Chapter 20 – Teaching for Sustaining Strategies in Guided Reading

This chapter is full of ideas that help teachers promote the use of sustaining reading strategies. By the time students enter the 3rd grade, most have already developed an early reading process. But two challenges exist at every grade:

1. Some students will work on very basic reading skills such as word analysis and comprehending simple texts.


2. All students need instructional support so they can expand their competence across a greater variety of increasingly challenging texts.

In the upper elementary grades, it is important for students to have regular time with the teacher to learn how to become more effective readers. GUIDED READING IS THE BEST WAY TO ACCOMPLISH THIS GOAL. Students can take what they are learning through guided reading and apply it to their independent reading, literature study and content area reading.

Teaching Within a Guided Reading Lesson

Before the lesson begins, teachers should prepare for the lesson. They should establish goals and potential outcomes for the lesson. Teachers should also be familiar with the book or material they are planning to use for the lesson.

Before having the students read the text, the teacher should set the text up. She can begin by introducing the author, prompt them to make connections, asking them what they already know about the topic or author, give a brief summary of the book, build background knowledge, etc..

During the introduction the teacher may want to point out important elements of the text such as genre characteristics, new and important language, text features, or even discuss similarities or differences to other texts by the same author.

Other things teachers may want to discuss before the reading may include:

*connections to background knowledge

*calling attention to the setting

*look at important details

*connections to personal experiences

*discuss plot of the story

*clarify the task

*establish a purpose for reading

During the Reading

As students read silently, the teacher will confer with individuals. During the conference the student:

*Reads a short piece of the text aloud softly

*Offers examples of interesting language

*Ask questions

*Converses with the teacher

For these interactions, the teacher will have evidence of what the student is doing well or what needs to be worked on.

After the Reading

After about 20 minutes of reading, the teacher will reconvene the group for a short discussion. First she will check their understanding. Then she invites them to share some of the language that they have found interesting or allow group discussion of the text.

Mediating the Text

Each lesson should not focus on more that a few new ways of thinking. Within the discussion of a text, there are different levels of teacher mediation:

Show = Demonstrate, explain behaviors related to the processing strategies

Support = Give readers opportunities to use the procession strategies with your support

Prompt = Call readers to action so that they use procession strategies for themselves

Reinforce = Acknowledge effective reading behaviors using specific description or praise

Observe = Notice behavioral evidence and infer readers’ independent use of effective procession strategies.

Teaching for Word-Solving Strategies

Effective strategies to derive meaning from words

Decoding

*Noticing the parts of words

*Using letter-sound relationships in combination with predictions about meaning

*Connecting new words with known words

Expanding Vocabulary - Knowing” a word means that you know the literal meaning . In addition good readers:

*May know several meanings for a word

*Know that words with the same definitions can have subtle meaning to different people

*May connect word attributes to larger bodies of knowledge

Supporting Decoding and Deriving Meaning

*Tell readers a word or the meaning of a word and point out the important characteristics

*Demonstrate analyzing word parts

*Demonstrate using context to suggest a meaning for the word

*Demonstrate how word parts are related to meaning

*Prompt students to use a range of strategies to problem-solve

*Reinforce effective problem solving

Connecting and Expanding Strategies in Guided Reading

Teaching for Strategies That Expand Meaning

The use of the strategies summarized in this chapter take the reader deeper into the complexities and meaning of the text.

Strategies -

• Both conscious and unconscious
  Used simultaneously
• Access, use, and modify knowledge the reader already has (prior knowledge).

Schema - Storage and organization systems

Helps readers...

• Seek and select information
• Make inferences, anticipate content, make predictions
• Organize text information...Retain and remember
• Ex. Diagram, outline, mental image
• Elaborate information

"Readers bring information to their processing of the text, and these connections set the scene for higher-level comprehension." Pg. 358

Connecting -
Personal Connection (Text to Self)

• Made before, during, and after reading of the text.
• Especially important before reading text to establish personal link.

World Experiences (Text to World)

• May require more modeling.
• "Think aloud about background info. Make students aware of what they already know about the subject.
• Discussion, KWL charts, photographs, Informational text
• May need to frontload essential vocabulary/meaning.

Connections between texts (Text to Text)

Make connections to: Content, Genre, Author, Illustrator, Setting, Characters, Illustrations, Plots, Structure, Theme, Language, Tone

Inferring - Your connections + information from the text = tentative theory

• Go deeper than connection to infer what was NOT stated.
• Visualizing; Feel like you know the characters.

"Inferring involves going beyond the literal meaning of a text to derive what is not there but is implied."

Summarizing - Take select important information & create a concise statement.

• DRA reading assessment calls for retelling sequential details.
• We must model/teach students how to summarize.

Synthesizing - Meshing together of information from text and connections

• To gain a deeper understanding- different from the text & readers' previous understandings.
• Getting the 'big picture.'
• Looking for overall themes.

Analyzing - Reader becomes 'examiner'.

• Look at elements and how they fit together.
• Learn about crafting a text.
• Identify characteristics of a genre'
• Analyzing Fiction - Study description of characters, setting, and problem and how characters react.
• Analyzing Nonfiction - Learn how texts are organized. Includes: diagrams, maps, charts, photographs, headings, labels, signal words, bold print.

Critiquing - Evaluating or judging a text based on knowledge.

• Use your connections/knowledge to determine whether a statement/account is believable.
• Become thoughtful consumers of print - not believing that because it was in print, it was true.
• Question what they read.

Examples of teacher questions/prompts and student discussions are included for each comprehension strategy.

"A collective gain comes from a literate citizenry composed of competent readers who also think critically about what they read. Being a 'critical' citizen means questioning what one hears or reads and evaluating those texts for accuracy." pg. 368