In the gradual release of responsibility model guided reading comes right after shared reading and right before independent reading - meaning that the direct teaching of reading skills and strategies should occur largely away from the guided reading table, so that this time can be used for actually connecting them while reading text.
The strategies and reading behaviors that students practice at the guided reading table should not be new to them. They should be those that have already been taught, modeled, and practiced together during read-aloud and shared reading.
The teacher's primary role in guided reading is not to teach, but to observe in order to determine what they need to revisit with their read aloud (modeled) and shared (interactive) reading lessons.
Remember... guided reading is the point in the release of responsibility right before independence. Scaffolding students toward independence in guided reading is not about the teacher knowing how to hold the reader up, but rather it is about knowing how to let the reader go.
Guided reading should be viewed as a session rather than a lesson. Well-thought-out text selection facilitates what happens during guided reading, thus making it more like a session than a lesson.
Guided reading sessions should be where students use the bulk of their time practicing what they've already learned. A student's main undertaking should be reading the text mostly by themselves. The teacher may need to occasionally help students focus, problem-solve, connect and/or discover, but these moments should only be "brief detours" in the session.
There is much more to say and think about in regards to how, we as teachers, turn our guided reading lessons into guided reading sessions. Over the next several weeks we will dig deeper into this idea.
So... I leave you with this question... What are you doing with students at the guided reading table? Are you using all of the time to teach skills, work on new vocabulary, or introduce the book? or are you giving your students time to practice all of those things you've already modeled for and taught them, so that they are ready for independence?
Teachers make an extraordinary number of decisions each day. There is research that states teachers makes more minute-by-minute decisions than brain surgeons.
The conservative estimate from the data collected has teachers making approximately 130 decisions per hour during a six-hour school day. This data includes only those decisions made within the classroom. This is oftentimes disheartening and intimidating for new teachers. (from the post Keeping New Teachers from Dropping Out)
So... what can we do to help make all of this in-the-moment decision making easier?
Research on teacher decision making (Griffith & Lacina, 2017) tells us that all of these minute-by-minute decisions can be made easier through intentional planning decisions. The more thought teachers put in the planning of reading instruction, the more effortlessly they can predict what the reader will do, the challenges he will face, and where he will apply the strategies he's been taught.
In basic terms, planning decisions act as a dress rehearsal for what might happen during a guided reading lesson.
During the planning process, teachers make decisions related to the following categories:
(1) grouping
(2) text selection
(3) lesson focus and goals
(4) strategies to teach
(5) supports to provide
(5) comprehension needs
(6) next steps
Some decisions are easier to make than others. For example: Which students are similar in their reading development? Which students are reading the same level of text or have the same reading needs? or How many guided reading groups should I form?
Others require more thought and planning. For example: How can I teach for independence? What strategies would best help this group decode words, understand the text, and/or read with more expression and fluency?
There are three big questions you need to answer when making planning decisions for guided reading. Within those overarching questions are a multitude of smaller ones.
(1) What do the readers in this group do well? Which reading strategies are they using effectively and efficiently and which ones do they need to learn next or practice more?
(2) What makes the text I chose easy for them to read and what will make it challenging for them?
(3) What strategy focus and goals do I have for these readers?
A few helpful resources that I've used are:
The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading offers step by step lesson plan templates that help you plan for all of the decisions you need to make before, during, and after the lesson. The book also gives you access to videos, so that you can see each step in action. The best part of this book is that it is not scripted. It is a template and plan that allow for responsive teaching.
Teacher as Decision Maker: A Framework to Guide Teaching Decisions in Reading (2017). Robbin Griffith and Jan Lacina. The Reading Teacher, 71(4).
This article provides an easy-to-follow table with specific decisions that you need to think about, plan for, and make when preparing for guided reading instruction.
The more time you spend planning for and thinking about the decisions you will have to make during a guided reading lesson, the better you will be at all of the in-the-moment decisions that arise while at the table.
A direct connection between phonics instruction and what students read is essential. A common instructional pitfall is following up a phonics skills lesson with at text that does not require the reader to apply any of the skills he or she has been working on.
This type of follow-up instruction is like teaching a child how to play chords on a guitar and giving him a piano to practice on.
In an early research study, Juel & Roper-Scheinder (1985) concluded "These types of words which appear in beginning reading texts may well exert a more powerful influence in shaping children's word identification strategies than the method of reading instruction."
What this means is we can teach an award winning phonics lesson, but if we fail to follow it up with a decodable text that allows students to practice the skills they've learned, then our efforts may be in vain.
In early 2000 Wiley Blevins (2006) conducted a study to examine the effectiveness of decodable text in promoting word identification, phonics, and spelling abilities. The study determined that children who use decodable controlled text in their early reading instruction get off to a stronger start in their reading development.
