ·         Encourages them. ·         Asks students to sound out words, and then she points to other words that can help them. ·         She tells students to read the book again when they say “I’m finished”. ·         Really encourages the students and asks them questions to get them to think about what they are reading.	·         Tells students to always remember to look at the pictures and the words. ·         Tells them to pay attention to the beginning and the ending sounds. ·         Shows students some examples in the book they just read, “What is the weather? Look at the wind.” ·         Looks back at her notes to discuss what students need more help on. ·         She takes the students books away so they focus only on the book she is holding up. ·         She reads some of the words wrong and lets the students correct her. ·         Encourages them to go back and re-read. ·         Engages students in “Word Work” where she shows them flash cards with pictures of weather on them. She tells the students what they should call each picture. For example sun instead of sunny, cloud instead of cloudy, lightening instead of stormy, and wind instead of windy. ·         She has students work on their pronunciation. ·         Has flash cards with the beginning letter of each picture and lets students match them up. Uses sounds out of letters and words while doing this. ·         Does the same thing after that, but this time with the ending letters of each picture. ·         Lastly, she praises the children.

3. I thought the video on guided reading was wonderful! The teacher was so positive and had such a great energy about her. The students were intrigued and were listening to what she was teaching them. She broke it down into the simplest form, which I thought was great. She let the students talk, but still maintained control of the group, she also was very helpful in answering any questions that the students had. I think that I would work with a group the way that she did seeing how well the students reacted to her and respected her. She didn't talk down to them at all, and she really let them explore and say what they wanted to say. I don't really think that I would say anything needs to be improved. She worked with each student and took notes on things that they needed help on and then addressed the group as a whol, which I think really helped the students. I enjoyed this video and it helped me grasp the concept of guided reading and how to put together a guided reading group lesson in a classroom with young students.

4. I think is website would be awesome for teachers to use as a resource when working on guided reading with their students. It is very easy to navigate, all you have to do is type "guided reading" is the search bar and multiple results come up. It seems so helpful and the resources that did come up in the search seem like they would be a great help. I really liked the fact that it offers free printable packets, and if you have a membership you can access printable books which would be great to have while wroknig with students on guided reading! I know I would definitely use those handouts and printable books in my classroom with my students.  Another thing that I though was helpful was that you can narrow down your search based on the reading levels that best fit your students needs.

November 25th Blog Post

I have enjoyed learning about assessments through some of this weeks readings. I am going to

discuss in detail the article written by Lose. This article was very eye opening in regards to the necessary qualifications and dedication that a teacher must have to help a child's literacy development. The IDEA allowed 15% of funds to be spent on Special Education funds for Early Intervening Services and support professional development and literacy instruction. RTI stands for Response To Intervention and can be used without labeling students at risk for school failure as learning disabled. Assessments given must appropriately explore a child's knowledge sources and previous literacy experience.

Individualized teaching is crucial to a students improvement all the time, but especially to low performing students. Different teachers teach reading in different ways. It is so important that as a teacher you are able to tailor the way you teach based on individual students' needs.  What are some ways that teachers you have worked with or that you had growing up tailored their teaching to low performing students? Do you think this will be a challenge in your future classroom?

I found these free handouts of Pinterest and I think they are great for assessing students reading skills, especially at a younger age. There is a handout for capital letters, one for lowercase letters, one for letter sound recognition, and one for sight word recognition. There are also ones for rhyming words, syllables, and word blending. I personally think that these would be great to use in the classroom and I encourage you all to take a look!
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3kz82tO60uZU0pNTHJHcnlSYjJEV2xydWRWWHFwUQ/preview

November 18th Blog Post

Guided Reading in the Primary Classroom

By: Mary Kruel

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/guided-reading-primary-classroom

 

 

Guided reading is a component of a four block reading program that consists of self selected reading, shared reading, writing, and working with words. Guided reading id when the teacher facilitates small groups for students who are beginning readers. The goal of guided reading is to help students begin to use reading strategies independently. These strategies may include context clues, syntax, and word structure. The process of guided reading will be carried out before, during, and after reading. Before reading the teacher should have students make predictions, they will introduce and discuss vocabulary, and they will talk about appropriate reading strategies. During reading the teacher should give prompts to students, allow them with enough time to read and discuss with classmates, and give students clues when necessary. After reading is when teachers are able to strengthen comprehension skills and provide praise for their students based on their participation in the guided reading activity.

