Lesson Plan – Guided Reading

Guided reading supports students as they talk, think, and question their way through a text.  Based on information from previous assessments (e.g., during shared reading and informal observations) and formal assessment tools, a guided reading lesson allows the teacher to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of a small group of students who exhibit similar reading behaviours, have like interests, or who have similar instructional needs.  They read a text selected by the teacher to provide a moderate challenge and, while reading, they use previously taught strategies and skills to construct meaning.

During guided reading, the teacher gives the students much of the responsibility for the reading of the text but provides support by coaching and promoting the students in effective reading strategies, assisting with unfamiliar vocabulary and modeling questioning to promote higher-order thinking and critical literacy.

The teacher completes an in-depth assessment during guided reading and provides assessment feedback to the students to help them improve their learning.  The teacher also reflects on information collected during assessment to determine the nest step for instruction.  Guided reading sessions give teacher valuable insight into the strategies and behaviours that students are using and help teachers identify strategies that students have not yet mastered.  Guided reading sessions also allow teachers to see how individual students solve problems when the meaning is unclear or vocabulary is unfamiliar and, if necessary, to intervene in a timely fashion with appropriate questions, prompts, and other forms of guidance.

Guided reading is the bridge between shared reading and independent reading. It allows teachers to help students make the transition from teacher modeling to student independence. In guided reading, the teacher scaffolds the learning of a small group of students as they apply strategies previously taught during read-aloud and shared reading to an unfamiliar, but carefully selected, text. This text is within the students' instructional range and provides reasonable challenges for learning. The teacher supports the students as they talk, read, and think their way through a text using effective reading strategies.

While the teacher works with a guided reading group, the rest of the class engages in independent activities. From the first week of school, the teacher provides many opportunities for students to practice learning centre routines before working independently in small groups.

The following assessment tools provide information about phrasing, fluency, comprehension, and individual student interests and can help teachers determine to form or re-form guided reading groups:

Ø  Cloze procedure

Ø  Records of reading behavior

Ø  Interest surveys

Ø  Reading conferences

Ø  Reading tracking sheets

Ø  Benchmark readings

Before Reading

1. Discussing title
2. Discussing the front cover
3. Reading the blurb
4. Predicting what story will be about
5. Discussing the author (where appropriate)

During Reading

My aim always is to foster critical thinking, extend the children's knowledge of language and experiences, examine literacy style and foster a love of learning through reading.

Because of this, I try to get a balance between text and related tasks. I deliberately steer away from too many comprehension and cloze exercises, because through ongoing discussion and during the course of the group reading and the resulting discussion within the group, I get a feel for the children's understanding.

It is in this time too, I teach clearly about reading:

• use of punctuation when reading
• meaning of words in context (their origins, looking for patterns)
• gaining meaning from text
• looking for inference
• the message of the author
• the development of character (character analysis)

Teaching children to read aloud is really important as a skill in itself. When children read aloud, the teacher is able to pick up on any errors, identify common needs and explore text type, author style, as well as relate text to children's own experiences or to experiences from other texts.

The teacher can also help children identify the stages of the book:

• the orientation
• the complication
• the resolution

These can be "teased" out to generate some interesting activities. For example, orientation can be done on:

• Setting
• Character development
• Key questions - What do I know? What do I want to know?

It is often in this stage that children need to research for background information. This is when tasks such as research (e.g. about an event, animal, etc.) can help the child's understanding.

The resolution is often a good discussion point, especially if the child didn't like the ending. Many children like to write their own ending. It's good, too, if the book leaves the reader "up in the air”. At this point, students often enjoy drawing scenes and story maps and composing interviews with a character.

Working with The Giver by Lois Lowry (see below for image)

This is a text recommended for Grade 6. It is a very powerful, thought provoking text which challenges our own and society’s values.

Jonas, the main character, lives in a perfect world where people leave forsaken memory, emotion, pain and free choice for security, comfort and sameness. The community selects the roles of each member and dictates their stages of progression and involvement. "Ones" are named and given to their family. "Nines" get their bicycles. "Birthmothers" give birth to three children and then become labourers (they have low status in the community!). When Jonas is assigned the role of "Receiver", it is considered the ultimate honour. He learns from the old Receiver (whom he calls Giver) that he is the only person in the community to have all the memories (pain, love, excitement etc.).

As Jonas experiences these emotions and memories he realizes how important they are and the loss to the community. When he discovers the lie which supports his community, he decides he must change things back to the way they were.

This is a book very much for the advanced mature reader. It raises issues and poses disturbing questions and issues that must be discussed for the children to gain meaning.

