A kindergarten guided reading lesson
A snapshot of what I observed:
The teacher met with a small guided reading group of 3 students. The rest of the students were working at their centers. They appeared to be engaged in the independent practice of read to self, read with a partner, word work, work on writing or listen to reading.
When the group came to the table for their lesson, they were told to get out their journals. Two students followed directions quickly and opened up automatically to the next empty page. The third student had forgotten his journal and book for the group at home. (The teacher shared he had forgotten it all week, so he would owe some recess time.) The teacher gave each student a paper to glue into their notebook. (She reviewed how to use the glue stick, and they glued it independently.) She asked one student to tell her what the pictures were of in the first box. The student correctly identified 3 pictures, calling the 4th a mouse. The teacher asks what else it could be? The student responds, “a rat.” The teacher then prompts the students to find pictures of words that rhyme in the box. The students had no trouble doing this, and drew lines to connect the rhyming pictures. They are directed to go on the next box and try it by themselves. They work quickly and quietly. The teacher makes a purple star on their page after checking their work and prompts them to the next box. This continues until the page is finished. I notice that one student had correctly connected mouse and house, but when she checked herself she said, “rat and house.” She says "oh no,” and quickly erases the line and sits and looks at the picture. I whispered to her, "What is another name for this if it’s not a rat?" She quickly says, “oh” and reconnects the pictures saying, “house and mouse.”
The teacher told me that just yesterday; this group really struggled with rhyming words. Today they are whizzing through them. A student gets stuck on one of the boxes and the teacher asks him questions, prompting him to solve for the answer independently.
Once they are all finished with the rhyming page, they get out their guided reading book and begin to read it aloud together. The teacher gives each student a monkey on a stick to use to track their words as they read. She keeps a note pad in front of her where she jots down notes to use to guide her instruction.
As the students read aloud, if they come to an unknown word, the teacher uses a prompt to help them remember what strategy would be best to use to solve the word. Each student is reading aloud quietly, at his/her own rate. The teacher drops in to listen to each student read. She prompts one student to use his "Eagle Eye" (use the picture clues) several times. When he does he easily solves the word independently. His first go-to strategy seems to be sounding out the word.
My suggestions, next steps:
I really liked the release to independent practice that the teacher demonstrated with her students. She modeled an example, and discussed her expectation, but then expected her students to practice independently. She provided the scaffolding they needed to be successful, but did not tell them the answer. This is a great example of what Vinton & Barnhouse (2012) discuss in What Readers Really Do. They explain that too much teacher talk is counterproductive. Teachers should provide students with a tool to help them produce their own meaning. During this lesson, the reminder, of which strategy the student may want to use helped the student process and practice, yet they felt successful at solving the problem independently.
Since rhyming was an area of concern with this group, I would suggest that the teacher use picture clues with the words under them next time to see if the students are able to make the connection of the picture to the text for the purpose of rhyming. I would also encourage the teacher to have the students write words that rhyme, giving them the base chunk to use and changing the beginning sounds. This word play may help them to better internalize what it means to rhyme and how words that rhyme look similar.
Focus on formative assessment:
During the rhyming lesson, the teacher noticed the students were confident in completing the second part of the first box independently. She used this information to prompt them to work on the next box independently. Once she saw their success she prompted them to finish independently. Working slowly at first to monitor understanding, allowed her to note their mastery of the skill before allowing complete independent practice.
The teacher kept anecdotal notes throughout her lesson. She would jot down both strengths and weaknesses she noticed as the children worked and read. She used these notes to choose her talking point after they finished reading, to close the lesson. She will also use these notes to plan for the next time the group meets.
Resource:
Barnhouse, D. and Vinton, V. (2012). What readers really do: teaching the process of meaning making. Portsmouth: Heinemann
A snapshot of what I observed:
The teacher met with a small guided reading group of 3 students. The rest of the students were working at their centers. They appeared to be engaged in the independent practice of read to self, read with a partner, word work, work on writing or listen to reading.
When the group came to the table for their lesson, they were told to get out their journals. Two students followed directions quickly and opened up automatically to the next empty page. The third student had forgotten his journal and book for the group at home. (The teacher shared he had forgotten it all week, so he would owe some recess time.) The teacher gave each student a paper to glue into their notebook. (She reviewed how to use the glue stick, and they glued it independently.) She asked one student to tell her what the pictures were of in the first box. The student correctly identified 3 pictures, calling the 4th a mouse. The teacher asks what else it could be? The student responds, “a rat.” The teacher then prompts the students to find pictures of words that rhyme in the box. The students had no trouble doing this, and drew lines to connect the rhyming pictures. They are directed to go on the next box and try it by themselves. They work quickly and quietly. The teacher makes a purple star on their page after checking their work and prompts them to the next box. This continues until the page is finished. I notice that one student had correctly connected mouse and house, but when she checked herself she said, “rat and house.” She says "oh no,” and quickly erases the line and sits and looks at the picture. I whispered to her, "What is another name for this if it’s not a rat?" She quickly says, “oh” and reconnects the pictures saying, “house and mouse.”
The teacher told me that just yesterday; this group really struggled with rhyming words. Today they are whizzing through them. A student gets stuck on one of the boxes and the teacher asks him questions, prompting him to solve for the answer independently.
Once they are all finished with the rhyming page, they get out their guided reading book and begin to read it aloud together. The teacher gives each student a monkey on a stick to use to track their words as they read. She keeps a note pad in front of her where she jots down notes to use to guide her instruction.
As the students read aloud, if they come to an unknown word, the teacher uses a prompt to help them remember what strategy would be best to use to solve the word. Each student is reading aloud quietly, at his/her own rate. The teacher drops in to listen to each student read. She prompts one student to use his "Eagle Eye" (use the picture clues) several times. When he does he easily solves the word independently. His first go-to strategy seems to be sounding out the word.
My suggestions, next steps:
I really liked the release to independent practice that the teacher demonstrated with her students. She modeled an example, and discussed her expectation, but then expected her students to practice independently. She provided the scaffolding they needed to be successful, but did not tell them the answer. This is a great example of what Vinton & Barnhouse (2012) discuss in What Readers Really Do. They explain that too much teacher talk is counterproductive. Teachers should provide students with a tool to help them produce their own meaning. During this lesson, the reminder, of which strategy the student may want to use helped the student process and practice, yet they felt successful at solving the problem independently.
Since rhyming was an area of concern with this group, I would suggest that the teacher use picture clues with the words under them next time to see if the students are able to make the connection of the picture to the text for the purpose of rhyming. I would also encourage the teacher to have the students write words that rhyme, giving them the base chunk to use and changing the beginning sounds. This word play may help them to better internalize what it means to rhyme and how words that rhyme look similar.
Focus on formative assessment:
During the rhyming lesson, the teacher noticed the students were confident in completing the second part of the first box independently. She used this information to prompt them to work on the next box independently. Once she saw their success she prompted them to finish independently. Working slowly at first to monitor understanding, allowed her to note their mastery of the skill before allowing complete independent practice.
The teacher kept anecdotal notes throughout her lesson. She would jot down both strengths and weaknesses she noticed as the children worked and read. She used these notes to choose her talking point after they finished reading, to close the lesson. She will also use these notes to plan for the next time the group meets.
Resource:
Barnhouse, D. and Vinton, V. (2012). What readers really do: teaching the process of meaning making. Portsmouth: Heinemann