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Other grade levels can be found @jrichardsonguidedreading.com under resources

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Literacy Tip of the Week: Week of April 9th

Making the Most of Running Records: Purpose and Professional JudgmentMany of the questions I receive about Scholastic’s Next Step Guided Reading Assessment (Richardson & Walther, 2013) lead me back to pondering the purpose of a running record. In an effort to clarify the purpose, I went back to the expert, Marie Clay. In her book Running Records for Classroom Teachers (Heinemann, 2000, pp. 3-4), she helps to explain the purpose of conducting an assessment of text reading and the importance of our sound professional judgment.Purposes for Taking Running Records• Assess a student’s text reading.• Gather evidence of how well a reader is directing his or her knowledge of letters, sounds, and words to understand the messages in the text. Teachers can think about the things that challenged the reader and what the child does with the information he or she gains from the print.• Guide teaching.Notice what the reader already knows, attended to,and/or overlooked. With this information, teachers can prompt, support, and challenge individual learners.• Determine text difficulty.Teachers can check whether a text is at a suitable level of challenge for the reader.• Capture progress.Teachers can make sound judgment about a reader’s progress through a gradient of difficulty in texts.What I notice when I reread these purposes is that they are all related to understanding the READER, not assessing the TEACHER or the TEACHING.
Written by: Maria Walther, 1st Grade Teacher, Aurora, ILhttp://mariawalther.com

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Isn't it funny how guided reading lessons can take FOREVER to plan? One guided reading lesson is relatively short, and the time just flies by. But preparing for it can certainly be time-consuming!

When I'm working with groups at different levels (which is...always), it's hard to keep everything straight.

Sometimes I forget which strategy I want to work on with groups at a certain level. Or I may neglect to work on certain concepts with a group or two, because I don't remember the text challenges of their levels.

And often, I struggle to keep things new and fresh for the kids. We end up doing some of the same activities day after day. While guided reading is all about routines, my kids are definitely more engaged when I mix things up a bit.

What I've always dreamed of is a "bank" of guided reading resources. I wanted to have lessons, activities, visual supports, checklists, and other materials that were specific to each guided reading level. Essentially, I wanted to be able to go to this "bank" of resources, look for a group's level, and have lots of materials to choose from!

Since I started organizing my Guided Reading Resource Packs, my dreams have come true! 🙂 I now have resources for each reading level (I'm going up through Level N) that are specifically designed for each reading level.

Now, I can look at a group's level, go to my resources for that level, and pick a lesson, support, or activity that will meet the needs of the group. This is especially helpful in keeping things fresh for the kids - because I have different activities and materials set aside for each reading level!!

However, figuring out how to organize all these materials has presented its own challenges. So in today's post, I'll be showing you (through a video), how I keep everything organized using a 2-binder system.

Whether or not you use my guided reading materials, you should be able to take away some ideas for creating a guided reading organization system of your own! (And be sure to read to the end of the post, because I share the printable binder covers for free!)

Recap

I keep a binder of masters and a binder for my day-to-day instruction.

The master binder is GREAT for grabbing and taking to the copy room - and it helps me keep my materials separate for each level.

My master binder is divided up into levels, and each level has four tabs:

Lessons, printable books, and assessment forms

Decoding and fluency resources

Comprehension and vocabulary resources

Word study and writing resources

I technically have more than one master binder, because I work with multiple grade levels. You may be able to fit all of your levels into one binder, but it just depends on your students and how big of a binder you want (my master binder is 3 inches).

My day-to-day binder is divided up into my different groups by tabs.

Behind each tab, I keep lesson plans (including blank forms) and any lists or resources I want to use with that group of students.

At the very end of my day-to-day binder, I keep blank running record forms. This makes it very easy for me to take a running record, because I just flip to the back of the binder. I score and remove the completed running records at the end of the day.

