What is the purpose of guided reading; in other words why is guided reading important? After reading several articles on guided reading, I have a better understanding of why it is important or beneficial for students, ways to implement it in the classroom, as well as other interesting facts about guided reading. In the article Guided Reading - A Snapshot, it talks about one of the major benefits being that students are given the opportunity to work with students who are on the same reading level as they are. This not only allows them to feel comfortable within the group but they are able to work in small groups with the teacher's help. Guided reading seems to be an essential component in teaching children how to read and even just helping them more from reading level to reading level. There seems to be several ways that teachers can implement guided reading into their classrooms. The article talks about dividing the students up into small groups with children who are at or around the same reading levels, selecting the appropriate level text, sitting down with the group at a group table, introducing the new vocabulary, observe the students as they read, provide coaching as needed, review the text for comprehension, and of course having activities for the rest of the class while the teacher is helping each reading group. They also say that the main goal of guided reading is to foster a love for reading, confidence, and proficiency. All the articles that I have read on guided reading talk about ways to implement, how is helps every student, as well as giving other tips and resources to use.
Guided reading is definitely something that I can implement in my future classroom. It is not only important for every child to be able to read but they need to feel confident when reading and comprehend what they are reading. One of the things that I love about guided reading is the fact that the students are grouped with other students are reading at the same reading reading level. I think this is great because they can feel comfortable with themselves and not worry what the others will think. I just remember that I always hated reading in class because I didn't want my peers to make fun of me. I was always a very shy child and just hated reading in front of others but I feel that guided reading groups does a good job at preventing this. It seems like a great concept to use in the classroom.
Here are the links to a couple of the articles that I read for this blog.
http://www.k12reader.com/guided-reading-a-snapshot/
http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/guided_reading.html
GRRRRR, I just commented on your post but it never went through and Ijust lost everything that I said, Stupid Technology.....
ReplyDeleteAnyways,
I said i loved that you added the links to hubbardscupboards because its a wonderful website for teachers to use. I loved how you gave experiences about reading and being shy. I was also a shy student and didnt really like reading in front of anyone too. I think this is important to remember as a teacher, we need to keep in mind that students maybe shy and not like reading in front of their peers, however, guided reading does help eliminate some of these issues. I really liked reading your article and your blog. I am so glad that you learn from these articles and that you can find things to incorporate in the classroom.
I am glad the articles discussed the importance of fostering a love for reading. That is such an important aspect of guided reading and reading education in general. But, how do you think we can "foster" that love?
ReplyDeleteI think that we should make reading fun and enjoyable but at the same time educational. It can be enjoyable if we allow students to read books that they interested in and not just the textbooks.
ReplyDelete