Before Reading

Children are asked to create their own "Perfect Community".

• What makes it perfect?
• Describe it.
• What are the rules of your community and the roles of its members?
• How does the community function?
• How would our society have to change to make it perfect?
• What do people lose?
• What concessions do we make for the good of our community?
• What are some rules of your community?
• What happens when people break the rules in your "perfect" community and our own community?

Much discussion of each child's ideas takes place before, during and after this task. They then make a visual representation of their community.

Introducing The Giver

The Cover:

• What do you see on the cover? (Use of black and white, contrasting with colour, two images of the boy).
• Where is the boy?

Read the blurb. Discuss what "conforming" means. Read the dedication. What do you think it means?

During Reading

Children read together every second day. Because of the content, I feel they need to be "guided" totally through the text. I read the first chapter to the class. At the end, I pose the following questions for the children to answer.

• What do we know about the setting? The community?
• What are the roles of the characters in the community?
• How is the community organized?
• How does the people of the community act, speak?
• What is one of their family rituals?
• What questions are you left with?

They write these down.

When children return we discuss their ideas. If some issues haven't been raised, I pose my own questions, e.g.

• What do you think "being released" means?
• When are we told people are released?
• When do they call children "seven" and a "group of seven" using a capital letter?
• Why do the children refer to the visitor as acting "like animals" and then we're told neither child knew exactly what the word meant?
• What does this tell us about life in the community?

Often we use the open discussion for these questions. I mix it up with written questions so it gives me a further chance to analyze how the children understand the text, the issues, and the underlying ideas. For example, a writing task I would set would be to describe Jonas' family ritual and to describe the ritual of their own family.

The aim is to cover a chapter a lesson. This is an intensive explicit teaching time involving discussion, voicing opinions, finding meaning of words and exploring the development of the plot.

The plot is very complex and there are sub-plots interwoven throughout the book. Through questions, discussion, writing, drawing and actually doing a plot line, children are able to explore the text.

• By drawing a plot line children are able to rationalize what is happening in the text, the relationships between characters and their role in the community.
• It is also beneficial to explore character development as this gives greater meaning to what is happening in the text.

In the first five chapters we're introduced to the "Ceremony", the rules and organization of the community, the assignment of children to families and the structured progress of each child (e.g. the "Naming" of a child by the Committee, the giving of comfort objects).

I give the children the task of plotting this information in their reading log . Through discussion and brainstorming we parallel the rituals of Jonas' life with our own experiences within our family and community (christening, adoption, schooling, toys, comfort objects; we look at how these relate to the sex of the child; we note the ages for drivers' license, voting, adulthood).

The plot deepens when Gabriel is introduced to the family. Jonas realizes he has the same light eyes as Gabriel; this is rare as most other citizens have dark eyes. Lily, his sister, wonders if they "may be had the same birth mother". Later she states that she hopes to be assigned as a birth mother.

"Lily!" mother spoke very sharply.

"Don't say that. There's very little honour in that assignment."

This is an example of a real issue raised in the book - one we can relate to our own perception of roles in our community. This often incites great debate among the group. Issues like this occur throughout the book and the spontaneous discussions that arise become an invaluable part of the reading. The sheer pleasure gained makes it all worthwhile.

The hierarchy of power within the community is worthy of exploration:

• The Receiver
• Committee of Elders
• Family unit head - mother/father
• Family unit members - son/daughter

In Chapter 5 Jonas experiences "the stirrings". He is given a pill so they will disappear. Much discussion arises from this and I deal with it during the reading. I relate it back to the children, many of whom are beginning puberty.

After Reading

Children are asked to do a wall painting (where they all discuss and choose the media) of "The Giver." This will include "The Community" (in black and white), some characters, through to Jonas' flight path and the changing environment and his final destination. They are asked to complete the plot line and the character profile of "The Giver". They then conduct interviews with Jonas, The Giver and another person of their choice wherein they let it be known what has become of them.

The discussion is of paramount importance as it helps children make sense of the text.

Final Group Discussion

We discuss the following questions:

• What is Lois Lowry's message?
• How does the Community parallel with ours?

CONCLUSION

The Teacher aim is:

• make guided reading a continuous program for grade 6
• improve the children's comprehension levels
• develop a love of books which has come about through sharing books
• give the children the opportunity to talk about the books, voice their opinion and listen to what others have to say.
• expose the children to a variety of authors, illustrators and genre

At the end of this process the teacher aim is to be left with a confident, independent and critical reader, who thoroughly enjoys reading.