Guided Reading: An Action Plan

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Current research tells us that increasing the amount of time spent on engaged reading at an independent level of difficulty will result in a student’s improved reading fluency, comprehension and even attitude towards reading. Explicit teaching of reading skills is another critical factor that contributes to the student’s progress.

So, just how do you find the time in an already busy day to ensure that your students are engaged in reading and receiving instruction appropriate to their reading level? How do you keep the reading groups small enough (six students at the most) to maximize the benefits of the instruction? What is the rest of the class doing while the teacher works with one small group? These are some of the logistical questions that we struggled with when we first set our goal to develop an action plan that would meet the needs of all our learners.

A visit to our school by a team of three led by our District Literacy Co-ordinator helped us on our way. All our staff members were given release time to participate in, and observe a teaching model that the team demonstrated with our grade three classes for three weeks. In this brief period of time we witnessed a dramatic increase in skill level for the students and I became convinced of the value of the model.

A modification of this demonstration has now been in place at our school for two years. Its success has motivated us to continue and expand the program. While the participating staff members continue to tweak and refine the process, we all agree that working collaboratively is the key to making the project work. The following is an outline of the project’s organization.

September
• Determine the participating classes (in our first year we worked with a 2/3 and a grade 3 class; in our second year we worked with two grade 2 classes and two grade 3 classes).
• Determine and schedule the staff and provide orientation to the project. Five staff members for one hour a day are required to implement our program since we form student groups for five reading levels. At our school, each class is allocated 1/2 hour of the aboriginal support aide’s time and 1/2 hour of the learning assistance teacher’s time per day (Monday to Thursday). By working two classes together, we had those two staff members’ time available for a one-hour block, four days a week. The two classroom teachers and a classroom support worker assigned to one of the classes completed our team of five.
• Develop the action plan.
• Determine where in the school the five groups will meet.
• Begin student assessment.

October
• Finish student assessment.
• Determine student groupings.
• Assemble materials and resources.
• Begin instruction.

October to the end of May
• Ongoing instruction.
• Ongoing reflection opportunities for staff and students.
• Ongoing assessment (Running Records as well as Nelson Benchmarks) to determine progress and changes in the groupings.
• Ongoing student goal setting.

WHAT ASSESSMENT DO WE USE?
• D.A.R.T. (District Assessment of Reading Team, used throughout BC in Grade 3)
• Nelson’s Benchmarks (October, January and May)
• Running Records
• Attitude Survey

HOW ARE THE STUDENTS GROUPED?
• Student groupings are fluid and determined by ongoing assessment.
• Ideally, groups consist of six students or less at these four levels: Early Emergent (Benchmarks Level 1-4), Upper Emergent (Benchmarks Level 5-8), Late Emergent (Benchmarks Level 9-16), Early Fluent (Benchmarks Level 17-20).

Each of these four groups engages in a 1/2 hour Guided Reading lesson with a teacher and a 1/2 hour Literacy Centre activity with a support worker each day. The groups rotate among the staff members, so by Thursday, each group will have worked with each staff member twice.
• The fifth group: Fluent (Benchmarks Level 21-30). This larger group of students engages in a one-hour block of instruction with the Learning Assistance teacher.

WHAT ARE THE DAILY ROUTINES?
The program is delivered after recess. This is what we do each day:

Monday
• 10:45 - All the students engage in a 1/2 hour mini-lesson focused on a particular reading strategy led by one of the teachers. Goal setting and highlighting of excellent work from the week before also takes place at this time.
• 11:15 - The students move to their small group lessons.

Tuesday through Thursday
• 10:45 - Students move directly to their assigned places for small group sessions. Each group is identified by a colour, and rotation schedules are posted to keep everyone on track.
• 10:45 - Session #1 (guided reading lesson or literacy centre)
• 11:15 - Students move to next location.
• 11:15 - Session #2 (guided reading lesson or literacy centre)
• 11:45 - Clean up routines
- a designated student returns the student folders;
- a designated student returns the tool boxes and other supplies;
- remaining students stack the chairs, etc.

HOW ARE THE MATERIALS ORGANIZED?
• Each literacy centre has a plastic tub containing sets of pencils, erasers, scissors, etc.
• Each group has a basket for storing their sets of levelled books.
• The literacy centre materials are kept in lidded tubs. Each activity has a folder with the activity directions printed on the outside. Any worksheets or papers related to the activity are kept inside the folder.
• There is a chart of the group rotation schedule posted at each centre.
• Each student has a folder that travels with him/her from session to session. The folders are collected at the end of the session times and are stored in a central location.

The main challenge to an action plan like this one is the availability of staffing which can change from year to year, school to school and district to district. There are many, many variations of this project operating in our district. Here are some ideas that might prove workable for you:

• Consider using volunteers to supervise the literacy centres (retired teachers, student teachers, parents, administrators, etc.)
• Consider forming a team of five staff members and work at one grade level for six weeks. Move on to another grade level for six weeks, and so on.

In the next issue of Canadian Teacher Magazine I will describe a few activities that work well as literacy centres.

Brenda is the Literacy Resource Teacher at her school. This .2 position allows her to plan fun literacy events when she isn’t busy in her own classroom.