Guided Reading: What Does the Reading Level Mean and How Can

Groups Be Formed for Optimum Success?

Christina Foehl and Julie WilchekReading Specialists

Spring Ridge Elementary School

Essential Questions:How does guided reading fit into the Common Core classroom?

What Common Core aligned instructional techniques propel students forward in their reading development?

Your Thoughts….What does guided reading look like? How do you define reading?

Discuss with your group and record on chart paper

Now that we’ve covered the basics….

An individual’s definition of reading will affect what is valued in an assessment, in guided reading, and the entire literacy block◦Decoding, speed, retelling, inferential thinking,

analysis….

Putting the pieces togetherThree common definitions of reading:

◦Learning to read means learning to pronounce words.

◦Learning to read means learning to identify words and get their meaning.

◦Learning to read means learning to bring meaning to a text in order to get meaning from it.

Foertsch, 1998

Contemporary DefinitionsReading is a message-getting problem solving

activity which increases in power and flexibility the more it is practiced correctly. Strategic activities are the beginning of a self-extending learning system.

Marie Clay

Skilled readers use sensory, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic information to read. These various sources of information interact in many complex ways during the process of reading.

Rumelhart, D. 1985

Our Guided Reading DefinitionGuided reading involves supporting

students as they develop strategic approaches to making meaning of reading. It is NOT just small group instruction, rather it is a small group of students with similar reading strategies working with a teacher to learn more about reading and what it is. It involves the teacher selecting the text, introducing it, and providing supportive teaching.

Fountas and Pinnell (2006), Burkins and Croft (2010)

Guided Reading in Common CoreIn a recent primary grade intervention study

virtually all the growth observed in reading was explained by teachers who provided much more high-success reading activity during their lessons.

Ehri et al., 2007

CC does not prescribe that students spend all their time reading texts that are extremely hard for them, with no access to books that will help them learn.

Fountas & Pinnell, 2012

Vgotsky, 1986

Close Reading

Independent Reading

How do we form our guided reading groups?

Let’s start with the guided reading level

How do we form our guided reading groups?

Let’s start with the guided reading level

What does the guided reading level tell us?

How do we form our guided reading groups?

Let’s start with the guided reading level

What does the guided reading level tell us?Very little

What does the guided reading level tell us?Focus on reading behaviors and strategies

◦Evidence of what is happening in the student’s brain

Hypothesize where the processing is flowing well and breaking down

Devise an instructional plan to move the student forward in his reading development

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=elementary+reading+assessment&qs=n&form=QBVR&pq=elementary+reading+assessment&sc=8-29&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&mid=24C98C77E44D67DA9C0824C98C77E44D67DA9C08

Pinnell & Fountas, 2009

What is observed?

GR - Assessment Notes.docx

What is observed?While listening to the audio, note the

student’s strengths and weaknesses.

Observations from Audio

Focus on ComprehensionWhat can we do to help our student

improve his inferential understanding of the text?

Focus on ComprehensionWhat can we do to help our student

improve his inferential understanding of the text?◦Whole Classroom Teaching

Modeling, think aloud, graphic organizers, etc.◦Guided Reading

Brief modeling/think aloud, purposeful prompting, manageable text difficulty, etc.

◦Reading Workshop/Independent Reading◦Close Reading

Close ReadingGenerally includes:

◦Short text Text lends itself to deep analysis

◦Less teacher front loading◦Students primarily do the reading - exception K-1◦Slowed reading to analyze

Focus on meaning Allow children to persevere and struggle with

comprehension difficulties◦Multiple reads – each with a separate purpose

Planning for Close ReadingSelect high quality text that is worth reading and

rereadingTeachers must read the text

◦Develop questions through your own multiple readingsDetermine why the text might be difficultConsider amount of prereading necessary

◦Previewing, picture walks, purpose, setting, activating prior knowledge, contextualization, vocabulary

Plan multiple readings◦Questions will help you determine how many

rereadings to use

Multiple ReadingsEach reading should accomplish a

separate purpose1st reading - looking through a lense

(choose specific details to gather as data)2nd read - look for patterns in text 3rd read - develop a new understanding of

the text

Close Reading in Action

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj3zbqztZGc

A Sample to TryNelson, Kadir. We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball (2008)

from “4th Inning: Racket Ball: Negro League Owners”Most of the owners didn’t make much money from their teams.

Baseball was just a hobby for them, a way to make their illegal money look good. To save money, each team would only carry fifteen or sixteen players. The major league teams each carried about twenty-five. Average salary for each player started at roughly $125 per month back in ‘34, and went up to $500-$800 during the forties, though there were some who made much more than that, like Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson. The average major league player’s salary back then was $7,000 per month. We also got around fifty cents to a dollar per day for food allowance. Back then you could get a decent meal for about twenty-five cents to seventy-five cents.

Some of the owners didn’t treat their players very well. Didn’t pay them enough or on time. That’s why we would jump from team to team. Other owners would offer us more money, and we would leave our teams and go play for them. We were some of the first unrestricted free agents.

There were, however, a few owners who did know how to treat their ballplayers. Cum Posey was one of them. He always took care of his ballplayers, put them in the best hotels, and paid them well and on time. Buck Leonard said Posey never missed a payday in the seventeen years he played for the Grays.

Multiple ReadingsEach reading should accomplish a

separate purpose◦The first reading of a text should allow the

reader to read it through a lens to determine what a text says - literal

Multiple ReadingsEach reading should accomplish a

separate purpose◦The first reading of a text should allow the

reader to read it through a lens to determine what a text says - literal

◦The second reading should allow the reader to deepen comprehension and find patterns to establish how the details fit together

Multiple ReadingsEach reading should accomplish a separate

purpose◦The first reading of a text should allow the reader

to read it through a lens to determine what a text says - literal

◦The second reading should allow the reader to deepen comprehension and find patterns to establish how the details fit together

◦The third reading should allow the reader to evaluate the patterns to develop a new understanding of the text.

Common Core StandardsNew standards are ambitious and are

asking teachers to engage children in high level interpretation of challenging texts through close reading

Close reading is a tool to be used, not exclusively, but as determined by the needs of students

Other videos◦http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=reading

+assessment+conference+elementary&qs=n&form=QBVR&pq=reading+assessment+conference+elementary&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&mid=7F4295A504BA32A005F97F4295A504BA32A005F9

◦http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Reading+Conferences+with+Students&qs=n&form=QBVR&pq=reading+conferences+with+students&sc=5-33&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&mid=C9274B737EDAFE17EE76C9274B737EDAFE17EE76

◦http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Reading+Conferences+with+Students&qs=n&form=QBVR&pq=reading+conferences+with+students&sc=5-33&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&mid=5A08F1EE3F772F8F186B5A08F1EE3F772F8F186B