What is Guided Reading? Really?

Jaimie Howe contributed today's post. More of Jaimie's thinking can be found here.

I’m not sure how many definitions or interpretations there are for guided reading; however, I do know that in most cases it is considered a small homogeneous group of students previewing, reading, and discussing a text.  It is pretty much the same thing with all students except using a different leveled text.  In many cases, there isn't a specific purpose or strategy being modeled, practiced, or taught. We fail to connect the guided reading lessons to the other components of a balanced literacy framework.  Students have hard time transferring the literacy knowledge they gain in one lesson to the next because skills are taught in isolation. The instruction in a guided reading format needs to be more intentional, purposeful, and connected to strategies and skills used during shared reading and writing -- even science and social studies. 

To me, the term “guided reading” encompasses so much more than just previewing, reading, and discussing a text with a homogeneous group of students.  Guided reading can and should include heterogeneous strategy grouping, individual conferring with students, and, most of all, have a purpose - a purpose that meets the needs of each individual student and that is connected to all other areas of literacy.  

Burkins and Croft say, in Misguided Reading, that, “Guided reading is not really about levels, benchmark texts, or offering the right prompts to students when they struggle with words.  Rather, guided reading is. . . about supporting students as they develop strategic approaches to meaning making.”

“Strategic approaches” is the phrase that catches me the most.  We need to be able to reflect on what we notice our students doing within their reading and modify our instruction to meet their needs. For many teachers this means going away from the consistent daily schedule of seeing 3-4 groups everyday.  It also means going away from the typical novel study or leveled reader and focusing on strategies.  Novels are not meant for guided reading. Novels are for book clubs or literature circles. 

In my coaching experiences over the past two years, I have found short text to be very beneficial for small group lessons. Short texts are great for modeling and then scaffolding because they are much more manageable.  Short texts are also typically paper copies and students have the ability to write right on the text, encouraging more “during reading” thinking. Ask yourself if all students really, truly need our support every day?  Are there some students that just do not fit into a group and would benefit more from one on one conferring sessions?  We need to be more reflective, strategic, and flexible in our teaching; our time with our students is too precious.

Another common trend I see happening is that when teachers get stuck in that schedule of seeing 3-4 groups every day, shared reading, read alouds, writing, and word work, fall by the wayside. Teachers are using their whole English language arts block for guided reading to be sure that they can meet with every student, every day. Guided reading is only one component of a balanced literacy framework, a very important one, but we need to continue to understand that our students are different every year and they change throughout the year.  At one point in the year we may be seeing several small groups everyday, but at other points in the year most of our time may be spent conferring. In any case, we have to be reflective and flexible enough to make these modifications when they are needed. We need to take a look at our own definitions of guided reading and determine if they truly meet the needs of all of our students.

Source:

Burkins, J. M., & Croft, M. M. (2010). Preventing misguided reading: New strategies for guided reading teachers. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.