 

Guided reading is a very important skill for students to learn. I can remember doing guided reading activities growing up, and they really helped me to become more interested in the readings that my teachers assigned. I think guided reading is such a great teaching strategy for readers, especially beginning readers.

 

The link below will take you to a wonderful blog that I found on Pinterest. It is written by a teacher and she explains ways that she has successfully used guided reading in her classroom. She uses lots of visuals on the blog, which I think are awesome!

http://mrsjumpsclass.blogspot.com/2012/01/walruses-literacy-centers-and-guided.html



November 11th Blog Post

Vocabulary is such a crucial concept in our day to day lives. Our homes, schools, teachers, and peers

have all helped to shape and expand our vocabularies. According to the article written by Blachowitz, C.L.Z., and Fisher, research has shown that many pre-school aged children receive little support with vocabulary growth in their lives. As an educator, you can help give students the skills for them to be able to experience growth in the vocabulary development that they need.

You have to realize that some children may not be receiving help with vocabulary in their homes, so it is your responsibility to help them learn it in the classroom. An example that I absolutely LOVE that was mentioned in the article was the idea of Word Walls. I seriously think that Word Walls are fabulous and I cannot wait to have one in my classroom. Another helpful strategy for helping expand vocabulary is choosing a wide variety of books for your students to read. By having your students read different types of books, they will in turn gain a higher vocab level. After they read you can give them a vocabulary test to see if they are understanding each type of book.

What are some activities that you did as a child that helped expand your vocabulary? Do you have any idea of activities to help develop your students' vocabulary skills in the classroom?

http://myheartbelongsinfirst.blogspot.com/2012/01/vocabulary.html
I found this link on Pinterest to an awesome blog written by a first grade teacher. She talks about her outlook on teaching vocabulary to her students and ways that help her teach in a fun way. I definitely recommend you take a look. I love the idea of making a word wall from each book the students read. You can post the title of the book then have students add words under the specific book they are working with...genius! I am loving all these fabulous classroom ideas I am finding on Pinterest! :)

Real-Life Reading Inquiry

For my Real-Life Reading Inquiry, I chose to explore the topic of whether a first grader would rather read chapter books with a long continuous story line or more illustrated short stories. I nanny a child in first grade, so I did all of my experimenting on him! We take turns reading to each other every night before bed time, and I wanted to see if his reading style would change between the two different types of books.

                Duncan has an extensive book collection with equal numbers of short stories and chapter books. He has a lot of the “A to Z Mystery” novel series, which he loves. I noticed by doing this assignment, however, that when he chose a chapter book from that series I was always the one that read. On nights when he wanted those books he would ask me to read to him. He enjoys reading the short stories to me and we discuss the illustrations most of the time, which he loves! I have no say in what books we read at night. That is totally up to him and this assignment opened my eyes to how a first grader feels about reading.

                Each night I asked Duncan to pick the book that he would like to read before bed. For a short period of time it was all about the mystery series chapter books. He wanted to know what was going to happen so each night I would read him a few chapters. After we finished a chapter book, he went back to picking the short illustrated stories because he knew that it was more than likely his turn to read to me. One that we read about once a week is “Today I Feel Silly” by Jamie Lee Curtis. Duncan absolutely loves reading this book aloud to me. He changes his emotion with each feeling the little girl is having from page to page. There are many other short stories that have become the “usual” with him as well and his reading skills when reading those are excellent. On the other hand however, when Duncan chose to read a chapter book to me, I could see him struggle a little bit more. In my opinion, this was because of the number of words on each page as well as the word sizing and lack of page breaks and illustrations.

