Looking at the structure of a guided reading session.
9.10am- Sitting together at a kidney table... only 7 students in the group. Make sure they can all fit around the table together. The teacher sits in the middle so all can see and hear. Wait for the rest of the class to be settled before beginning with the group.
Continuing on with a book they started a day before..... book about a baloon festival. Linking this to the festival happening in Masterton this weekend. Discuss PPK around baloons and the local festival.
Vocabulary- look at the silent e/ magic e, mini lesson... using the mini whiteboard to write and have a focal point for the group. Use words that are in the text. *These are much simpiler words than what we encounter, how could I use this rather than just working through word meanings.
Students share a book between pairs, read a sentence each... Their focus is reading to the punctuation, so they need to know where their sentence ends. Discuss the different punctuation they might see in the text... Speech marks, how this changes our voice... the way it is said e.g. shouted, whispered.
Read in their head, while one student reads aloud. Go around the table/circle having each student read a sentence aloud while the others follow along.
"Great reading the the punctuation, but you've made a couple of little mistakes... look back through and see if you can find them" - encouraging the students to self monitor their reading.
"Did that make sense? what are you going to do?"- Didn't talk through the tricky words before reading, they are coming across them as they go. Encourage them to find what would make sense, if unsure of meaning can spend a moment to tell them, don't spend ages making them guess. Tell them names.
Praise when they encounter tricky words and use the decodign strategies they know to help.... linking to the mini-lesson on 'silent e'
Once everyone has had a turn reading, "Read silently in your head and I will ask you a question at the end". Doesn't share what she will ask first. Asked for justification about answer... where did you read that? what information is in the text that helped you get to that answer?- finding evidence in the text.
Identifying language features- onomatopoeia
They had set literacy activities that were independent, the students signed up to different things.
Set up follow up activities- describe what the balloon looked like (dinosaur shaped), draw the balloon after.
Straight into the next group- hasn't left chair all morning....
My reading groups are very big, 12-15 in each.
How could I organise my literacy groups and teaching to make the most of my time and my students?
Have reading in little groups based on ability? and whole class writing with workshops?
How to structure the reading groups so they are getting regular time with the teacher?
How can we COLLABORATE as teachers to make our literacy program more effective? Teach writing together, look back at the styles of co-teaching to see what could work for us.