In your child's guided reading folder, you should see a book and/or activity, book log, as well as some information about guided reading. Basically, I group the children based on ability and we work on many things including but not limited to: letter work, word work, punctuation, one-to-one correspondence, fluency, sequencing, sentence structure, comprehension, expression and blends/chunks, etc. You will see a book and/or activity go home more than once. The reason for this is because we use familiar readings during the week to work on these different skills. So, the way it might work is that I may pull your child's group every day and we may work on the same book each time. More than likely, you'll see 1-2 books a week. In this blog, I'm including tips on what to do at home w/your child's guided reading folder as well as FAQ's. Hope they help!
What to work on at home:
* If it's a book going home, read the book a few times. (You can have him/her read to different people in the family, for example) Often times your child has read his/her GR book several times at school so he/she should be very familiar w/the story. This is what we want. We don't want your child to go home decoding words in the story too often if at all. Instead, we want your Kindergartner to practice fluency, fluency, fluency! (This means he/she is reading the book in a natural talking voice and at an appropriate speed.)
* If it's not the first time reading the book, the next night you can ask comprehension questions after reading, ask them to sequence the events (what happened first, second, etc.), and inferencing is really big also. (implied answers)
* If you see an ABC chart going home w/your child, also practice saying letters and sounds as they "read" the chart. (ex. "A says a, a, aligator) This can also help w/fluency.
* If the book is too difficult or your child is frustrated during the first reading, do a "shared reading" where you can read the book together the first time (as you point to the words) or you can read the first page as you point to the words and they can see the pattern of the text.
FAQ's:
1. Do we need to log the book title every night?
A: Yes. Please log twice if the book comes home twice.
2. What if it's an ABC chart?
A: You can log ABC Chart
3. Is it okay if my child seems like he/she just memorized the text?
A: yes, this may be the case w/shorter stories and this will allow better practice with fluency.
4. How many times should we read the book?
A: Not too many that it becomes tedious for your child. I recommend having your child read it to different people in your family, stuffed animals, over the phone w/relatives, etc. as long as you're making it fun and not a chore.
5. Why does the book seem too easy for my child?
A: Remember, we've read the book at school several times so the book should be familiar. We may be working on specific skills such as the ones mentioned above and many times, that is better accomplished when your child is not having to decode every few words. Also, we decode words in our guided reading group as we learn STRATEGIES on how to do this. When your child learns and practices these strategies daily in reading, that is how they transition into an independent reader.
6. What is one-to-one correspondence?
A: This is usually the 1st skill we work on when children are ready to read. Beginning readers struggle w/one-to-one. This is matching the word you're reading to the word you're pointing to. For example, "I see a blue sky." Is your child pointing to the word "blue" but saying the word "sky?" You might see very simple patterned books come home the first month or so b/c we are working on one-to-one.
We will talk more about GR and more specifically on what you can do at home to encourage and help your child read at our parent conferences but for now, I hope this will help you get a routine started. Happy Reading!