Amazon affiliate link for the insertable dividers: http://amzn.to/2cNkmXw

Amazon affiliate link for the insertable zip pockets: http://amzn.to/2dTXdIf

Guided Reading Materials

All of the materials shown in the video (other than the binders and inserts!) come from my guided reading resource packs. Click on any of the following bundle images to read more about them (note - you can get single-level packs, too, and I have additional bundle options available HERE).

And here are the binder covers, like I promised!

Here's a set of master covers in three different colors (this is a PowerPoint file - if you want to include a label with the levels, just add a text box):

Here's a cover for your day-to-day binder (a PDF file):

Happy teaching!

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How I Use a 2-Binder System To Stay Organized for Guided Reading - Learning at the Primary Pond

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Isn't it funny how guided reading lessons can take FOREVER to plan? One guided reading lesson is relatively short, and the time just flies by. But preparing for it can certainly be time-consuming! When I'm working with groups at different levels (which is...always), it's hard to keep everything straight.

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I wish I could say that *every* text I pick for my guided reading groups is a perfect fit.

Sure, I read the books beforehand. Yeah, I take running records consistently. And yes, I pay close attention to my students' progress as readers.

But I still make mistakes! No matter how careful you are, you never really know how a group of students is going to do with a book.

So what if, a few minutes (or even a few seconds!) after students have begun reading the text, you realize that it's too difficult for them?!

Don't panic! You can definitely turn an "oh, crap" moment into a great teaching opportunity. In this post, I'll share some ideas about what you can do if you realize that a guided reading book is a bit challenging for your students!
Photo Credit: jirasaki, Shutterstock
First, I want to say that I think it's OKAY for students to struggle with text sometimes.

We want them to spend the vast majority of their guided reading time practicing at their instructional levels. (And by the way, when kids are reading at their instructional levels, they should still be working. There should be unfamiliar words and words that are tricky to decode.)

BUT sometimes texts are really, really challenging. And honestly, this is just a fact of life! For example, I can't read a medical journal without becoming quite confused. 🙂

I don't think it's a bad thing to put students in challenging text. I think kids need to understand that learning, like many things in life, can be difficult. Reading requires persistence and effort.

Our job is to help them understand this life lesson, as well as to support students so their struggles are productive.

Option 1: Have students stop reading. As a group, restart the text. Have them choral read (with you) or echo read.

I almost always have students whisper or silent read the text at their own pace. However, if students are having a really hard time decoding the text, and their struggles seem unproductive, explain that you would like to try reading the book in a different way. Have everyone return to page 1. Then, initiate a choral read (everyone reads the text at the same time, with your voice leading a bit), or an echo read (you read one page, and then students reread the same page together). You can then have students go back and reread the text independently, once the choral read or echo read is complete.

Option 2: Divide the text in half. Pause students and ask them to stop at a certain page number. (Or, if you originally planned for them to read half of the text, have them only read a quarter of it.)

This is a great solution when comprehension or vocabulary is the problem. Dividing the text in half will give you a bit more time for a post-reading discussion. You'll be able to dig deeper and provide students with more support in decoding, vocabulary, and/or comprehension. You can also have students read the text twice, since it's a shorter selection.

Option 3: Have students stop reading. Do some on-the-fly word study.

If you hear many students unsuccessfully struggling to decode particular words, ask everyone to stop reading. Say something like, "You know what, I should have shown you a couple of these words before we started. Let's take a look at some of the words in this text."

Then, write a few of the words on a whiteboard and help students break them down. You can model how to use letter sounds, chunks, syllables, prefixes and suffixes, etc. You might model the first 1-2 words and have students help you with the rest.

Make this little mini-lesson as quick as possible, and then have students return to reading (you may even want to have them start over, time permitting).

Option 4: Use this as a teaching opportunity to model a strategy YOU use when a text is very challenging.

Unless you control the reading level of EVERY text your students lay eyes on for the rest of their lives, they are GOING to encounter challenging text! So they need to know how to tackle this problem, right?

If a text is challenging, why not pause students and say, "This text may be a bit challenging for some of you. Sometimes I start reading something new and really struggle! Some of the words might be very hard, or I just don't understand the text. So now I want to show you a strategy you can try when many of the words are hard / you are having trouble understanding a text."

