Guided reading groups like you have mentioned are a great
time to teach students specific literacy skills. There are many different ways
you can do this. Through explicit instruction, we are able to model our
thinking to students. Other strategies aside from think-alouds that can be explicitly
taught during these small-group sessions include: read-alouds, interactive
read-alouds, lifting text, guided discussion and rereading for deeper meaning (Harvey
& Goudvis, p.46) . Specific skills related to comprehension or decoding can
also be a focus of these types of guided reading groups. Since you are focusing
on foundational skills, you will have to choose which ones you are going to
focus on as the highlight of certain lessons you do.
When you go to plan for your guided reading groups, it will
be important to figure out how you are going to group students for instruction.
According to Harvey & Goudvis, “responsive teaching is intentional,
flexible, and adaptive”. Small group instruction is one way to differentiate
instruction because you can “plan instruction to support students with varying
reading proficiencies, learning styles, and language backgrounds (p.36). Guided
reading groups are one way you can support this. According to Parsons (2008), “when
teachers implement differentiated and explicit instruction, they are able to
help each student develop the skills and strategies to improve his or her
reading proficiency, thereby helping students perform well on high-stakes
assessments” (p.631).
To teach foundational skills you may also want to balance
your small group instruction with whole group and individual instruction. When
coming up with tasks for students, in order for them to be intrinsically
motivated these tasks should include the following characteristics:
authenticity, collaboration, challenge, an end product, self-direct, and
sustained learning (Parsons, p.629). Keeping these characteristics in mind when
planning will help to implement high quality literacy instruction.
Response to Rosaria:
ReplyDeleteRhyming is something that my kindergarteners like to do, already, since it has already been introduced. It is an important skill for young readers to have to be able to help them decode words, and learn to read. According to Harvey and Goudvis, “Students who have background knowledge about a topic have a real advantage because they can connect the new information they encounter to what they already know” (p. 100). If students come with the background knowledge of rhyming, it can help them decode words, but they can also help other students learn how to rhyme, as well.
When we were learning rhyming in my classroom, I wrote this on a large piece of paper, and made it into almost an anchor chart. It was big enough for all of my students to read/sing along while they were all at the carpet.
The title was “Have You Ever?”
And the body consisted of
“Have you ever seen a _____ in a _____ ?
Have you ever seen a _____ in a _____?
No I never, never, never
No I never, never, never
No I’ve never seen a _____ in a ____!”
With this, we chose words that our students would know, along with words that were about three letters long so the students would only focus on the rhyming part of the word. For example, we used bug and rug, cat and bat, rat and mat, etc… This is to the tune of “if you’re happy and you know it”
In the Parsons article, it states that “researchers have demonstrated myriad benefits of students learning together, including increased self-esteem and improved attitudes toward school” (Slavin, 1995). Once students understand the basic concept of a rhyme, they could come up with their own words to put in the song that can keep them interested in the song, and motivate each other to sing along, as well.
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ReplyDeleteJessica -
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. We are grouping our students based on their reading level... We leveled them based on the "Read Well" program. All of our students placed in "level A" while three of our students placed one level above them, "unit 1". There are multiple units after you place out of level A to move past before being placed into the next "level".
I do believe in mixing groups though, so all students can benefit. We have moved students around in our classroom so during instruction while they are at their seat, we have two high acheving students, and two low acheiving students at every table.
In our reading groups, because my students were placed in level A, they will all be decodable words. We are focusing on learning the skills to decode these words, along with being able to point to the word they are decoding. The "pointing" skill is one that is required to know, not only by our class, but the school.
The majority of the instruction will be small group, because my mentor teacher, the reading specialist, the tier 1 teacher, and I will be able to see every student every day this way. There will be some whole group instruction, but I believe that right now it is only for directions that apply for the whole group.
Response to Chi Wan:
ReplyDeleteI would also be concerned about staying on track with such a short instruction time! I would suggest heavy modeling when it comes to working in pairs and sharing so that they understand the expectations for pairs once you get to that unit. Perhaps giving students sentence structures to follow when sharing with their partners will help them stick to the prompt. That is something my MT and I have been working on during our writing think-pair-sharetime; the students must ask follow-up questions and answer in complete sentences which we model for them every day.
Also, try to make the connections between what the students already know and what they are learning about. If students feel like they know something about the prompt they will be more engaged and motivated. You could take what you learned from their pre-assessments or from informal conversations to make the prompts more personal and meaningful to your students. I understand these programs that are put in place by the district come with scripted questions you have to ask but maybe add in a few of your own to customize it for your students. In Chapter 7 of Harvey & Goudvis, there are many examples of how to make those connections. For example, when reading “Are You My Mother?” you could include a question about their families to get students thinking and motivated.
After reading the Pincus article this week, I was reminded that although we need to follow the curriculum given to us but as the classroom teacher we need to provide our students’ with rich learning opportunities. Adding or modifying tasks so students see the point and are motivated and engaged will make even a short lesson go over well. Good luck with your planning!
Stephanie -
ReplyDeleteI agree, usually, rhyming is something that most kindergarten students have little trouble with because they have been exposed to it and can at least recognize the familiar sounds. However, after doing a pre-assessment with our students, my MT and I realized only a handful are able to notice the similar sounds. We are going to have to get down to the very basics before we can do those fun activities. Hopefully with exposure the students will pick up the skill and knowledge quickly and easily so not only can I do those fun songs and activities but also so my students have less of a hard time with decoding later on.
Jessica—
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of making a “desirable/undesirable behaviors in discussion” anchor chart. I think this would be a really good tool to have in your classroom that students can refer back to throughout the school year. I hope you incorporate lots of visuals in it so that readers of any level can access that information.
Personally, I do not think there is such thing as “too much” developing/ improving think alouds. I think it would be most appropriate when you are reading to the students so you can model how to do the think-aloud before you ask your students to do it (just as you have mentioned). I think it would also be best if you make it a routine during readers workshop or your reading time for your students to be practicing these skills so that it becomes habit.
As I am reading Chapter 7 in Harvey and Goudvis, I am thinking about how much this chapter can help your lesson! This chapter gives a lot of different ideas and methods of getting students to connect readings to background knowledge. It would be a really nice idea to have an anchor chart of the different text- tos there are so that students can have that visual when/if they need it.
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