Guiding Readers Ch. 6 - Guiding Fluent Readers

This is it!  It's officially my turn to host a chapter for our book study with Beth from Thinking of Teaching!  This is my first time hosting and I'm so excited I get to talk to you about this chapter because this is what goes on in my classroom.  All the other chapters were enlightening (this one was too) but this is what I can really take back to my classroom next year and use with the majority of my kiddos.  Fair warning, this is a crazy long post so make sure you've got yourself a snack.

Lori Rog describes fluent readers as "being in a stage that will last for the rest of their lives."  I had never thought about it that way but it's true!  Now you are just guiding them through and not helping them get to another stage of reading but just a more sophisticated text.  One of the main challenges for the readers and teachers at this level is the "fourth-grade reading slump."  For some reason, after third grade many students lose interest in reading.  I thought it was because they had to focus so much on writing (at least in Florida) since they get tested earlier on in the year for writing, that they lose that wave they've been riding.  I didn't realize it was an actual thing though but apparently this phenomenon does exists and no one know why it happens!  Add on to that that boys score lower than girls in literacy assessments and are less likely to read by choice and you've got yourself a challenge my friend.

I always did like a challenge!  I am very lucky in that my interning teacher my senior year taught me to always start the year off with a read aloud that is a series, that way when you snag the kids that are less enthused about reading and they want to continue the story, they can!  There is nothing worse than when a kid gets excited about reading and can't find another book they like as well.  I have had a much success with this, especially with the boys.  The two books I have found they most enjoy are: The 39 Clues: Maze of Bones and The Lightning Thief (try them, you won't be sorry).  I also do the 40 Book Challenge with my kids (from the Book Whisperer) and they really enjoy being able to pick their own book choices and learning about the different genres.  Okay, I'm getting off topic but I had so many text-to-self connections in this chapter and I want to share them all!

You definitely still want to conduct small-group instruction for readers at or beyond grade level for multiple reasons.  You can help them grow in their developmental stage and grow into more sophisticated text and metacognative thinking.  At this stage though, the guided reading groups can be larger (8-10 students), can meet less frequently, and can blend with literature circles or reader's workshop (that's what I planned to do, so glad she confirmed it!). 

When you are matching the reader to a text, it is more difficult now because it depends on the student's background knowledge, vocabulary, interest, and independence.  You'll also find figurative language and descriptive prose that students will take literally when they shouldn't.  The concepts are more abstract and require the reader to read between the lines to interpret them.

Features of the Guided Reading Lesson for Fluent Readers
Before Reading (every student will need a Reader's Toolkit and clipboard for writing)

• Book introduction
• Focus on background knowledge

During Reading (make them aware of how their thinking evolves & changes as they read)

• Silent reading of short sections of text
• Sticky notes to track thinking and record strategies

After Reading

• Plenty of discussion of the text & the reading process
• Oral-reading fluency practice built purposefully into the lesson
• Revisiting text for critical reading, higher-level thinking
• Examining writer's craft and literary elements
• Writing in response to reading

As you can tell, the students at this point are getting the reading process, it's the thinking about what they read that is the main focus here.  The first reading, as before, is meant to get the gist of the passage.  The subsequent readings are for greater fluency, deeper thinking, and more-sophisticated responses.  They begin focusing on critical reading, analyzing author's purpose, bias, point of view, and the writer's craft.  Make sure you have some guiding questions or prompts but in general the students should be generating natural and authentic conversation about the text.

Okay, on to some Lesson Routines! 

• Coding Connections - Text to Self (T-S), Text to Text (T-T), and Text to World (T-W)
• 3-H Questions - Types of Questions = Hand, Head, and Heart

This reminded me a lot of what I use in my classroom!  Except we say:

Green Light ? = GO back and find the answer in the text

Yellow Light ? = SLOW DOWN and search!  You need to look in more than one place to get your answer.

Red Light ? = STOP and think.  You will need to use your brain and the clues the author gave you to figure out the answer.  It's not spelled out in your text.

As we learn/review skills we place them next to the light/category they fall under.  Like "Who, What, When, Where" is all Green light questions, but "Another Title" would be red light.  I like going over the types of questions because once we taught this, I never again had a student come up and tell me, "I can't find the answer!"

