I chose the article
GUIDED READING: The Romance and the Reality by Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell. The article explained that the concept of guided reading is "that students learn best when they are provided strong instructional support to extend themselves by reading texts that are on the edge of their learning—not too easy but not too hard" (p.269) Which after being in the classroom with children that are on the edge of taking off with their reading, I would have to say I agree. Allowing children to read a little bit more difficult readings that with some teacher's help they are able to read seems to have worked. It also allows the teachers an easy way to cater to every students needs by offering differentiated learning. It also says that we need to make sure the leveled readers are interesting, engaging, and enjoyable for the children. Which I think is extremely important, we need to make sure that children are learning to not only read, but enjoy reading.
This is the structure of a guided reading lesson that was included in the article.
Also, when discussing text difficulty these are some characteristics that teachers should keep in mind.
Do you think either of these charts left anything important off?
Guided Reading is a great instructional tool. I go to Centro de Hispano for tutoring and I see kids who have correct punctuation, but lack comprehension. I wonder is guided reading is done in their classrooms? I think that it will help students develop their own set of thinking skills mainly by building association with pictures.
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