The schools we have. The schools we need.

Allington spoke of some revolutionary changes that would be essential in order for schools to meet the rising standards of society. I found it interesting to consider what he mentions about standards in previous years expecting a low number of students to meet advanced literacy, while society now expects every student to meet advanced literacy. I agree with him that schools can meet the more recent and more substantial expectations that challenge the profession today, however,  in order to do so many changes must occur. Teachers must realize that many students come to school with little experience with literacy. Rather than accepting that they will never catch up, it is our duty to go over and beyond with these students in order to provide instructional interventions expanding their opportunities to read, write, and listen to stories. With the right focus and support teachers have the potential to lead all students to academic success.

Running Records

I found the booklet on running records to be highly useful. I understood the importance of assessment, however, I had no clue how to conduct it. This book laid out methods for assessment in a manner that was thorough and understandable. In chapter 3 the question, "Why use standard procedures?" is posed. I found this section important because it answers the question explaining that teachers claims on students levels of accuracy are obtained according to common practice. If teachers all used different methods it would be impossible to compare and contrast, make connections, and create routes to follow based on the assessment findings. Although, it is essential teachers use a common standard for taking records it also imperative they make note of comments children make throughout the assessments. I really appreciated the clarity this book provided to me about assessment. What did it teach you?

Guided Reading

I read the article Guided Reading: A Research-Based Response to the Challenges of Early Reading Instruction by Anita Iaquinta:
http://faculty.swosu.edu/ruth.boyd/share/Reading%20I/Guided%20Reading/Guided%20Reading.Article.pdf
This article shared, "In a truly balanced literacy program, how you teach is as important as what you teach". This means that even when a teacher is given strict commercial materials to follow they are responsible for using their knowledge of literacy development and literacy processes to decide where to go next, when to intervene and when not to, when to draw children's attention to which features of text, and how to model and explain strategies in ways that children can make their own. Only then will these materials actually reach their full potential, thus allowing the students interacting with them to do so as well. We have covered many essential areas of the literacy process. Guided reading is the method in which teachers can break those components of learning to read into individual lessons focused on what that small group of students need to learn next to move forward and providing a challenge that is "just right" for the students. Guided reading allows teachers to meet students where they are at in their literacy development and move them forward.

Here is an account from a teacher who found finger lights useful for guided reading:

I love the idea of using these for reading!  My lowest readers for this upcoming year are all boys and I 

 know this will be a motivator for them to use during conferencing and guided reading time!  The light is perfect for shining right below the first letter of the word and would help them focus where they need to be (my lowest children are sometime a little lazy with pointing they think they don't need it).

Here is another teacher's display of her guided reading groups:
I have the Lesson Plan SOS guided reading guru packet and love it!  I got this idea from these sweet girls!   Thanks for reminding me ladies!  I use those practically everyday and went completely blank!  I just tweaked it and created my own to suit my needs.  I feel like I finally have my small guided reading groups up and going smoothly now.  Thank goodness!  I love having the students' names on post-it notes to allow for more flexible grouping.  (I should have used some cuter ones now that I'm looking at it!)  This is right behind my teacher table