Teaching Reading in Small Groups by Jennifer Serravallo

March 02, 2022 Post a Comment

This year The Reading Crew chose Educational activity Reading in Small Groups: Differentiated Instruction for Edifice Strategic, Contained Readers by Jennifer Serravallo every bit one of our professional development volume studies for the summertime of 2018.

This post features chapter 1 of the book Teaching Reading in Small Groups. This book study is for all teachers of reading. Check out the post for more details.

Simply like we teach our students, the most significant we become out of a book is when we can relate it to our lives. When we make a meaningful connectedness. Over the course of the next few weeks, I invite you to reflect on your own experiences equally a educatee and as a teacher. It takes reflection and questioning our current practices to improve our teaching and student learning. I will exist covering affiliate one, you can read more near me and my work by visiting my website selmadawani.com

Affiliate 1: Across Reading Groups, Beyond Guided Reading

Serravallo opens the chapter by examining elementary reading experiences that some of us had growing up in the eighties. At that place were usually only iii reading groups: low, heart, and high readers. Your teacher might take had names for them but in my feel the groups were referred to by color and we read from a textbook. All of u.s. have unique experiences and they no dubiousness shape the fashion nosotros approach education and pedagogy.

In the book, Serravallo comes to a realization most her own experiences of teaching in small groups. She asked herself "Is what I'k doing a benefit to the student, to myself (instructor) or to usa both?" With that purposeful question, she came to the conclusion that she was checking upwards on student comprehension more than than teaching comprehension. She did more didactics of the book than teaching the reader to read.

This realization set up her on a journey to be better at differentiated reading education past being flexible and purposeful of grouping students and develop a repertoire of ways to meet their needs.

So she adult the small-grouping method that nosotros will explore in the side by side coming weeks. The goal of small group instruction will help children to read with engagement and enthusiasm, read strategically, engage in meaningful chat about the books, read fluently and with expression and read more challenging texts.

Minor-group instruction is successful across diverse school communities, but a common thread binds them.

They are:
ane) teachers piece of work together to plan, rely on research and reply to children,
two) 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 5 tenets to reading instruction underly what reading instruction looks like and accomplishes. Reading instruction should include:

Small-group educational activity is basically a "grouping conference." The goal is to model the kinds of reading habits and skills we use to support pupil readers to do the same when they are reading alone. Group conferences let children to build reading relations with each other and help us to work more efficiently. When students are in a group with a mutual goal, they volition accomplish out to their peers when encountering questions.

Small-group instruction is flexible and tin can have on many forms depending on the purpose. Ask yourself "What am I helping the reader to learn most reading?" and " How much support does the student need from me to accomplish the task?" The answers to these questions volition assistance guide your decision about the structure and method of your pocket-sized-group instruction. Information technology could look like shared reading, it could look like a coaching conference, etc. It should seem more like a conference than annihilation else. Even though children are groups, students are seen as individuals and responses to each student are differentiated so that you lot help them acquire new learning and transition them to independent exercise.

The book explains that the methods and structures that will be outlined in this volume are balance of literacy which means that at that place are opportunities for students to scout the teacher, practice with teacher support and finally practise independently.

She states that it is important to be aware of where each component of reading workshop fits and to make certain it is balanced. How much of the activities are "I practise, We practice or You do?"

A question to consider in your journal reflection is, "How balanced is your literacy educational activity? Is there a way to bring more balance to ensure a bridge to independence?"

In this book written report, nosotros volition be focusing on the WE Do / WITH portion of counterbalanced literacy, specially how us as teachers volition support students equally they read moving them closer to independence. We will assess the educatee to find what they CAN DO and link new data, instead of assessing what they don't know. Then we will model, then support the pupil and finally motility them to independence by gradually releasing responsibleness. Nosotros will exercise this past explicitly teaching strategies such every bit determining importance, questioning, inferring, monitoring for pregnant, activating prior knowledge, visualizing, and synthesizing. The pocket-sized-group structures we will discover in this book will teach a quick strategy, allow students to read and utilise less time listening to u.s.a. talk!

Recall about your current reading grouping. Draw a bridge and separate information technology into three sections representing the continuum of TO / WITH / By and plug in the components of your reading instruction to run across what y'all are currently doing.

Small-grouping instruction values time spent, volume and diverseness of reading. Students choose their ain 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 instructor demonstrates, explains, setting the students up to exercise. Exercise is the most important role of the lesson which the author calls "engage."

I am excited to work through this book and hash out with all of you that will be post-obit us along this summer book report. Once you accept read the chapter and written your reflection questions, please comment below questions that you hope this book answers for you.