• Asking Questions - come up with example questions that would be considered head questions, heart questions, and hand questions.
• The Inference Equation - What you read + What you know = What you infer
• Clicks and Clunks - When the text flows and you "get it" it clicks.  When you come to a part that you don't understand or doesn't make sense, it's a clunk.  Show examples of how you might hit a clunk while reading and the strategies you use to make it click!
• Rainbow Strategy Spots - use different color sticky notes for different strategies (example: wonder = yellow, connection = pink, etc.)
• Word Solving Strategies - "The brain is not a rule-follower, but a pattern finder."  Use the patterns you know from other words to solve unfamiliar words.  A color-coded list of anchor words representing the most common prefixes and suffixes can be found here (it was just a document off of google, not sure who the creator is but if anyone knows please let tell me and I will give them credit): Nifty Thrifty Fifty.
• Robot Reading and Opera Reading - using different voices to get out of that monotone robot voice.  Have students use an opera voice when they read the next time.  Some of my student's favorites are: Arnold, Texas Twang ;), Darth Vader, squirrel, and Jamaican. They came up with those on their own too! LOL
• Active Bookmarks - Strategy based bookmark that requires the reader to reflect on a different action or reading process.  I recreated these from Lori's book!

• Comprehension Shuffle - a great tool to use for ANY grade!  After reading a section of the text have students select a card at random and answer the comprehension skill on that card.  You can choose which skills to give them based on what your focus it.  Lower grades might only use 4-5 while upper grades will use more.  Directions and all materials you will need are included as well!  Click here to get your copy from the Positive Engagement Project.

The Reading-Writing Connection

I found it very interesting, and spot on, when it said teachers walk a fine line between setting standards for correctness and encouraging risk-taking and experimentation in their writing.  If you want students to write longer stories with more umph to their writing, you need to expect missing letters, punctuation, misspelling, etc.  Agreed!  Let them get "a little messy" and once they've got their idea down, then go back and perfect it.  Don't let that great idea slip away just because of perfectionism the first time.  Let me tell you, my perfectionism requires me to change my product at least 3-5 times before I'm happy with it and I def had some mini-me's in class last year, lol.  And if it is something that they put a lot of heart and effort into, they will also want to make it perfect... eventually.

I loved the lesson routines for this and can't wait to try them!  Like "Notice It! Name It! Try It! and "Gift of a Word."  I'm really excited to incorporate their Literature Response Journals into this reading-writing connection as well.  When they're just writing me a letter about how they feel about their book, they don't realize how many bases they are really covering.  They don't realize how much they are learning and growing!  After the second half of the year I will move from the journals into Kidblog :o)  I also think I'm going to try my hand at Classroom Journals.  I just heard about them and I am in love with the idea!  So I will be creating those shortly to share with y'all.  I'm going to include the Daily 5 (well really 3 - Read to Self, Word Work, and Writing Response) into our routine this year while I'm doing guided reading and after reading this chapter I really felt like a lot of these lesson routines can be included in that along with the must-do's  I'm very excited!

Okay, if you're still here after all of that, I commend you!  You're a trooper!  Make sure you grabbed all the freebies.  In case you missed it, there were about 4 throughout this post, lol.  So now I want to hear from you!  How are you incorporating the reading-writing connection?  Are you like me and pulling a little bit from everything you love or do you have a hard and fast method that you treasure?  Are you as excited as me?!?!  Thanks again for joining me today, it was my first time hosting and I really enjoyed it and appreciate your feedback/love :o)

Sabra

Guiding Readers Ch. 4 & 5

I am linking up with Beth from Thinking of Teaching again for our Guiding Readers Book Study.  I know, I know!  I'm a smidgen late with the chapter 4 review but I've been battling a cold and I'm just starting to feel like myself again.  So today you get a two-for-one!

Chapter 4 - Guiding Early Readers

I was really impressed to see that early readers are expected to process most of the print on their own and that you don't need to read the text aloud for them.  That to me is a huge leap from the emergent readers!  The three main cueing systems are semantic (meaning), syntactic (language structure), and phonetic (letter-sound correspondence).  Also, we are starting to monitor comprehension through their self-monitoring.  It's important to give a lot of praise for this and point out what people did correctly!  It shows the other students in the group that there are different ways to self-monitor and self-correct. 

Light bulb moments:

• Retelling is an important after reading focus at this stage.
• "Talk to their brains"
• The learning goals next to every lesson routine!  I don't know how I missed this in the earlier chapters, I guess I was so excited that I forgot to go back and read the sidebar notes.  But I love them!  SO helpful!
• Loved how the teacher incorporated movements and questions into her Word-Building.  I even taught that skill as an assistant and I can't begin to tell you how much I feel that this would have made a difference.  Something they can remember back on and really understand!
• Writing may be an even more effective tool for phonics instruction than reading because it calls for active learning.

Chapter 5 - Guiding Developing Readers

This is the transitional stage between oral reading and silent reading, tracking and fluency, and word-level and text-level comprehension.  Their nonfiction reading also expands.  Lori Rog included a great website to check out that lists books and series for all ages and interests (www.kidsreads.com). 

