Alyson Cotter Guided Reading

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObXdt-Yc6sg

While watching the YouTube video on guided reading, some aspects appealed to me while others did not. Also, there were some contradictions in the video and the article that we read for class. One thing that drew my attention about the guided reading lesson was that students came together after they had read each paragraph and retold the sentence in their own words. What I did not like about this was that they only read a paragraph and then were to wait for the rest of the group to finish the reading. In this situation it would be more helpful to read the story all the way through, and then come together to retell the entire
story rather than each sentence individually.
One similarity between what we read and discussed in class was that the first step was to summarize the story or book. The video did not state specifically that this was the first step in the process; however, it was the first action taken by the teacher. The second step involved doing a picture walk. This strategy was not in the video, because it appeared that the story did not have pictures as it looked photocopied. The major difference between the two that I noticed was the teacher in the video had the class read a sentence aloud after reading the paragraph silently. The article said this was nice for the teacher, but the students would not comprehend the material. They would read ahead focusing on what they were reading. When students read independently, they should be reading aloud so the teacher can watch, listen, and make observations about the group’s reading abilities. These observations can then be used for discussion or to choose the next book. The video’s only strategies were reading the paragraph silently and reading a sentence aloud, retelling the meaning, and then repeat these two steps for each paragraph. It did not tell what activities or plans would take place after reading the story, which is a major piece in assessing the children’s understanding. Also, in the article it said reading orally is a key assessment tool for the teacher. He or she is able to watch and hear the students read compared to other classmates. Overall, the reading had more strategies that seem to be more beneficial in a guided-reading setting.