                In saying all of that, I was not at all surprised that he chose the shorter stories when he wanted to read aloud to me, but the longer chapter books when he wanted me to read to him. I think the fact that the short stories were more colorful and obviously had more pictures than the chapter books, made his interest level of reading rise. Most of the short story books that Duncan has are fun, silly stories that contain tongue twisters or funny story lines. I think that they are great for him to read because they are fun. It is not a chore to read those and he genuinely enjoys reading them.

                One night I had Duncan read the chapter book to me and it was a struggle. He did not want to read that book, he told me that he “wanted to read a book with more pictures and big words”.  I noticed that his genuine interest in reading went down when I had him read a chapter to me. Yes, he still engaged in the reading and was interested in the story line and what was going to happen next, but that spark wasn’t there anymore. I wasn’t very surprised by this because I can remember my mom telling me that I loved to read short stories aloud to her, but when it came to the chapter books she and my dad were the ones to read those.

                In conclusion I found that the first grader I nanny would rather read short more illustrated stories instead of chapter books. I also found that his style of reading was more fluent and he had a more positive attitude about reading with the short stories. He expressed his emotions so much more when he was into the book and I saw those emotions when he read short stories. I was not shocked by this outcome, I kind of figured that Duncan would gravitate more to the short stories. However, I believe that he should be reading more chapter books than short stories at this point. His reading level is quite high and I think that he may need to be challenged a little more. I noticed that most of his readings from school are short stories so I think that it where this stems from.

                In my future classroom I want to incorporate more activities involving chapter books so that my students can learn to like those types of books just as much as they like short illustrated story books. I think it is important to have a mix of these types of books at an early age so that they do enjoy reading the chapter books as well. I think that so many fun lessons can be taught using chapter books and even though there are not as many fun colors or pictures in them, as a teacher you can make up for that in a number of ways. I was so happy that I decided to explore this topic and it was very eye opening to me. I hope to continue to see Duncan’s interest in longer books to grow, and I hope to see him gradually shift to choosing to read chapter books aloud to me! I will definitely be able to take what I have learned to my future classroom with me.

               

November 4th Blog Post

Building off of last weeks blog, I will discuss how important reading comprehension is. Gill stated

that many teachers find comprehension a mystery and often focus more on understanding rather than comprehending. Students reported that they comprehend poorly when the text was assigned by teachers, when they knew little about the topic, or when the text was dense with few paragraph breaks or illustrations.

The same readers reported that they were able to comprehend well when they had interest in the topic, when there was a purpose to read, and when they weren't distracted by worries, chores, or noise. All of these things are things that teachers should jeep in mind when planning to teach reading comprehension. It is so important that students are enjoying the text they are reading. If they have no interest or if they are being "forced" to read it, then they will more than likely just skim the book instead of taking the time to really comprehend the words and concepts of each page.

What are some ways that your teachers allowed choice when it came to reading? Were you allowed to pick out books that you wanted to read? Did this help your reading comprehension?

October 28th Blog Post

I learned a lot from this weeks readings on comprehension. Pardo stated that every teacher should

know that comprehension is a transaction between the reader and the text and from this transaction meaning emerges. I could not agree more. If a student is not understanding what the text is saying, then they are unable to form meaning. As a teacher you must make sure that your students are really grasping and understanding what they are reading, and what they text is trying to say to them. In my opinion, reading is much more enjoyable if you are able to comprehend what you are reading and if you are able to make sense of the text. That way you will be able to relate to what you are reading, which makes the act of reading more fun!

As a teacher you have to allow students to ask questions about the text that they are reading, especially if it is new material for me. You should encourage your students to make connections to the text, to visualize, to make inferences about characters, to wonder, and to recognize text features. I know when I was in school my teachers always encouraged questions and always made me focus on the things listed above. When you give students the task of visualizing or making connections it is much easier for them to comprehend the text that they are reading. In what ways did your teachers teach you reading comprehension? What are some activities that were implemented in your classroom to help you better understand what you were reading?

