Guiding Readers Ch. 3 - Guiding Emergent Readers

Ch. 3 in our Guiding Readers Book Study is all about the emergent reader.  To be truthfully honest, in fifth grade, we do not get a lot of emergent readers.  And by not a lot I mean none.  Now others might, but I have yet to receive one (which means all the wonderful teachers before me are doing an amazing job and I thank you for it).  I read the first page, which is three paragraphs and some bullets, and instantly thought, "WOW!  Look how far they have come by the time they get to me!"  In my mind I've always known where they start as readers, but seeing it all laid out like that and the activities really drove it home. 

I think one of my favorite parts of this chapter (and hopefully every other chapter) is that Lori Rog gives you Lesson Routines with different ideas of how to implement strategies and skills and Must-do activities for most of them also.  You have to look at all the Lesson Routines for emergent readers (* means that they have a must-do activity that accompanies it):

Working with Sounds

1. Picture Sorts*
2. Syllable Segmenting* 
3. Train Sounds*
4. The Sound Bus* (my favorite!)
5. More games for playing with sounds (4 total)

Working with Letters and Words

1. Alphabet Mats*
2. Letter Bags*
3. Name Games*
4. Letter-Sound Games

Working with Books

1. Show What You Know*
2. Parts of a Book*
3. Spaces around Words*
4. Print Matching*
5. Make Your Own Book*

Reading-Writing Connection

1. Shared Writing
2. Cut-Up Sentences
3. Writing with Pictures

LOOK AT HOW MANY THERE ARE!!!!  Remember, if you still don't have a copy of the book, you can read it online for free on the publisher's website :o)  You'll be able to see the description of every lesson routine above.  Now I won't post every lesson routine for every level of reader, but you just had to see what an amazing resource this book is already and it's only chapter 3!


The "light bulb" moments and key points for me:

• Certain words are pictographs in the reader's mind.  Just because they recognize words in one context does not mean they will recognize it in another (the example they gave was the word Crest on the toothpaste tube).
• Not necessarily talking about connections based on the cover because their thoughts won't relate to what the book is about and the conversation can go off topic.  Like a book with a sunfower on the cover and the title was  A Sun, A Flower.  Kids can go in all different directions but the book is about compound words!
• There needs to be A LOT of repetition!
• Guiding sequence for emergent readers only lasts about two days.  The texts usually only need that much time and you want to expose them to as many books as possible.
• Introdcing letter-sound correspondence is most effective in K-1 because they're the only age group with a larger speaking than writing vocabulary.  In K-1 when a student sounds out a word, they will most likely recognize it, but when an intermediate student sounds out a word, it is usually unfamiliar and they won't know what it means.
• Loved how she called the copyright the book's "birthday"

I would have absolutely LOVED to know some of these lesson routines when I was a Reading Assisstant! They would have helped me out tremendously. I do not know much about emergent readers as I have always taught intermediate but frankly the thought terrifies me, lol.  These teachers are really building a foundation where, for a lot of kids, there was nothing before.  This chapter was very helpful in my understanding and I can't wait to delve into the rest of the chapters as the reading process continues!

If you check out the Guided Reading link at the beginning of this post, you will find that our book study host Beth has compiled some amazing resources from other blog experts on guided reading.  Don't forget to also check out this chapter's host Jennifer from Rowdy in First and give her some love!

Sabra