Before Reading
There are no more picture walks but you might point out some illustrations.  The purpose for reading is focusing on comprehension strategies.  Same as before, with emergent and early readers, introduce vocab words ONLY if it necessary for understanding and the text does not give enough context clues to figure it out.

During Reading
You're only going to read a small chunk of text at a time and remember to not have them read aloud on their first reading.  Pick a place to pause and have the students read up to that point.  If they finish early, have them go back and reread (never hurt anyone).  After everyone has finished reading, discuss the reading process.  Continue this process until you finish the text.  On the first reading students are more focused on making sense of the text and the second reading is where they are more likely to think critically and focus on strategies.  After your comprehension goal is addressed then you can focus on a word-level goal!

After Reading
Spend a lot of time  discussing, interpreting, and evaluating what y'all read.  Encourage your students to support their opinions by going back and referencing the text.  Graphic organizers are very helpful when students want to categorize their information.  I noticed that some of my students are at this stage (yes, I teach 5th grade), not many of them but more than just one.  So I found this chapter very helpful in how to help those few struggling kiddos and pull them up to where they need to be.

Again, I just love the lesson routines and the sample areas of focus (good ideas for mini-lessons).  Don't forget that I will be hosting Chapter 6 next week!  Can't wait!!!

Sabra

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

Reader's Toolkit (*FREEBIE*)

Yesterday I gave my review and thoughts on Guiding Readers Chapter 2 and mentioned at the very end about Lori Rog's Reader's Toolkit.  So of course after reading what she had to say about their effectiveness, I had to make my own!  Her Reader's Toolkit is a little bit different in that she spiral binds it (like a book) to hold a little golf pencil.  Really, there are so many different ways to create them and I would love to hear your thoughts and see your Reader's Toolkit!

To create my Reader's Toolkit I simply took a colored file folder and cut it in half.  I also trimmed off the tab so that all edges were straight.  On the inside left I placed three different sizes of sticky notes (you could put anything you want) and I might add some paper clips later on if the lessons call for them.  On the inside right I glued a chart reminding students when it is appropriate to use sticky notes, because let's face it, those suckers are expensive and I don't want kids getting too "sticky happy" throughout the whole year! ;o)  As you can tell, I'm being my regular OCD self and I rounded the corners on the chart once I saw the pictures, LOL.  The back is left blank and to be used as a sticky note holder if for some reason they cannot take their text with them.

If you click on the images below you will be able to download both the front cover and sticky note reminder chart.  I only made 15 of these for my guided reading groups instead of one per student.  Writing down our thoughts while we're reading is definitely a skill (and great strategy) and one I will be teaching to the whole class but reinforcing a lot with my small groups.

 

Do you have your own version of a Reader's Toolkit?  If so I want to hear (and see) all about it!  And totally off topic... Have y'all seen Craft Wars?!?!?!  I AM LOVING IT!!!!!

Sabra

Guiding Reader's Ch. 2 - Guided Reading Lesson Sequence

Stacy from Leading and Reading and Tori from Tori's Teacher Tips are both hosting Chapter 2 of Guiding Readers and it is all about the lesson sequence.  Be sure to check them out and give them some love (they also have wonderful freebies).  I am loving this book and the thought of guided reading!  Because let's be honest... I was not OVERLY thrilled with the idea of having to do Focus Groups and Guided Reading Groups next year in my reading block.  I was worried that it would be a little redundant but in actuality the two are very different and I am way more excited about the guided reading and letting the students take over!  Here is a break down of the sequence:

Day 1: text introduction and first reading - focus on basic accuracy and understanding
Day 2: rereading of text - focus on comprehension and word study
Day 3 (and sometimes more): rereading of text - extension of thinking, focus on text structures or writer's craft, often includes a writing experience

I know it seems obvious but sometimes we get caught up in everything else we have to do and planning for more groups just falls by the wayside but for this to be effective your lessons will need to vary according to the needs of the learners, the goals of the lesson, and the nature of the text.  And be flexible to spontaneous teachable moments!

I really liked the Three P's to Book Introduction!

1. Preview - It can be a one sentence summary or page by page picture walk (discuss what you see and introduce key vocab ONLY if the text does not offer enough context clues for them to figure it out).
2. Purpose - be upfront as to why we're reading that text.  You want students to set their own goals and be able to adjust their reading rate & style to the purpose of reading.
3. Prior Knowledge - what we already know about this topic, drawing analogies to another book, invite students to make a connection to a personal experience.  If they don't have the background info or don't know how to access it - Preteaching!

