This year The Reading Crew chose Teaching Reading in Small
Groups: Differentiated Instruction for Building Strategic, Independent Readers
by Jennifer Serravallo as one of our professional development book studies for the
summer of 2018.
Just like we teach our students, the most meaning we get out
of a book is when we can relate it to our lives. When we make a meaningful
connection. Over the course of the next few weeks, I invite you to reflect on
your own experiences as a student and as a teacher. It takes reflection and
questioning our current practices to improve our teaching and student learning. I will be covering chapter one, you can read more about me and my work by visiting my website selmadawani.com
Chapter 1: Beyond Reading Groups, Beyond Guided Reading
Serravallo opens the chapter by examining elementary reading
experiences that some of us had growing up in the eighties. There were usually
only three reading groups: low, middle, and high readers. Your teacher might
have had names for them but in my experience the groups were referred to by
color and we read from a textbook. All of us have unique experiences and they
no doubt shape the way we approach education and teaching.
In the book, Serravallo comes to a realization about her own
experiences of teaching in small groups. She asked herself “Is what I’m doing a
benefit to the student, to myself (teacher) or to us both?” With that
purposeful question, she came to the conclusion that she was checking up on
student comprehension more than teaching comprehension. She did more teaching
of the book than teaching the reader to read.
This realization set her on a journey to be better at
differentiated reading instruction by being flexible and purposeful of grouping
students and develop a repertoire of ways to meet their needs.
So she developed the small-group method that we will explore
in the next coming weeks. The goal of small group instruction will help
children to read with engagement and enthusiasm, read strategically, engage in
meaningful conversation about the books, read fluently and with expression and
read more challenging texts.
Small-group instruction is successful across diverse school communities,
but a common thread binds them.
They are:
1) teachers work together to plan, rely on research and respond to children,
2) they have reading and writing workshops, daily read-alouds, word study for phonics, spelling and vocabulary,
3) they are committed to small-group instruction.
They are:
1) teachers work together to plan, rely on research and respond to children,
2) they have reading and writing workshops, daily read-alouds, word study for phonics, spelling and vocabulary,
3) they are committed to small-group instruction.
Serravallo states that the five tenets to reading
instruction underly what reading instruction looks like and accomplishes.
Reading instruction should include:
Small-group instruction is basically a “group
conference.” The goal is to model the
kinds of reading habits and skills we use to support student readers to do the
same when they are reading alone. Group conferences allow children to build
reading relations with each other and help us to work more efficiently. When
students are in a group with a common goal, they will reach out to their peers
when encountering questions.
Small-group instruction is flexible and can take on many
forms depending on the purpose. Ask
yourself “What am I helping the reader to learn about reading?” and “ How much
support does the student need from me to accomplish the task?” The answers to
these questions will help guide your decision about the structure and method of
your small-group instruction. It could look like shared reading, it could look
like a coaching conference, etc. It should seem more like a conference than
anything else. Even though children are groups, students are seen as
individuals and responses to each student are differentiated so that you help
them acquire new learning and transition them to independent practice.
The book explains that the methods and structures that will
be outlined in this book are balance of literacy which means that there are
opportunities for students to watch the teacher, practice with teacher support
and finally practice independently.
She states that it is important to be aware of where each
component of reading workshop fits and to make sure it is balanced. How much of
the activities are “I do, We do or You do?”
A question to consider in your journal reflection is, “How
balanced is your literacy instruction? Is there a way to bring more balance to
ensure a bridge to independence?”
In this book study, we will be focusing on the WE DO / WITH
portion of balanced literacy, particularly how us as teachers will support
students as they read moving them closer to independence. We will assess the
student to find what they CAN DO and link new information, instead of assessing
what they don’t know. Then we will model, then support the student and finally move
them to independence by gradually releasing responsibility. We will do this by
explicitly teaching strategies such as determining importance, questioning,
inferring, monitoring for meaning, activating prior knowledge, visualizing, and
synthesizing. The small-group structures we will discover in this book will
teach a quick strategy, allow students to read and use less time listening to
us talk!
Think about your current reading group. Draw a bridge and
divide it into three sections representing the continuum of TO / WITH / BY and
plug in the components of your reading instruction to see what you are
currently doing.
Small-group instruction values time spent, volume and
variety of reading. Students choose their own books instead of assigning books.
The group begins by the teacher stating the purpose for the group and
reinforcing a strength, Serravallo calls this “connect and compliment.” The
next portion is “teach” where the teacher demonstrates, explains, setting the
students up to practice. Practice is the most important part of the lesson
which the author calls “engage.”
I am excited to work through this book and discuss with all
of you that will be following us along this summer book study. Once you have
read the chapter and written your reflection questions, please comment below
questions that you hope this book answers for you.
Links to Each Chapter:
I have struggled with successfully implementing small groups in my classroom. I feel that the children have not benefited. I’m hoping this book will help find an approach that works.
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting on this blog post! I love working with small groups - I feel like that is where I shine as a teacher - I hope to learn more tips and strategies with this book too... Can I ask you exactly what kind of issues you run into during small groups?
ReplyDelete