Reading Groups

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Home : 2002 : October : 30

Reading Groups
By Mackie

Hi Jennifer,
I am a 1st grade teacher and I am also crafting my guided reading groups. The first thing I would suggest is purchasing or borrowing (check with your reading coach if your school has one or with a reading
coach in your district) Guided Reading by Fountas and Pinnell.
This book has the basics for teaching leveled reading groups. It has helped me tremendously!
First of all, have you done any developmental reading assessments? Do you know where your children are as far as grade level reading?
If you have not assessed them yet, try getting a copy of the Developmental Reading Assessment

(DRA) or check with your reading series and see if it has an initial reading assessment.

Once you have determined which kids are reading at which levels, then decide on your reading groups. You mentioned that you were going to start with 3 and this is a nice number to start with but you will realize that no matter how you group the kids at first the groups WILL CHANGE! And they will change frequently! It is up to you to document their reading growth through Running Records, readers response and comprehension activities such as retelling and higher order thinking question responses.

It is very challenging but reading up on it helps you keep your mind on the right track!
The kids need guidance! You are the facilitator of their reading environment and experience!

Start by setting up your reading area! On the floor or at a circular/kidney shaped table or even at desks. Wherever you do it you need to be able to reach your supplies, books, and assessment tools! I use stacking crates on wheels so that it is mobile!

Make a folder with a section for all of your students. Keep running records, state expectations and observations inside each section! This is very helpful for parent meetings, reportcards and progress alerts! Also keep a graph with each kids leveled scores mapped out on it. It is a great visual to help you see their growth! I use Marie Clay's An Observational Survey for a lot of my assessment reproducibles.

I am a second year teacher and I am constantly redifining my definition of reading groups to find the most successful way to implement them.
My advice is JUMP IN THERE AND START PRACTICING!
Your skills will improve daily! Also PLAN, PLAN, and Review your records daily!

You should see your lowest reading group daily and your highest readers 1-2 times a week.
Your higher readers have control of the reading strategies and only really need monitoring.
The middle groups can fluctuate between 2 and 3 times per week. Try to at least see each group every week. I like to have less kids in each group at the primary level but you may find that 7 kids per group works well.

Reality*** Some weeks you will not get to all of them! Such is life! Do your best and never look back!

ENJOY reading groups too! You are the coach and they are the readers. LISTEN to them read and take notice of the strategies they ARE using!
Ask them questions in response to their questions. Know the reading cue strategies.
When a kid comes to a word they do not know ask "What strategy could you use to figure out that word?" Teach them the strategy talk.

Assessments such as running records are used when you want to see what strategies they are using and when you want to see if they are ready to move up to a higher group. GROUPS ARE HOMOGENOUS AND THEY CHANGE WITH THE NEEDS OF EACH KID!

A word of advice. Never call the kids in groups. Just call them over to the area by name. Kids know who the low, medium and high groups are! This way when you change groups the kids are not confused.

I hope that this helps you! I wish you luck.
Mackie