Guided reading lessons and instructional practices

¶ … Grade Students with some Early Readers

What I did and what I would change

After a preview of the age-appropriate book selection, I highlighted words that might be challenging for the children. I did this ahead of time so that I would be prepared. I then called the group together, and we then did a walk-through focusing on the pictures. I mentally took note of which of the words were most challenging for the students. Next time, I would have tried writing these words down if they were different from the words I chose earlier. After the walk-through, each child was given a copy of the story. I told them that first they were going to read the story by themselves out loud, and then we were going to discuss what they read. As a prompt, I read the first sentence of the story with them before letting them continue on their own. Next time, I would have spent more time during the walk-through making sure the children understood the basic concepts and story before they read. After the reading, we discussed the story together, but I did not have time to have the children re-read the book so we did that the next day in class.

2. The children's responses

The children did not read in unison and the reading sounded chaotic. However, when two students shared the same copy of the book, they would read in unison. Some students read louder than others. Other students moved their lips but I could tell they were only pretending to read. However, I could tell all the students were actively engaged and were learning because their eyes were on me during the discussion of the story, and several of them raised their hands to answer questions. Also, they understood the general concept of the story even when they missed words.

3. What I learned

Some students seemed confused, and not all the students struggled with the same words. Because of this, I spent a lot of time on individual words that most of the class was able to understand except for a few students. Next time, I would be more efficient when paying attention to the words that only a few students found to be difficult. Also, I learned that re-reading the same book the next day was a beneficial technique because it gave the students a chance to digest what they had learned and assess for memory retention.

Reflection 2: Second Grade Students with some Early Readers

1. What I did and what I would change

I previewed the selected book, and came prepared with the list of words I thought the children might find difficult. First I passed out copies of the book and told the students to gather in pairs. After the walk-through, I verified that my list was comprehensive, and we started to read together as a class at my prompting. When a large number of students could not pronounce a word, I helped them grasp the phonetic components of that word. For instance, the word "through" was difficult for some of the students and we talked about the English spellings using "ough." Once the book was finished, we talked about the story and I assessed for comprehension. Afterwards, we read the book aloud together at a faster pace than before. I would not change anything, as it went smoothly.