Week 6

"Guided reading is a context in which a teacher supports each reader's development of effective strategies for processing novel texts at increasingly challenging levels of difficulty." When reading the Fountas and Pinnel article "What is Guided Reading" I was able to relate many of the discussed concepts with methods I have witnessed my field placement teacher using in her classroom. In my 5th grade field class, Mrs. Kinkead has a pretty diverse set of students from varying countries, a handful of whom hardly speak or read English. It is with this group of students that I see guided reading used most often. During our time in the class room, the students are often working on their social studies units. Typically the class is divided into groups, with the ELL students always working with Mrs. Kinkead. Although I am not one hundred percent what their meeting time consists of, but it is at this time that guided reading strategies are most explicitly used. As the text states, "the ultimate goal in guided reading is to help children learn how to use independent reading strategies successfully." I believe that through the exclusive group work time with only the ELL students Mrs. Kinkead is essentially killing two birds with one stone- not only is she working on the students learning of English, she is also using guided reading to help them develop the skills necessary to read effectively and comprehensively.

Another critical part of the reading that I found interesting stated: "It is usually not enough simply to provide children with good reading materials. Teacher guidance is essential". Through this and the text that follows I was able to conclude that teachers really have to be aware of the impact and roles they plan in a young readers growth. It's critical for teachers to monitor and aid a young readers growth to assure that they are truly developing the skills necessary to build the strategies needed to read independently and not just reading to be reading. Reading words is much different than understanding words read, this distinction is not always easy to differentiate but is something teachers must be aware of when trying to build a readers reading process and strategies.