Guided Reading Video Clip- Kelly Reeder

I chose the video, A Guided Reading Lesson, because I noticed the teacher was guiding students who seemed to be a little older than the students I am used to watching on guided reading video clips. I have seen how a lesson is demonstrated for children who are in their early stages of reading and I wanted to view a video where older students were guided. In the beginning of the video the teacher, who was leading the guided reading lesson, begins by asking the students different questions about the book they are about to read. Some of these questions related to whether the book was fictional or nonfictional, the time period the plot took place in, and the age range of the characters. The students were able to answer these questions by looking at the front of the book, as well as reading the description on the back. The group then took a deeper look into the summary on the back cover of the book and integrated their previous knowledge from other subjects to help break down what some of the more difficult words meant. From this one student was asked to begin reading the first chapter to the rest of the group.
This video was not very long, but I figured that the students are old enough and to the point where their reading doesn’t have to been as guided as before. The teacher did ask them many questions in the beginning to start their reading off, but overall the guided reading seemed to be presented more so that the students could stay on task and focus on what was being read. The students answered the questions asked by the teacher and paid attention to each other’s comment. The one student that was asked to read was a strong reader.
Through this video I learned that the older the students are, the less guided the reading lesson needs to be. I thought that it was very important that the teacher made a point to ask about the era of the book, as well as gave some insight to different events that were taking place at that time. This helped the students to better understand the type of book they were about to read, instead of jumping into a book that they knew nothing about.
The part that I did not like about this video was how short it was. I would have liked to see what the teacher would have done next in the lesson, after her student was finished reading. It was very interesting to see the differences between instructing a guided reading lesson with older students as opposed to younger students.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofUOywdg1p8&feature=related