I prefer to let each child read at his or her pace, aloud, so that I can hear them and correct errors, or assist as they work through unknown or difficult words. I know there are various philosophies of how best to conduct a guided reading group, but here are my thoughts as to why doing it this way yields the best results.
1. Every child is reading the entire time. There's no "follow along" as someone else reads. Each child is responsible for decoding every single word in the text. Therefore, they spend a longer amount of time actually reading, which, as we know, is the best way for them to grow as readers.
2. There's not as much "listen and repeat." When student are choral reading or reading as a group, they tend to echo the person next to them. If the person next to them is a faster reader, they're going to be way ahead and this gives each reader a lesser chance of echo reading.
3. Each child can read at his or her own pace. There's no waiting around for someone who isn't as quick or trying to rush to keep up and making a ton of errors. Each student can read as quickly or as slowly as s/he needs to.
4. Students who get finished can move on. There are several ways you can handle this. If a child gets finished, I usually have them start over and work on fluency. However, you could let them move on to comprehension either by asking them some questions quietly or having the questions already written down and letting them answer in a journal. Alternatively, you could just have a standard journal assignment for your guided reading groups so that they know when they are finished, they have to write about whatever the topic is that you generally assign. Either way, they haven't wasted a lot of time waiting on someone else to get finished.
5. I can still hear everyone and work with each student. When a child is reading in my group and they need help, they put their hand forward so that I know they need my attention. Otherwise, I am taking turns listening to each student and helping those who need help. If I get a single that a child needs my assistance I can help them and then allow them to continue. At first, some students need reminders as to why it is important to single for help when they are unsure of a word. Sometimes they just want to skip over the word and pretend they read it. I can usually catch this and then we talk about why they shouldn't do that. I don't expect to be able to help every student decode every word but when a child needs help, they have to feel comfortable asking me for it.
I have observed some amazing teachers who do not run their groups the same way that I do and I think that's perfectly fine. One great teacher I know has the students read silently until she taps them and then they read aloud for a page or two while she listens. The other students can still signal for help but it's much quieter. I think variations on this are great and they can still be very helpful in growing our students as readers. What I think we need to reconsider are Round Robin reading groups, Choral Reading, and Popcorn Reading. Research shows that students do not learn reading skills as quickly in these situations so if we know better, we should do better.
If you work for CISD and you would like some pointers on your guided reading groups, please invite me in. I'd love to help! If you work elsewhere, please feel free to email me any questions. My reading groups have great results because of the strategies I've learned to employee over the years but I could not have developed them if it hadn't been for the great models, coaches, and administrators that worked with me to make the changes I needed to in order to help my students become more successful.
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| Guided Reading books from one of our many kits |
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