Reflection
Through my action research, I learned the benefits of consistently implementing well-structured guided reading lessons. Before the action research, I did not organize my guided reading lessons in effective ways, which left me feeling like my lessons were ineffective and rushed. In addition, my students were not progressing in their reading abilities like they should have been. After researching, I was able to fully implement the structure of the Fountas and Pinnell lesson format, which provided me with structured lessons that helped train me to be organized, efficient, and impactful in my teaching. This not only benefited how I felt about my teaching, but how my students progressed in their reading abilities.
As a first year teacher and new to kindergarten, I was completely overwhelmed when thinking about teaching guided reading. There was a lot of pressure to teach effective guided reading lessons, and to get students to a certain reading level by the end of the year. However, there was not a lot of support in telling me how to accomplish this goal. The action research allowed me to dive deep into the literature to research various ways to structure a guided reading lesson. This ultimately led me to the Fountas and Pinnell structured lesson plan. By using this structured model, I now feel confident in my guided reading lessons.
At the start of my action research, I had the students I was not meeting with engaged in literacy center activities. Initially, I had my literacy center activities set up so students were working in pairs. However, because of behavior disruptions I changed the set-up of my stations so that all students were working independently. This allowed for minimal disruption to my guided reading groups, which led to more effective lessons. Next year I plan to use the same format to guide my guided reading lessons. However, I will plan to start this at the very beginning of the year, instead of mid-way through the year.
In the future because of this research, I will be able to implement effective guided reading lessons at the beginning of the year. This will allow for students to grow more throughout the entire year, opposed to just the second half of the year. For myself, this means that I will be able to see how teaching effective guided reading lessons impacts student growth over the course of an entire year. I will be able to further develop my lessons even more effectively with more experience, and my confidence will continue to grow in this area.
