A series of articles providing the community with an understanding of our new Guided Reading program
Last month’s article outlined what Guided Reading Groups are and how they differ from typical reading groups. Guided Reading lessons differ by reading level also. In the months to come these articles will explore Guided Reading at these different levels: Pre-emergent, Emergent, Early and Fluent. This month’s article features Guided Reading with Pre-emergent Readers.
Children in the Pre-emergent stage of reading are beginning to notice print in their environment, such as a McDonald’s sign or the name of their favorite cereal on the box. They may use letters in some of their drawings. These children may “read” back a story they’ve heard many times. They can use pictures to help tell a story, but do not pick words out of print consistently. They may recognize their name or the names of friends and family members.
At the pre-emergent stage, a teacher typically reads to children, conducts language experiences, leads the class in shared writing, and shares rhymes and chants and other types of shared reading. At this stage Guided Reading focuses on the use of “Big Books” to guide the pre-emergent reader’s development.
The Big Books used in Guided Reading are over-sized copies of books designed to be used with children who are just becoming familiar with books and print. The enlarged print typically has few words on a page. Much of the story is clearly presented in the pictures.
The Guided Reading Teacher presents the name of the Big Book and will relate the story to the children’s own experiences, encouraging much guided discussion with the teacher and other students. As the students and the teacher look at the pictures together, they discuss the developing story and make predictions. The teacher may also draw their attention to aspects of print. For example they might locate a known word, discuss the difference between a word and a letter, or predict the words in the text using the first letter. The teacher uses her knowledge of what the children already know or need to decide what she will focus on with this particular book. She also tries to relate the
concept she is teaching to other learning experiences her students have had in reading, writing or other subject areas. Throughout the book preview, the teacher models how to find the title, which page comes first, tracking print from left to right and a myriad of other book handling and conventions of print.
As the teacher reads the story with her students, they have opportunities to hear “book language, hear expressive reading, check their predictions, do further work with letter, sounds and words and begin to master one-to-one matching. (Matching the finger pointing to one word of text to one spoken word.)
The benefits of Guided Reading at this level are clear. Most children love to participate in this manner and feel like readers even at this early stage. They find that they know much about books even if they cannot read them alone. Sharing Big Books helps children learn at an early age that reading is very much about taking a message away from print, and not just rote memorization of letters and words. The sharing of Big Books in Guided Reading helps them put what they know to use immediately, rather than waiting until they know all “their letters and sounds” before they can “begin” reading. Indeed, this approach often helps letter and sound learning progress because it is more meaningful.