The "Light bulb" Moments for me:

• Text level and word level comprehension goals (I seem to mostly focus on text strategies as opposed to word, now I will def be adding those goals in!)
• "Being able to read a level 9 texts tells us some information about the reader but not what they need to get to level 10."
• Need easy-peasy texts, just like the shallow end when you are learning how to swim (She has THE BEST analogies, lol, very relatable).  Tough texts are for read-aloud and shared reading.
• "Must do" - practice what was learned in GRG before moving on to other independent learning routines
• Teachers are prompting, questioning, and explaining while students are reading!
• Tips, Tools, and Techniques: establish routines, minimize transition, eliminate interruptions (would LOVE this!), build in assessment (need to let go and realize that it is okay for us to devote instructional time to this), and manage materials.

Lori talks about some of her materials she manages and one of them is the Reader's Toolkit.  I loved the idea of this and will be creating my own!  Check them out tomorrow!

Sabra

Guiding Readers Chapter 1 - What We Know

Today it begins... my very first book study!  You should go check out Misty over at Think, Wonder, & Teach, she has done an amazing review of Chapter 1.  I also wanted to give you my thoughts on it, so here is my quick recap.  I'm still pretty new to teaching and luckily I have worked at some great schools that give us creative reign over our reading blocks.  That being said, the district is making a big push for Guided Reading this year and I wanted to know more about the specifics of it (because after reading chapter 1, the focus groups I was working with WAS NOT GUIDED READING).  It was purely working with a small group for 30 minutes on a focus skill that they needed.  Was it beneficial?  For the most part, yes, but after reading "you have two ears and one mouth," and realizing that I should be doing more listening and less talking in these groups I knew that they could be better.

I was really excited when I started reading this book because already from the first chapter there were things that I was doing in my classroom that I realized I could improve on and things that I was doing right (which always makes you feel good)!  One of the things that I'm excited about is our Reader's Workshop.  The studets write me letters once a week about what they are reading, their thoughts and feelings, predictions, using the strategy of the week, etc., and I write them back.  Definitely connecting their reading and their writing I feel!  Now I want to think of some more creative ways to incorporate writing.  If anyone has other ideas please let me know!

The "Light bulb" Moments for me:

• Guided Reading is the "We Do" of a lesson
• Independent learning should be student directed and engaging in what was practiced in guided reading groups - Reading, Writing, "Must-do" (Ch. 2)
• LOVED the analogy of the just right books to standing on your tiptoes!!!
• The 90/10 percent (challenging words) when put into context was an eye opener of how many words were too difficult for them to read on each page.  200 words on each page = 20 challenging words per page!
• Use easier text to reinforce strategies and skill and revisit the text
• When revisiting the text provide a different purpose each day
• Students have different ways of learning so why not different ways of thinking?  Don't get upset with the student who keeps on talking out their response - they are just thinking out loud.  Or the student who doesn't answer right away - they are just thinking internally for the right way to say it before they put their words out there. 
• Three or more 18 minute sequences of guided reading lessons with each passage (this made me feel better because in my mind the title made me think that it all had to fit in one session)
• The reading-writing connection helps them think about what they are reading

Those are just a few, haha.  The book is really great so far and I can't wait to delve more into it.  Remember if you haven't received your copy of the book yet, or just want to follow along, you can still go Stenhouse Publisher's website and read an online copy for free!  I would love to know what you all think so far so please feel free to leave comments (and don't forget to go give Misty some love too!).

Sabra

The Ladies of the Guiding Readers Book Study

Beth from Thinking of Teaching has posted a wonderful calendar on her blog to help you follow along on our journey.  Click on any of the buttons and be instantly taken to the blog that is hosting that chapter.  We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas as well!

Along with Beth's calendar I have also created a bookmark!  Just cut it out and glue them back to back and you have yourself a new bookmark to help keep you on track.  If you open it in the PDF file, you can also click on the blog names/website address and be taken directly to that blog!  I hope you enjoy and visit all these wonderful ladies and their amazing blogs.

Happy Reading Y'all!

*If you have not yet received your copy of the book, you can follow along at the Stenhouse Publishers website (the whole book is online). Just click on the preview online button!*

Sabra

Guiding Readers Book Study

I am excited to announce that I will be part of the Guiding Readers Book Study starting June 18th with Beth from Thinking of Teaching!  She is hosting but a lot of other wonderful blogs have already signed on to help out.  The TBA authors will be hosting the chapters and sharing their thoughts and ideas.  Beth will also be hosting a linky party for each chapter so that everyone can join in on the fun.  I can't wait to hear what everyone else thinks and how they plan to implement these great ideas into their classrooms!

We will be reading Guiding Readers: Making the Most of the 18 Minute Guided Lesson by Lori Jamison Rog.  I realize the book is not sold on Amazon (don't worry, I was also shocked to my core), but you can buy a copy, or the e-book, on the publisher's website, Pembroke Publishers.   

Hurry and get your copy today... The book study starts NEXT WEEK!!!!  Can you tell I'm excited? ;o)

Sabra