You can model any of these strategies:

Use the pictures (if applicable)

Use text features, like a glossary

Reread

Stop and paraphrase frequently, to check your own comprehension

Think of similar words or word parts that you know

Skip some of the words and then return to them later, once you have more information

Think more about what a word means than how to pronounce it

You're really doing students a favor if you teach them how to deal with challenging texts on their own!

Option 5: Just stop.

If you've tried one of the above strategies and it didn't work, or you just feel like students' struggles are completely unproductive...you can just stop. The guided reading police will not come after you. 😉 We all make mistakes.

If you decide to have students stop reading the text, you can tell them that you accidentally gave them the wrong book, or that you made a mistake when choosing a book.

The one thing I wouldn't advise saying is, "This book is too hard for you." We don't want to teach our students that they should only read easy books, or that reading should never be hard.

If you do choose to stop (and have time remaining during the lesson), you could:

Try a new text if you have one on hand

Have students reread familiar texts instead

Read the book aloud to them and have them respond in writing

Do some extended word study

It's okay to stop if you feel that you need to! Stopping altogether is not something I do on a regular basis, but once in a long while, it really is necessary.

Conclusions

How do you respond if students struggle with the text during guided reading? If you have any suggestions, please share them in the comments.

And if you're looking for materials to help you teach guided reading, check out the packs below - they include lesson plans, printable books, assessment tools, word study activities, and more!

Happy teaching! 🙂

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How To SAVE Your Guided Reading Lesson If You Accidentally Choose a Too-Difficult Text! - Learning at the Primary Pond

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I wish I could say that *every* text I pick for my guided reading groups is a perfect fit. Sure, I read the books beforehand. Yeah, I take running records consistently. And yes, I pay close attention to my students' progress as readers. But I still make mistakes!

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Teaching is all about making decisions. Decision...after decision...after decision. Research indicates that teachers make a few thousand instructional decisions in ONE school day. Whoa!

Inevitably, we're all going to make some decisions that we later regret or second-guess. I make mistakes ALL the time. I just choose to view them as learning opportunities for myself.

Guided reading has provided LOTS of learning opportunities for me (and by that, I mean that I've made quite a few mistakes ;-)).

In today's post, I'll share with you 5 things I've done during guided reading that didn't work out very well! I'm hoping that explaining my own mistakes will help you reflect on your practice. And I would love it if you'd share your own "aha" moments in the comments!
Photo Credits: Pablo Calvog, Shutterstock
Mistake #1: Choosing books that are too challenging for my students.

I like to challenge my kids, and guided reading is a great place to do it (because they have my support). However, I sometimes have a tendency to pick books that are a little TOO challenging.

When this happens, it takes them forever to read the book. We don't have much time for a comprehension discussion, and we certainly don't have time for word work or anything else.

If your students are reading at levels A-K, they should be able to read the new book with 90-94% accuracy, as long as they are comprehend the text quite well (if their comprehension is limited, aim for 95-100% accuracy).

For higher reading levels, kids should be reading the text with 95-97% accuracy, unless they are really struggling with comprehension (then it's 98-100% accuracy). ( Fountas & Pinnell)

If you find that your students' accuracy is lower, you may need to a) choose easier books and/or b) provide a more supportive book introduction.

Mistake #2: Thinking that we HAVE to get through an entire text in order to have a good comprehension discussion.

I started making this mistake when I moved from Kindergarten to second grade.

I was accustomed to using brief guided reading books with my Kinders. But my second grade students were reading more challenging texts. Those texts were, naturally, longer.

I frequently underestimated how long it would take us to read the text. Then (just like when I used texts that were too hard for my students), we were rushed in our comprehension discussion - if we even had time for one!

What I learned to do instead was to intentionally overestimate how long it would take us to read a book. I'd mark a halfway point in my book (and sometimes their books) and have them stop at that point.