Many types of books exist for instruction. Each type of book has a purpose and place in reading instruction. The types of text most frequently encountered in early grade classrooms are:
Decodable text - The majority of the words can be sounded out based on the sound-spelling relationships students have learned. The book may contain a few sight words that have been taught. This type of text should be used when following up a phonics skills lesson. This type of book is typically used during guided reading.
Predictable, patterned text - This type of book has a repeated pattern that students quickly pick up while reading. The stories are often about familiar concepts, there is a close match between the pictures and words, and the text might contain elements of rhyme and alliteration. This type of book should be used to practice high frequency words. It is typically used during shared reading.
Trade books - These books are usually written by well-known authors and illustrated by popular artists. They come in a wide range of genre and formats. These stories have no connection to the phonics or sight word skills students are learning. This type of book is used to build vocabulary, give children a sense of story, and teach comprehension strategies. It is typically used during whole group read aloud.
The government document Becoming a Nation of Readers (1985) set a criteria for controlled, decodable text. The following criteria should be considered when choosing decodable texts:
Comprehensible - The vocabulary must be understandable and the stories should make sense.
Instructive - The majority of the words in the text must be decodable. There must be a strong connection between phonics skill instruction and the text being read.
Engaging - Students should want to read it again and again.
So... why is this important?
Over time, if students aren't given opportunities to use their phonics skills, they will undervalue their knowledge of sound-spelling relationships and over-rely on context and pictures. Research tells us that most poor readers over rely on these types of clues.
If we want to teach our students to use all three cueing systems effectively, then we must ensure they are getting quality practice applying all three while reading connected text.
Lately, I've been thinking about the ways we scaffold for students during guided reading lessons. Over the weekend I attended the TCTELA conference in Galveston and had the privilege of listening to Jan Burkins present a session (author of Reading Wellness and Who's Doing the Work?). A few ideas that Jan shared coupled with what I've observed in district classrooms got me thinking more deeply about the way we introduce a book at the beginning of a guided reading lesson.
I visit classrooms throughout my district every Thursday and week after week I see teachers using up large portions of their guided reading time on book introductions and picture walks.
Your introduction should be "brief and lean" (Fountas & Pinnell, 2006). There is no need to spend time talking about what students already know. An effective introduction prepares readers for the language they will come across in the book while giving them a sense of the plot or theme of the story (Fisher, Frey, & Hattie, 2017). In a sense, you are providing them with a type of "road map" to the text (Fountas & Pinnell, 2017).
The introduction is not meant to take problem solving away from the reader. An effective introduction should leave work to be done. You want to provide only enough support to enable students to take on a more complex text than they can read on their own. By providing them opportunities to engage in problem solving in the text, they are building their reading processing powers (Fountas & Pinnell, 2006, 2017).
When using books with illustrations, the introduction oftentimes is a picture walk. Similar to a text introduction, the intent of a picture walk is not to tell students everything that will happen in the story. Instead it should prepare them for the language they will come across in the book while giving them a sense of the plot or theme of the story. Also, it is not a pop quiz. Avoid using the introduction to belabor students with questions about the book and its illustrations (Fisher, Frey, & Hattie, 2017).
In their book, Who's Doing the Work?, Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris provide an alternative idea to planning for an elaborate introduction. They suggest letting students decide which strategies to try in order to familiarize themselves with the text. In their next generation version of guided reading they encourage teachers to do less (tell) and facilitate more. Prompts are mostly general and teaching points are reflective rather than directive.
The following is an example of an introduction from the book, Who's Doing the Work?: TEACHER DOING THE WORK
"This book is about a dog and a cat who go on an adventure in a big city."
TEACHER FACILITATING THE WORK
"How will you figure out what this books is about?" or "What should we do first to get started in this book?"
When we give students all the information they need and always prompt them by telling them what strategy to use and/or exactly what to do, then we are robbing them of the ability to problem solve as a reader. This is not to say that you should never give a student information or help them out. Create anchor charts with students during read-alouds and shared reading that will help jump start their thinking during guided reading.
So... as you get ready for your next guided reading lesson consider how much time you are spending on the introduction and how much information you are giving your students. Also, ask yourself "Am I asking questions that tell my students what to do or am I prompting them to think about the text and make a decision on their own?"
I recently came across a great book on running records, so this post is for all of you are new to running records, who only administer them 2-3 times a year, and/or those who are struggling with some aspect of them.
I love this book on running records for several reasons:
1) It is short. It only has 32 pages.
2) It is easy to understand. It really simplifies the process.
3) It is chunked into easy to use chapters and sections
4) It provides concrete examples and templates.
I will summarize a few of the most important points in this post, but I highly recommend the book as a resource to refer back to for scoring and analyzing the running records you administer.
