Guided Reading

Guided Reading... the current step our district is climbing in this journey with Balanced Literacy.  As a former intermediate teacher, guided reading was not something I was an expert in.  To be honest with you, it completely confused me.  Seems silly, I know, but we never had a clear vision of the districts expectations for this time.  I did my own version of Guided Reading and will be honest with you, probably wasn't doing it well.  That being said... in my new position, it is my responsibility to train my schools.  Talk about some anxiety.  Needless to say, I have been a BUSY girl!  I cannot present something unless I feel confident in the topic.  So research has been my best friend lately.

There is an amazing resource called Fountas and Pinnell Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency.  There is so much information in this book, but chapters 24-26 are full of information on Guided Reading.

The district thankfully provided the structure based on Fountas and Pinnell.  There are many different structures, but I am just happy my district chose one to do in all schools.  Below is an image of one of the slides which contain the components.  

The warm up with a familiar read and the NOT Round Robin brought about some great discussion.  Do you guys have any thoughts on this?

Guided Reading for intermediate is a HOT topic right now.  My district says that it is for those students below grade level.  This brought about many questions such as what guided reading looks like in the upper grades and what do you do with the higher students?  The concept of invitational groups was mentioned, but we have not been given any additional information yet.  So what do you do with reading groups in upper elementary?  Any advice for our intermediate teachers?

 Now I am about to date myself (that line always confused my students lol)... Fourteen years ago, when I was teaching in KCMO, my career began with Balanced Literacy.  Trust me when I say it was a whole different world back then.  We had tons of training, but we had to come up with everything on our own.  We spent many, many hours planning lessons and units and many more reading professional texts for information on Balanced Literacy.  Today... HELLO GOOGLE!!!  Type in a couple words and BAM... you have everything you need.  And we can't forget PINTEREST!!!  How did we ever survive without it? lol

BUT... my favorite resource which I didn't have even three years ago is ALL OF YOU!!!  So I want to hear what you do for guided reading.  What is your structure?  Do you use Fountas and Pinnell?  If so, any helpful advice for me as I continue to guide the teachers at my schools?  Finally- to help out with the HOT topic, what does guided reading and/or reading groups look like in your upper elementary classrooms?

I am excited to hear suggestions and advice from all my friends in the blogging world.
Antoinette :)