Reading Practice Intensive - Day 4

So how do we learn how to teach reading? What support is given to teachers as they prepare for thier chosen profession or as they start as Beginning Teachers? And if teachers change levels during their profession, are they supported in developing effective programmes for learners who are at a different stage of their literacy acquisition?

Guided Reading is at the heart of a reading programme. Research clearly shows that explicit teaching of reading really does matter. Comprehension is a highly valued outcome of reading and there has to be regular, dedicated time given to reading so students can learn about reading. In a guided reading sesison teachers work with a small group of students so they can differentiate instruction, meet learner's needs and develop strategies and deepen the comprehension of texts. Teachers prompt and probe to develop understanding of texts. 

Day 4 of the Reading Practice Intensive (RPI) is focused on Guided Reading (& Comprehension). As usual I will not be sharing any content from the day but the day has provoked my thinking around guided reading.

Guided "Silent" Reading means students read the text silently at their own pace. If teachers do not know about this approach, round robin reading is often used. Round robin reading is where, one by one, each child in the group has a turn to read part of the text out aloud.

So what is wrong with round robin reading?  This means that text is broken into small parts that do not support a cohesive view of the text. If readers only read a small part of text it does not give them the opportuity to develop fluency, word recognition and comprehension. Readers will know when their turn is and can tune out until its their turn - or be busy rehearsing their part and they are not tuned into the text as a whole. Readers may stumble on words and others will call out the corrext word - this does not give the reader an opportunity to work out the word, or the teacher an opportunity to support the use of strategies to work out the word, 

For teachers, structuring a guided reading session can be supported by a planning framework. Teachers need to plan - there is no ifs or buts about this. They need to know how to design the learning,  RPI works through a Guided Reading Model and showcases planning frameworks to support teachers to plan for learning.

Teaching points need to be planned for. 1-2 (not more than 3) teaching points are critical to keeping focus and being able to develop these without being sidetracked or overloaded. How often do we get sidetracked or overload readers when working with texts?

One of the tricky aspects of guided reading is how to accomodate fast and slow readers so they can read the text at their own speed. Routines need to be established so readers know what to do if they finish before others. Teachers can support readers who are reading too slowly. 

Once the text has been read the tacher's role is to broaden discussion out to an extended conversations rather than serve and return. Prompting, provocations and big questions will stimulate a conversation that students can drive rather than having a set of questions posed by a teacher that only require one answer. This is a deliberate act of teaching that teachers need to develop so that readers are exploring ideas and acknowledging the responses of others.