I’m back linking up with my amazing #GuidedReadingGals for Chapter 5 of The Next Steps in Guided Reading! This week Tobi from Teacher Talk with Mrs. Sadler is hosting our study and linky. Head over to her blog for a more detailed review of this chapter.
Now this chapter was a lot more difficult for me to grasp only because we do not see many of these readers in Kindergarten. However, last year I was blessed with an amazing group of students and I had 3 students that were on this level by middle of the year. Cue panic attack for me because I did not know what to do! Now if I only had this book sooner we would have been set.
During this time with these students, I focused more on comprehension and writing. They had a basket full of decoding strategies already and were very fluent with their reading. However, I wanted to make sure that they understood what they were reading and not simply reciting words on a page.
Vocabulary is a big element for these readers. Start off by introducing the new words by saying the word and giving a simple definition. Do not ask the students if they know what the word means because students may give confusing definitions. Then connect the new word to the student’s background knowledge and prior experiences. Relate the word to the text and look at an illustration if possible. Finally have the students turn and talk to their neighbor to explain the new word.
During Guided Writing Time, one of their favorite resources was the personal word wall. This made them feel more independent when writing. We discussed how to use this tool as a resource while writing. We practiced slowly saying the word to determine how the word started to know which column to look for the word. They would use decoding skills to determine if the word they located was the correct word they were looking for to write. We will constantly add words each student used frequently to their word wall to personalize it to them. We pulled these out all throughout the day and not only during Guided Reading time. The words wall we used are from Michelle Oakes.
This chapter also offers plans for Word Study. A few activities remain the same with slight changes such as sound boxes with 4-5 boxes and using magnetic letters to build words. But there are also different activities geared towards these readers. One of the activities is the Analogy Charts. These are similar to T-charts. They can be used to teach silent e, vowel patterns, & endings. The students will write the two key words at the top. You will then dictate words with the same pattern for the students to write. These words should be words that students do not know how to write automatically. Here are a few examples from the book.
Now head on over to Tobi’s blog to read more about Chapter 5!