Below is the link to a cute video on reading comprehension that I found on YouTube. It is from the students point of view, so I think it would be great to show to my students in my classroom. They come up with a catchy song that they sing to help them remember what questions to ask when trying to understand the text a little better. Take a look!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5Xw9yoYCRY

October 21st Blog Post

Reading fluency is something that many people tend to have their own definition for. There are three

important dimensions of reading fluency. These include: accuracy in reading, automatic processing, and prosodic reading. These three dimensions require students to be able to sound it out, use little mental effort, and put the text into syntactically and semantically appropriate units. Teachers can access their students reading fluency through many different ways. One of these ways for example, would be to calculate the percentage of words the student can accurately decode on grade level material. A way that teachers can calculate the students reading rate is by having them read on material for their particular grade level for 60 seconds.

 

Assisted reading and repeated reading are two ways which help improve reading fluency. If you use these two activities along with coaching in the classroom, you will see great results in students fluency levels. Some teachers and parents tend to make the mistake of confusing being fluent with being fast. A student might be able to read quickly, but might have no comprehensions of what they have just read.

What are some ways in which you will be sure to promote reading fluency in your classroom?

I found this really cute YouTube video where the teacher implements "Readers Theatre" to help encourage and prove to his 2nd graders that reading is fun! I know at a young age when my teachers offered a chance to read aloud in a fun, interacting with the class kind of way, I was all about it. It really made me want to read and want to keep reading at home so that I could improve and impress my classmates and teachers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L5q0Y8hukU

October 7th Blog Post

Making words is a fun way to help young students with decoding, spelling phonetically, and

phonemic awareness. It has been found that there is a relationship between spelling ability and the ability to identify words in a reading, which is why "Making Words" is such a helpful method of teaching. Not only is this a simple activity, but it is also rather short and it is recommended that it be done for no longer than fifteen minutes. Children will make between 12 and 15 words and will begin with two words until they gradually advance to larger words. An example is the word spider. By using a "pocket chart" with the letters: e, p, i, s, d, r are presented to each child. The teacher may start out with the word "Ed" then go to "Red". Many students would then change the uppercase E to lowercase and the teacher can ask them why they did that.

Making words is something that I wish my teachers would have focused on more when I was in elementary school. Yes, my teachers spent time teaching us spelling words and things of that sort; but we never spent much time with "pocket charts" in the class. I think that it would have been so beneficial to me, and I think it will definitely benefit the students in my future classroom.

Did your teachers focus a lot on word making when you were younger?
Do you think you will use making words in your classroom?

I stumbled upon this blog while browsing Pinterest over the weekend. It is written by a first grade teacher, DeAnne and she posts some great things about teaching her class and dealing with certain aspects of the classroom as well as the curriculum. She also posts tons of free class handouts! I highly encourage you to go take a look!
http://firstgradeandfabulous.blogspot.com/2013/07/patience-faith-trust.html

September 30th Blog Post

Thinking back to my early years in pre-school and elementary school, I can remember my parents

and teachers reminding me to "sound it out". In this article it states that one of the main ways children learn how to read and develop their reading system is through powerful interactions with their teachers. A way that many successful teachers teach their students to read is through "coaching". Coaching word recognition is when a teacher creates cues to prompt the reader to think on the edge of their knowledge while they attempt to familiarize themselves with unfamiliar words.

In the case study that was conducted, it said that teachers can give students two types of cues: general and focused. General cues prompt thought while focused cues prompt the child to a specific action. I really like the support the students are given through the cues because I feel like the saying :sounds it out" can cause great anxiety for some students. I though it was great when the teacher asked students to use the pictures to help them touch certain letters and say aloud the sounds. One suggestion that I enjoyed was involving other children. For example, while a child may be trying to sound out a work they are unfamiliar with, the teacher can ask the class as a whole what they think that the word may be.