Why Use a Running Record
Some teachers believe children's progress in learning to read is best measured by testing the number of letters, or sounds, or words they know. If a Running Record is taken in a systematic way it will provide evidence of how well a child is directing his knowledge of letters, sounds, and words to understanding the messages in the text. So... if you teach kindergarten and think a running record can't help you, you may want to think again about it.
Running Records are taken to guide teaching, to assess text difficulty, and to capture progress over time. Running Records are an important part of assessing a child's text reading. They show much more than whether a child read a word right or wrong.
Taking a Running Record
Teachers who practice with a wide variety of children and are at ease with administering Running Records will get the most informative records and will make the fairest interpretations of the data. Some teachers only administer running records 2-3 times a year or not at all. Correctly administering a Running Record will show everything other reading inventories show as well as what the reader already knows, what the reader attended to, and what the reader overlooked.
Teachers should practice administering a Running Record until it is easy.
At first, simply record easy-to-notice behaviors.
In the beginning, taking a Running Record will require your whole attention without interruptions. We all know that the things we practice are the things we get better at. So... practice!!In the beginning, set yourself up for success by freeing yourself of interruptions, carefully choosing the students you assess, and recording only the easy-to-notice behaviors. With practice and time you will become more skilled in record taking and able to focus despite the child's level, the text chosen, or the interruptions around the room.
Begin by practicing on a range of average readers. Avoid practicing on higher or lower readers until you become more skilled at administration. Good readers go to fast and struggling readers produce extremely complex records. Choose the students you start with wisely. Then practice with them!
Any texts can be used for administering Running Records. You don't have to do a Running Record only on pieces you have a pre-printed text for. Start with a familiar text that the child has read once or twice. An easy level book also makes it easy for teachers to record as they practice their recording techniques.
Teachers may also want to use a more challenging text to see if a child can read at a higher level than they anticipated. If the challenge is too great, the record will not show where the reading process comes together, but rather where it falls apart. Many teachers think that running records should always be administered using a "cold read," but when getting started, a familiar read will make it easier for you to record the child's reading behaviors.
When used in relation to Running Records the terms easy, instructional, and hard do not describe the characteristics of the text itself. They describe how the child read the text. They do not address how another child will read the same text.
Taking Running Records at three levels of text difficulty is a more reliable way to establish the instructional level of text that should be used with the student.
- easy text (95-100% correct)
- an instructional text (90-94% correct)
- hard text (80-89% correct) This type of careful approach allows the teacher to use the record to make important educational decisions such as moving children to different groups, observing children with particular difficulties, selecting children for special supplementary assistance, etc.
Printed Text
Oftentimes, a printed text does not allow a teacher to record all of a child's reading behaviors. A Running Record needs to capture all of the behaviors that will help a teacher determine what a child is doing. A Running Record is not just about right or wrong words. When reading a Running Record, a teacher should be able to "hear the reading again" when reviewing the record. Limiting yourself to a few select pre-printed texts will provide less usable information. Pre-printed text encourages teachers to attend only to right and wrong responses, and to ignore how the child is arriving at their decisions. This was an "ah-ha" for me. I never really thought about the benefit of using a blank sheet of paper for a running record before I read this book.
Tape recording is discouraged because it does not record visual information such as how the child moved, seemed puzzled, peered at the print or looked across the room or at the ceiling.
Assessment and Comprehension
Comprehension is dependent upon the difficulty of the text. Assessing comprehension on a text that is too easy or too hard does not make a lot of sense. The answers to comprehension questions depend more upon the difficulty of the question posed rather than on the child's reading. So true!! Are we asking the right questions??
Different teachers ask different questions, thus weakening the assessment. This makes complete sense and may be why Running Records you are taking on your own students do not seem to match exactly with a teammate's Records.
Try having a conversation with the child about the story after you take the running record. A good conversation will add to the teacher's understanding of the reader.
This Guided Reading video series takes place in a fifth grade classroom, but can easily be adapted to younger grades. It is a 5 part series. This video came from The Teaching Channel, so it is higher quality and a good model to watch. The management video is my favorite one.
These videos are nice examples of administering and analyzing Running Records
This video is almost 20 minutes long. It is most helpful if you break it into chunks and actually analyze the record for youself as she works through it.
The Running Records book is very helpful when watching the anaylsis video. The section on how to record what you see and how to score errors makes a great "cheat sheet" when scoring.
Something to think about...
- How skilled are you at administering a Running Record? Do you practice?
- Do you only use pre-printed Running Record sheets? If so, practice scoring without the text.
- Do you only pay attention to right and wrong words read by the student? Are you using the Running Record to learn all that you can about a child's reading behaviors?
- Are you using standard procedures and taking and scoring records properly? If you want to be able to compare Running Records to each other and over time then you need to be using a common standard for taking records.
