OK another reading thread - guided reading

[cassgate]

Am looking for help from any teachers or teaching assistants regarding guided reading vs books that come home.

Ds was a late starter when it comes to reading. Could not read at all by end of reception but really took off in year 1 and got a 1a in his report in June and left year 1 on ort stage 6 books.

At the start of year 2 he was initially given level 5 books which were far to easy and I had a word with the teacher and we started getting home stage 6 instead, some of which he had already read in year 1. He brings home 3 or 4 books a week. Over the last couple of weeks I have noticed that they seem to be far to easy for him now but have concentrated on comprehension with him. Even so I now thing he could do with going up a level and wrote a note this morning in his reading record asking for him to be given next level up to try. Teacher approached me at home time today to say that she has given him the next level up but she doesnt fell he is ready and to see how we get on. She said he lacks confidence with his reading at school. I have spoken to ds tonight and the teacher has never listened to him read individually only in guided reading sessions. This is where the problem is I think he lacks confidence in group situations and rarely speaks up. His confidence in group situations was the teachers main concern at parents evening before half term and she was going to try various things with him to try and help. My main concern now is that it now seems to be affecting the teachers perception of his ability to the point that it might be holding him back. He reads a variety of different books at home not just the school reading books.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as not sure how best to approach this with the teacher of even to bother speaking to her. Not sure if it is relevent but she is an nqt and this is her first teaching post.

[cassgate]

Just an update.

Ds has just read the stage 7 book he brought home from school it was called red planet . As far as the reading goes he only needed help with one word "spacesuit" even then the got the space part and i told him the suit part as he struggled with that. He even correctly decoded the word creatures. I asked him to tell me what he thought the book might be about before we started reading and he correctly said a space adventure. I checked his comprehension all the way through and asked him to predict what he thought might happen next in places. At the end I asked him to tell me the story in his own words. He did struggle with this a bit as I had never done this before with him but then I changed it and asked him a few comprehension style questions like " what were the children doing at the beginning of the story", Why did they have to go inside when nadim turned up and what did they do and he was fine answering the questions. I then told him the story back in my own words to show him what I had meant and he checked through the book to see if I was right.


Is this the sort of thing I should be doing with him. I asked him if this is what happens during guided reading sessions and he said no so am not sure now how best to help him.

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

Sounds fab!!! I am also intrigued to know what goes on in guided reading given that my dd claims to have not read to the teacher or anyone in weeks. Am also worried that she does not show her ability as alot of the books bore her. She is reading above what she brings home.

Your work on comprehension sounds spot on!! I do very similar. :)

[redskyatnight]

How guided reading works at DD's school:

• the children are placed in a small group with others of a similar level
  

• they take it in turns to read - effectively each child has the chance to read individually within the group (it's not like they go round reading a line in turn!) and then answers questions/talks about what they've read (so it's kind of like individual reading but including the chance to learn from what others are doing)
  

• each guided reading session has a focus. It might be being able to decipher unknown words, it might be talking about the characters or the setting, it might be looking how the author has used language to achieve a particular effect.
  

The comprehension questions you included sound good. As he progresses you can start looking at language (e..g why the author has described the desert as "bone dry") and inference (e.g. if someone starts crying, you can work out they are probably not happy!).

I think it's quite usual for a child to do better at home than school, so it may well be his teacher is not seeing his full potential. also, books within a level vary a lot - so you can't really judge whether this is the right level for him just from a single book.