What helped you as a young child trying to learn words that were unfamiliar to you?
How do you plan to use "coaching" in your future classroom?

The link below is to an awesome site that I found on Pinterest. It is entitled "Raising a Reader" and it gives some wonderful examples on how to help children learn to read, and how to help children love to read. I encourage you all to go take a look!
http://www.motherhoodonadime.com/kids/raising-a-reader-seven-tips-to-help-your-child-learn-to-read/

September 23rd Post

This reading has been my favorite thus far. It was so helpful and it introduced me to new, fun ways towant to read and they would want to write if teachers provide strong development of children's literacy in an exciting, attention grabbing way.

encourage young children as writers as well as writers. If schools nationwide took these tactics into consideration, I believe that young students' reading and writing development would look much different, in a better way, than it does today. Students would

I enjoyed reading about the different strategies explaining how to boost children's confidence and curiosity with reading. It was so fascinating how much it helped students to learn to read when they were taught to reference back to the words that they are already familiar with. The idea of putting students' pictures and name by the corresponding letters of the alphabet was FABULOUS! I will definitely be using this idea in my future classroom.

Below is a cute YouTube video. It is fun, upbeat, reading rap for young children. I think it would be a great idea to play it for your class before you go into a lesson about the alphabet or before a reading activity. After they watch it they will be ready and motivated to learn. Go take a look!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi-nn1uVN1Y

September 16th Blog Post

The way in which your literacy foundation is created can predict so much about your future in

literacy. Through these two readings I was fascinated with what all creates your literacy foundation. In the "Jones Family Culture of Literacy", it was really neat how they incorporated literacy in all that they did. From financial aspects to religious aspects, the most important role of literacy in each of there was cherished and made aware to each family member. When reading this article I began to think of students that I someday may have in my classroom that would not be so fortunate to have this strong literacy foundation from home. I hope that I can help each student form a strong passion for literacy even if they are not being taught the importance of it at home. In what ways did you home environment influence you literacy foundation?

The link posted below is an awesome site that I found while browsing Pinterest. It is entitled "How to Create a Reader" and it has a lost of helpful things that can help children become better readers. These ideas are so fun. There are some things on here that I have never thought of...but they are seriously some of the BEST ideas! I highly encourage you all to take a look at it.

http://itsallkidsplay.ca/how-to-create-a-reader/

September 9th Blog Post

Through this weeks reading I have gained a better understanding of what is truly important when it comes to reading. When I think back to my elementary school days, I can remember sitting on my own colored "carpet square" while my teacher read aloud to the class. Studies mentioned in this weeks reading pointed out some interesting (and definitely helpful for future reference) things that make a classroom successful. The recurring action of teachers reading aloud to their students was seen in each effective classroom. The teacher's reading had a large affect of the students. I can remember the way my teachers used to read to me and the way that they talked and held the book so that we could see the pictures. They knew how to be effective with their reading just as these teachers from the reading. You have to know how to spark the children's interests and how to keep them engaged while you are reading, which can sometimes be tough especially if you are working with younger students. Various forms of literature are necessary if these effective, successful classrooms. Whether that be newspaper articles, magazines, picture books, chapter books, or series...the variety helps to keep students interested and engaged. They are getting to see an assortment of literature, therefore they are not getting bored. The question I want to end with this week is how do you assure that each of you students is benefiting from taking time to read aloud to your class? Every student doesn't listen the same, or get involved to the same extent, so I just wonder how to make sure that each and every one of the students are getting something out of this certain activity.

Below is a video that I found very interesting. I enjoy how this teacher is letting the students interact with one another using "thinking partners" so that everyone is engaged and so that everyone is on the same page with the particular book that she is reading to them. I highly suggest you watch this. It is very helpful, and great for future reference. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYoeVkf3s7E&list=PL8D0AACAAD5AFF839

Week One Blog Post

I love to read!