Early finishers could search for a vocabulary word that was new to them, practice rereading a page for fluency, or jot down thoughts on a sticky note. When everyone finished, we then discussed what we had read so far. This practice improved our comprehension discussions greatly! We were focused on a smaller portion of text, so we could really "dig in" and examine the text more closely.

Even though I don't rush through texts anymore, I also don't drag them out. I don't allow more than 2 guided reading lessons on one book (in the primary grades). The kids forget what they have read (and so do I!). So it just makes sense to keep each book for no more than 2 lessons.

If you have a really long text that you want to use with some strong readers, just work on a chapter or two. They can finish the text independently, if they're interested in reading more!

Mistake #3: Thinking that I can't put students at two different reading levels in the same group.

Some years the Guided Reading gods bless you with perfectly sized groups of students at the same reading level. But most years....they don't.

If you have to put a student whose instructional level is a Level J into a Level I group, the Guided Reading Police will not come after you. Promise.

And in all seriousness, it's definitely do-able. Finding a child's instructional reading level is not an exact science. You can even alternate text levels for that group (one book at Level J, then another book at Level I).

The one thing I would encourage you to think about is reading rate.

If you have to put a higher reader in a group of readers one level below him/her, make sure the higher reader isn't also a speed reader (he/she will finish far more quickly than the other students).

Similarly, if you put a lower reader into a higher group, make sure that reader doesn't read at a snail's pace (slow rate + harder texts = not a successful guided reading experience).

I find that I have to make more adjustments when I mix reading levels. After a couple of days, I notice that a child is not being successful, or that another is not challenged at all by the text. So I make changes until I have a grouping that works better!

Mistake #4: Trying to cram too much into my pre-reading book introduction.

I used to try to fit all of the following into my book introductions:

Topic introduction (and brief discussion of students' background knowledge)

Preview of the text (a couple of the pictures, a tricky word here or there)

A review of a strategy I wanted my kids to use

It was just too much!

First of all, I eliminated the strategy review. I have some strategy visuals that I can display for students to reference as they're reading the book. But I save the strategy review/instruction until AFTER they finish the text.

I also try to be super intentional about what I say when I introduce the book. I want to get my kids really interested in reading the text - but I don't want to give away the ending. I don't need to show them every picture, and I don't need to teach them every tricky word or challenging vocabulary word. And when we have a pre-reading discussion, I only give a couple of the kids a chance to talk.

If I find that my kids really struggle with a text when I pare down my introduction, it may be that I just need to use slightly easier texts with them.

Mistake #5: Stressing out about not fitting everything in!

I have bad news for you. If you're struggling with "fitting everything in"....it's because you can't! Sorry. 🙂

Personally, guided reading can really stress me out. The time seems to go by SO quickly, and I really value opportunities to work with students in a small group setting.

I find that I sometimes have to pause for just a moment, to breathe and feel sane again. And to remind myself that we can finish an unfinished activity another day.

It's not a bad thing to overplan a little for guided reading, so that you can make use of every instructional minute you have. But it IS a bad thing if you get too worked up about not finishing everything.

If you find that you're consistently failing to fit in everything that you'd like, try asking yourself these questions:

Am I trying to fit something in that would actually be best taught during another time of the day? (I try to do a lot of my strategy modeling during shared reading. I also do the majority of my word study during a dedicated, 20 minute word study block each day. This helps save a little time during guided reading.)

Could I use an A/Day, B/Day schedule, or a 2-day guided reading lesson plan like Jan Richardson? (If you use this type of plan, you have certain instructional activities for the first day, and other ones for the second day.)

Final Thoughts

I hope that you'll benefit from reading about my guided reading mistakes! In my opinion, teaching is as much about learning as it is about instructing. Here's to more learning, mistakes and all! 🙂

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5 Mistakes I've Made When Teaching Guided Reading - Learning at the Primary Pond

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Teaching is all about making decisions. Decision...after decision...after decision. Research indicates that teachers make a few thousand instructional decisions in ONE school day. Whoa! Inevitably, we're all going to make some decisions that we later regret or second-guess. I make mistakes ALL the time. I just choose to view them as learning opportunities for myself.