Guided Reading: The Nuts and Bolts of Running a Group August 25, 2011 Blain, Carroll, New Bloomfield Paraprofessionals

What is Guided Reading? Working with small groups of students With adult support, students are successful. Students are: reading material at their instructional levels 90%-94% accuracy practicing the skills and strategies learned in shared reading or whole group reading

What is the Purpose of Guided Reading? “The aim of guided reading is to develop independent readers who question, consider alternatives, and make informed choices as they seek meaning.” -Margaret Mooney

Why Does Guided Reading Work? Material at student’s instructional level Students have opportunity to practice skills and strategies Too easy-Do not need to use skills/strategies Too hard-Students get frustrated; comprehension breaks down Adult support Students make greater gains than they would on their own Small groups Allow for interaction between readers and adult

What is the Role of the Paraprofessionals? Working with a guided reading group Classroom teacher will form the groups, do the planning, pick the books, etc. Rotate group with teacher 2 weeks with one group and switch groups with teacher Training Today-Nuts and bolts of running a guided reading group Tomorrow-Analyzing running records (This will be overwhelming-Don’t Panic!) September-Administering running records Future-Throughout school year as needed

What Materials Do the Students Read? Instructional level Reading materials Multiple books within the week (K-1) Multiple books within week or chapter books (depends on needs of readers) (2-3) Cover multiple skills/strategies over the duration of a chapter book Chapter books and novels (4-5) Cover multiple skills/strategies over the duration of a chapter book or novel Mix of genres

What is the Lesson Format? Lesson format (refer to chart)* Warm read Sending books home at night Before reading Videos Amy-First Grade Linda-Fifth Grade During reading Techniques (K-1 vary depending on needs of students and text) Whisper reading-Each student reads in a whisper to him/herself; You listen in and provide assistance when needed Echo reading-You read, students repeat what you read Choral reading-All read together Shared reading-You read aloud and students follow along Paired reading-Students pair up; each reads aloud a portion and other student follows along Techniques (2-3/4-5) Whisper reading Videos Amy-First Grade Linda-Fifth Grade

What is the Lesson Format? (cont.) After reading Videos Amy-First Grade Linda-Fifth Grade * For fourth and fifth grades, this format is for struggling readers. Advanced and proficient readers can be in literature circles.

Decoding During Reading: Going beyond telling the student the word Small white board, marker and eraser are your best friends Decoding strategies Using sounds (Ex. shop /sh/ /o/ /p/) Showing familiar words/word families (Ex. that/cat, sat, mat) Showing parts of two known words (Ex. Tray/tree play) Chunking words (Ex. stinger/sting-er and blend) Using the sentence (skip the word, keep reading and use meaning of words in rest of sentence to figure out the skipped word) Using environmental print (using print around the room) Using prefixes, suffixes, root words (Ex. biology/bio-life, ology-study of) Asking questions: Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense?

Let’s See it in Action Word work clips Jennifer-Second Grade Kris-K