What was implemented?
Effective planning and consistent implementation of guided reading lessons using the Fountas and Pinnell suggested lesson outline was implemented. The lesson plans had proper structure, pacing, and targeted skills. The lesson plan template included before reading, during reading, after reading, and word work sections. Fridays were used to collect formative data to check student progress.
Why were these strategies implemented?
Guided Reading experts Fountas and Pinnell (2017), state there are nine steps in the guided reading process that should be included within every guided reading
lesson to make it effective. The steps include know the readers, select and analyze texts, introduce the text, students read the text, discuss the text, make a teaching
point, work with words, extend understanding, and reflect on the lesson and planning. It is important for teachers to plan effectively for guided reading lessons so that students can develop into well-rounded readers. According to Fountas and Pinnell (2014), while readers read books, posts, blogs, magazines, etc. their brains are subconsciously and simultaneously performing a variety of in-the-head actions in order to comprehend the text in front of them. Readers notice unfamiliar words, form opinions, and make predictions, etc. These are just three of the 12 Systems of Strategic Actions that simultaneously happen in a reader's mind while they are processing a text. This is why I chose to use the nine suggested steps, as well as the Systems of Strategic Actions to guide my planning.
When was it implemented?
Four guided reading lessons per day were implemented Monday-Thursday in the afternoon from 12:15-1:00, and 1:35-2:15. Each group lasted between 15-20 minutes. I met with my non-reading group, level A group, and level B group on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. I met with my level C group on Mondays and Wednesdays, and my level D group on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Fridays were used as an assessment day to monitor how students progressed. Below is the schedule that was followed.
How was it Implemented?
I selected instructionally-appropriate leveled books for each group, along with appropriate leveled word work activities. This required analyzing the book, and word work skills that needed to be targeted in order for students to grow in their reading abilities. The Fountas and Pinnell text levels run from A-Z, starting with A being the easiest level, and increasing in difficulty as the levels progress to Z.
The lessons started with a brief 1-2 minute introduction of the book. This was the “before reading” portion of the lesson. The purpose of the introduction was to build background information, link to personal connections, identify tricky words and key vocabulary, and get the reader interested in reading the book. The lessons then moved into the “during reading” portion, which was when students independently read the book. Students read one-on-one with me during this time while I took anecdotal notes and prompted students as needed. Students used reading strategy characters to reinforce decoding strategies during this portion of the lesson. For example, I used “stretchy snake” to remind students to stretch out the word, “chunky monkey” to look for recognizable word chunks within unfamiliar words, “flippy dolphin” to flip the vowel in the word if the word did not make sense, etc. Students used bookmarks with all 8 decoding strategy characters on it to reinforce independent problem solving while reading. The next portion of the lesson was “after reading." Once students had an adequate amount of time to read the text, we begin a discussion of the text. During this time I asked open ended questions to get students to think deeper about the text. I used the Systems of Strategic Actions, which are 12 strategies to get students thinking within the text, beyond the text, and about the text, to guide my questioning. For example, a thinking beyond the text question targeting the skill inferring could sound like, “How does the main character’s face on pg. 2 explain how she might be feeling during this part of the story?” The last part of the lesson focused on 2-3 minutes of word work. During this time students experimented with spelling patterns, word families, prefixes, suffixes, memorizing high-frequency words, etc.
Word Work
Timeline
