Shared Reading is an important link in helping students become independent readers. It allows the teacher to model and support students using prediction and confirming skills. It allows less confident students the chance to share stories/articles/poetry in a non-threatening situation. It focuses on the meaning, fun, enjoyment, characters and sequence of a story and allows them to relate it back to their own experiences. It promotes discussion, problem-solving and critical thinking by students. According to Lyons & Pinnell (2001), shared reading is an interactive reading experience. An integral component of shared reading is an enlarged text allowing all children can see. Children join in the reading of a big book or other enlarged text such as songs, poems, charts, and lists created by the teacher.
During Shared Reading
- Rich, authentic, interesting literature can be used, even in the earliest phases of a reading program, with children whose word-identification skills would not otherwise allow them access to this quality literature.
- Each reading of a selection provides opportunities for the teacher to model reading for the children.
- Opportunities for concept and language expansion exist that would not be possible if instruction relied only on selections that students could read independently.
- Awareness of the functions of print, familiarity with language patterns, and word-recognition skills grow as children interact several times with the same selection.
- Individual needs of students can be more adequately met through differentiated instruction. Accelerated readers are challenged by the interesting, natural language of selections. Because of the support offered by the teacher, students who are more slowly acquiring reading skills experience success.
Guided reading is an instructional reading strategy during which a teacher works with small groups of children who have similar reading processes and needs. The teacher selects and introduces new books carefully chosen to match the instructional levels of students and supports whole text reading. Readers are carefully prepared when being introduced to a new text and various teaching points are made during and after reading. According to Lyons & Pinnell (2001), guided reading fosters comprehension skills and strategies, develops background knowledge and oral language skills, and provides as much instructional-level reading as possible. During guided reading, students are given exposure to a wide variety of texts and are challenged to select from a growing repertoire of strategies that allow them to tackle new texts more independently. Ongoing observation and assessment help to inform instruction and grouping of students is flexible and may be changed often (Dozier, 2006).
References:
Dozier, C. (2006). Responsive Literacy Coaching. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.
Lyons, C. and Pinnel, G. (2001). Systems for Change in Literacy Education. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
3 comments:
William,
Your research is commonplace in the AYP schools across America as more and more educators are searching for more prudent ways to educate the youth of tomorrow. As a matter of fact, at my school, we are currently practicing some the balance literacy techniques such as, guided reading, read alouds, creative reading logs, and rotational instructional model. To that end, I believe differentiated instruction is key when it come to multiple levels of reading.
Stan,
You are correct. Teaching reading through a balanced literacy approach is common in most schools across America due to the strength in theory. However, some still believe it is a program or package deal to promote reading when is actuality it a compilation of best practices.
Thanks for your reponse!
William
Stan,
Our school is practicing the same balanced literacy model. We have also spent a tremendous amount of money implementing differentiated instruction at our school. Last summer, we sent 19 people to the conference in Vegas and plan to send more this year. It has had a great impact on the way we teach. It has also pushed inclusion at our school for those students who are able to function in an inclusive setting.
We have reading logs at school as well. I love them because they allow the students to see how much they are reading and how their level has increased.
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