Guided Practice for Reading Growth, Grades 4-8. Laura Robb

for these students (Donahoo, 2016). That year, the fifth grade team not only improved their teaching skill by learning from students, but they also made a commitment to professional learning and becoming evolving teachers who continually grow and improve their practice.

      Developing Readers Need Skilled Teachers

      Skilled teachers create an environment where choice and negotiation are daily options for students. In addition, they recognize the importance of ongoing professional learning as a powerful pathway to develop, adjust, and refine their theory of learning to make decisions that boost students’ progress.

      Skilled Teachers Observe Students Carefully

      Watching and listening to students can deepen your understanding of what they do and don’t comprehend as well as their ability to explain ideas to peers, follow directions, use independent work time well, be active listeners who respond to what peers say, and their level of engagement in a learning experience. The eight tools that follow enable you to see each student as a unique individual and deepen your knowledge of how each one communicates, works with a team, analyzes material, listens, connects ideas, and transfers learning to different situations.

      Kidwatching:

      Be relentless with observing students during interactive read-alouds, guided practice, instructional reading, student-led paired and small group discussions, and independent reading of self-selected books. You can notice and note whether students are listening, participating in discussions, talking out of turn, have materials for a lesson, frequently get up to sharpen pencils, or ask for a bathroom pass.

      Listening:

      Tune your ears to whole class, small group, and partner discussions, and learn how students express their ideas and cite text evidence to support their thinking. You’ll also note how frequently they participate, whether they value diverse interpretations of texts, and how they react to peers who challenge their thinking.

      Raising questions:

      Skilled teachers have a questioning mindset and wonder about students’ motivation, attitudes toward learning, and book choices. They encourage students to pose questions about how and what they are learning, knowing that students’ queries can make visible concerns and confusions.

      Conferring:

      Short, scheduled conferences between the teacher and student can reveal attitudes toward reading, past experiences with reading, the amount of independent reading completed at home, and students’ comprehension and recall.

      Fifth grade teacher Stacey Yost uses conferences to maintain the momentum of reading, so a student who never completed a book reads an entire self-selected book. Each week, Stacey confers with the student about a section completed and closes the conference inviting the student to decide how many pages he/she can read by their next meeting (see Figure 1.2 for a glimpse at Stacey’s notes). “Students choose the book and set their own pace and goal,” she says, “and that invests them in the reading. Most of the time, the student exceeds his/her goal and that offers me an opportunity to celebrate success. A student’s weekly goal rises as success continues. Once they experience the joy of completing a book, they’re ready and eager to read another one.”

      Description

      Figure 1.2: Notice how Stacey schedules frequent meetings to help the student complete the book.

      Interacting:

      Even brief interactions that occur during daily read-alouds, or as you circulate around the room during independent reading and stop to answer a student’s question or listen to a discussion, can deepen your knowledge of what students understand and whether they require extra support. It’s also beneficial to chat with students during lunch and recess as the sum of your interactions can build positive relationships that in turn enable students to accept and/or seek your support.

      Reading students’ writing:

      What students write in notebooks reveals what they understand and recall from their reading (Barone & Taylor, 2006; Robb, 2017). Alana, a fifth grader in Wanda Waters’s class, started the year by listing facts from a book. By March, her notebook entries showed her ability to identify a problem and its solution (See Figure 1.3).

      Description

      Figure 1.3: The teacher models problem solution (several times), and then Alana tries the strategy with her instructional reading book.

      Keeping a teacher’s notebook:

      When students see you writing in a teacher’s notebook, they develop a mental model of expectations for writing about reading. Your teacher’s notebook can show them what a written response looks like. Most developing readers are also developing writers who need models for how to write about texts they listen to and read independently (see pages 25–26 for more information).

      Seeking feedback from others:

      There will be times you’ll want to discuss a student with a colleague, reading resource teacher, the school’s media specialist, or guidance counselor. By inviting fresh eyes to review students’ work and your kidwatching notes, you can gather intervention suggestions that didn’t occur to you. Always ask for feedback when the support you’re offering isn’t working well or when you’d like to have extra ideas for intervening in reserve.

      Teachers who continually refine and adjust these tools can transform developing readers into confident readers who choose to read at school and at home. Having a written record of your observations supports this goal as you weigh decisions about next steps for a student and target the kind of support you’ll provide.

      Skilled Teachers Take Notes to Help Differentiate Instruction

      Early in my teaching career, I learned the importance of jotting notes to record my observations of students during daily interactive read-alouds and while students work independently, with a partner, or with me in a small group. Notes became my memory, and in conjunction with students’ notebook writing, they offered information about students’ progress. Notes help you make informed decisions about the instruction your students need, allowing you to differentiate with more confidence and impact. Moreover, notes can support recommendations during IEP (individual educational plans) meetings. Here are some tips for streamlining and organizing daily notes.

       Notice and note: Place dated sticky notes on several sheets of blank paper and attach to a clipboard. Avoid editorializing and keep notes as objective as possible because you’ll frequently find yourself sharing your notes with students during conferences. Figure 1.4 is an example of my notes for students after a guided practice lesson. Notice how I jot positives in addition to areas needing support. I do this to help students notice small increments of progress that they don’t always see.DescriptionFigure 1.4: Robb’s notes after guided practice always highlight what’s working, and she raises one point to reflect on for possible intervention.

       Storing daily notes: At the end of each day, transfer your notes into a loose-leaf binder or Google doc. Use dividers to separate the ELA sections you teach. In each section, note a student’s name on about three sheets of paper—you can add more once you’ve filled the front and back of each sheet.

      While working with developing readers, the temptation to move from mini-lessons to reading books is powerful. However, I have learned