Thread: Does your school use guided reading?

Nobody??? None of y'all do guided reading?

I teach math. I did read it

I just can't imagine that as effective and accepted as I think guided reading is...

Obviously it is not as accepted as you think. :P

My philosophy: A faculty is a team. When the coach of the team says to run laps, you run laps. Those who don't want to be a part of the team can sulk in someone else's school district.

I guess not, Lizard!

And btw, I wish the classroom teachers we work with had your team mentality, but unfortunately, they don't. It's more like, "I've been teaching reading this way for ______ (20, 15, etc.) years. Nobody's ever told me before there's anything wrong with what I'm doing, so why should I do all this extra work and change what I'm doing now?"

The only trouble is that the way they've been teaching reading for ____ years is straight out of the basal, story by story, worksheet by worksheet, kids as passive doers of what you say rather than engaged learners, very little comprehension instruction going on, strictly whole class instruction - everybody reads the same book at the same time together kind of thing.

They HAVE been educated on guided reading over the last few years (I wasn't there until this year but have been told they have had lots of training in this) - had workshops, all kinds of stuff, yet they still won't do it. So now it is push come to shove time and the principal is not backing down on it this year - they will do this. We are trying to involve them familiarizing themselves with the research on the benefits of guided reading, trying to involve them with the process of the implications at our school and in their classroom, have them take ownership of it and give them support at every step of the way. Yet you'd think we were killing them. Griping, groaning, complaining, etc.

Sigh.

And btw, I wish the classroom teachers we work with had your team mentality, but unfortunately, they don't. It's more like, "I've been teaching reading this way for ______ (20, 15, etc.) years. Nobody's ever told me before there's anything wrong with what I'm doing, so why should I do all this extra work and change what I'm doing now?"

Because a new coach has blown into town and he wants to switch to the wishbone formation because he thinks that new research shows the new offense to be more effective.

The only trouble is that the way they've been teaching reading for ____ years is straight out of the basal, story by story, worksheet by worksheet, kids as passive doers of what you say rather than engaged learners, very little comprehension instruction going on, strictly whole class instruction - everybody reads the same book at the same time together kind of thing.

Now here is where the situation can be a little touchy. If a teacher states that she doesn't want to change because she has been doing it this way for a long time, then the teacher is concerned about her own welfare, not the kids'. She isn't a team player.

However, having all of the kids read the same book at the same time can be justified. If the teacher vociferously insists that letting students pick reading materials that are below grade level will place some of them farther and farther behind the others (which I tend to agree), then the teacher has the best interests of the kids at stake. In this case, her resistance is based on a deep philosophical principle -- equal education for all. I would not accuse that teacher of being a non-team player.

If I was a teacher put in the position described in the latter scenario, I would resign and move over to another district.

Lizard, this is only a guided reading block we are trying to get implemented in the classrooms. The teachers still have a whole group reading instruction block that most DO use the everybody out of the same book approach, although I am not a fan of that approach.

In the guided reading block of 40 minutes that we want them to implement (and that they are complaining about), the students will be homogeneously grouped (ability grouping) in each classroom. Each classroom may have 2, 3 or 4 groups going at a time. Each group will be working out of books on their instructional reading level to learn reading strategies. The focus of guided reading groups is having the students learn reading strategies (not just learning a story) that they can take with them and use across books and content areas. And the other caveat of guided reading groups is that each group will be working at their instructional reading level - prime for reading growth. Not to hard, not too easy.

All that being said about the guided reading block, we are also this year requiring that the teachers submit lesson plans for their whole group reading block. They submit them for math and other things at certain times (but not always), and I can understand them feeling overwhelmed with paperwork. However, our stated goal for this year and next year (and probably the next) is to update and improve our reading program so that the kids are getting out of it what they should - lifetime reading strategies and skills. We even made up a lesson plan form in which all they have to do is check boxes for what they are doing and fill out the text being used (check boxes for which reading strategy you are teaching, which graphic organizer you are having the kids learn, check box for are the kids going to read chorally, paired, independent, etc., will post reading be teacher led, independent, paired, etc.). There is very little writing they have to do on it aside from filling in their name, date, text to be used. Yet you'd think that we are asking them to rewrite War and Peace.

Maybe because they know that now someone will be monitoring what is actually done in their whole group reading block?

So two issues (whole group and guided reading) that are really one big issue - we are asking the classroom teachers to re-think and get involved in how they teach reading so that they best serve the kids.

Sounds like a reasonable plan. Some teachers simply don't want to be monitored, for which I suggest they choose an option that gives them no monitoring at all -- UNEMPLOYMENT!!!

Others like to gum up the works for everyone else.

Some of us are working at trying to implement it. It's a work in progress at this point and the learning/implementation curve is steep. We have our "the pendulum will swing back" teachers who never want to change anything.

Lina

Originally Posted by kds

All that being said about the guided reading block, we are also this year requiring that the teachers submit lesson plans for their whole group reading block.

This may be the stumbling block. Personally, I like Guided Reading. I think it works much better than what I was doing before (the always popular Floundering Around method of teaching reading) but I have a feeling if I were told I HAD to do it, I'd have issues especially if I had to submit lesson plans.

At the school I'm at this year, there is a big push towards Guided Reading. There are those, like me, who do it because it works better than what I was doing before. There are those who resist because they think it's new and different and they don't want to have to work at it and try as we might, we can't get them to see that it's not that much different than what they are doing already. I think that what the resistant teachers are feeling is that they are being told that they are no good as reading teachers and being told it by teachers younger and less experienced than they are.