For many educators, pulling children to a guided reading table felt like a highlight. Reading books, discussing them, and fostering a love for literature seemed ideal. However, traditional guided reading often falls short in equipping children with the skills necessary for independent reading. This article delves into the concept of A-z Guided Reading, its limitations, and a more effective alternative approach to small group instruction.
Understanding Guided Reading: A Critical Look
Guided reading, popularized by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell, is often defined as small-group instruction where a teacher supports each reader’s development of strategic actions for processing new texts at increasingly challenging levels. In essence, it involves progressing students through a series of leveled texts. While this approach seems straightforward, a closer examination reveals some significant drawbacks. Learning A-Z defines guided reading similarly, emphasizing texts at the reader’s level, supporting their reading development.
The core issue with traditional guided reading lies in its heavy reliance on leveled texts. It can feel as if reading is a video game where advancing to the next level is the primary objective. Phonics instruction might be included, but it’s often embedded and lacks a systematic or sequential approach. Similarly, comprehension strategies or basic writing activities are frequently tied back to the leveled text, making the text the focal point, not the student’s individual needs.
For numerous teachers, guided reading represents the only familiar small group system. Educators are often taught to group students by reading levels, yet the fluidity of these groups is rarely a reality. Guided reading is incorrectly viewed as a one-size-fits-all solution to cater for both struggling and advanced readers.
The flaw in guided reading stems from the arbitrariness and unreliability of guided reading levels. These levels are not normed and often fail to account for crucial factors like background knowledge and vocabulary. A student with extensive background knowledge of a topic might find a level L text easy, while another student lacking that knowledge might struggle significantly with the same text.
Moving Beyond Leveled Texts: Targeted Small Groups
Instead of relying on guided reading, consider implementing targeted small groups designed around specific needs in phonemic awareness, letter-sound knowledge, basic phonics, or background knowledge and vocabulary. Let’s explore each of these areas.
If a child struggles with letter names and sounds, that’s the ideal starting point. Rather than rushing into leveled texts, focus on building phonemic awareness and letter-sound knowledge through various engaging activities. Repeated exposure to letters is essential, allowing students to internalize them. Once they grasp the basics, introduce segmenting and blending CVC words using familiar letters.
Missing Letter Alphabet Practice
The majority of small groups should concentrate on explicit phonics instruction. A structured literacy approach, such as an Orton-Gillingham lesson, can significantly benefit students. These lessons should explicitly teach sound-symbol correspondences, providing ample opportunities for students to practice reading and spelling.
Another critical area for targeted small groups is building background knowledge and vocabulary. Morphology instruction is particularly valuable. Once students are comfortable with most single-syllable words, you can introduce traditional texts, focusing on building background knowledge around specific content areas like science or social studies. Spending several weeks on a topic helps students expand their knowledge base, promoting deeper understanding.
Rejecting Levels: A Student-Centered Approach
It is critical to move away from trusting guided reading levels and returning to a reliance on their supposed accuracy.
The “factors related to text difficulty chart,” often used in guided reading, considers aspects like genre, text structure, content, themes, language, sentence complexity, vocabulary, illustrations, and print features. While seemingly comprehensive, this approach often fails to meet the specific needs of young learners. Instead of relying on predictable books labeled with a level A, educators should tailor their instruction to address individual instructional needs and teach specific skills.
Terminology Matters: Shifting the Focus
It’s crucial to recognize that guided reading is associated with specific practices heavily reliant on leveled texts. Therefore, if you’re teaching small groups without using leveled texts or adhering to those practices, you’re not engaging in guided reading, and that’s a positive step.
While some might argue for retaining aspects of guided reading, it’s more effective to embrace evidence-based practices that prioritize student needs. There are many better ways to teach children to read than using guided reading.
Conclusion: Prioritizing Student Needs Over Leveled Texts
Transitioning away from guided reading groups and embracing a structured literacy approach can be challenging. However, it’s essential to move away from arbitrary leveling systems and prioritize student needs in small group instruction. For many students, small group instruction is their only form of intervention, highlighting the importance of ditching ineffective practices and adopting approaches that truly empower them as readers. Instead of letting the text lead the way, student needs should lead the way in small groups.
