The Next Step: Chapter 5 Transitional Guided Reading & Freebie!

Okay finally time to sit down and think about chapter 5.  This chapter was huge for me!  I didn't read it last year until it was too late.  I didn't realize so many of my students would get to this point and by the time I sat down and read it a couple times I feel I didn't have time to do it justice.  I'm excited to to a better job with my transitional readers this year!  I'm going to go ahead do the share 2 approach again.  

2 Things I learned- once again more than 2

1. Strategy focus for transitional readers fall under 5 areas, self-monitoring, decoding, fluency, vocabulary or retell.  
2. Kindergartners and first graders who are reading at or above a level I are transitional readers.  
3. To improve fluency the text should be fiction and contain interesting dialogue.  
4. Retelling strategies should be taught through fiction first.  

2 Questions I have:

1. Jan says not all transitional readers require word study, how come?  
2. I understand why Jan suggests not using novels during GR but can they be used if you are only reading a chapter per session? 
3. Why does she focus so much on retelling in this stage?

Books I found at this level:

1. Okay this was very surprising but... many Clifford books come up as J level in Scholastic's Bookwizard?
2. Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman (J)
3. Poppleton by Cynthia Rylant (J)
4. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (J)

In this chapter Jan suggests using a Word Study Inventory which I have found to be very helpful!  I do Words Their Way Primary Spelling Inventory at the beginning of the school year (as well as every quarter after) and find it to extremely helpful in planning my lessons.  I also wanted to share that I do a lot of readers theaters with my transitional readers.  I think it helps them build fluency and work on their intonation.  I use and really like the ones from Pioneer Valley Books and Reading A-Z.  

I don't know about you but Jan Richardson's book is my bible during my guided reading lessons!  The book sits at my table during school and comes home with me several times a week.  As you can see though its seen better days it is very loved. 

In an effort to use it a bit less and also to give myself more room to write I created my own lesson templates.  I plan to use these this year and wanted to share them with you in case you also needed more room to write or more guidance during your lessons.  You can find them for free in my TPT shop.  

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Grace-Lovelace  I just ask that if you download them you please give them a rating.  

Don't forget to check out Jodi from Fun in First (love her spelling and fluency packets) and Reagan from Tunstall's Teaching Tid Bits (I use almost all of Reagan's reading units in my class, can't recommend her enough!!) to learn tons more about transitional readers.  They also have some great freebies for you!
I plan to read chapter 6 again in the next few days but I am not sure I will post about it.  Since I seldom work with fluent readers I'm not sure I will have much to offer.  So we'll see.  I do plan to be back this week with some updated classroom pics and more on my spelling lists.

The Next Step Chapter 4: Early Guided Reading

This is where I am most comfortable!!!  I feel most of the kids I work with are at this level till around February / March.  Since I didn't see any questions for this chapter I will once again use the Share 2 Approach.  

2 Things I learned (okay more than two):

• The importance of self-monitoring, how it lays the foundation for comprehension.  
• That teaching children to think about the story, check the picture and make sure what they are reading makes sense will lead them to comprehension in a natural way.
• The importance of teaching children to read and write the sight words.  

2 Questions I still have:

• When previewing the book in a picture walk I have difficulty having my readers focus on the pictures and not the words.  They automatically start trying to read the story.  How can I help them with is?  Is it even really an issue?
• When selecting examples from the story for teaching points do we use ones specific students have made or one we have found and planned beforehand? 

2 Books:

I am actually going to have more than two because I had a hard time picking just 2.  I know we often feel like we don't know what books to use during our lessons and sometimes find the provided leveled readers to be boring.  Well there is an easy solution to that... Scholastic Book Wizard. You can type in the title of any book you have or search by desired level.  I thought I would look up some picture books I have multiple copies of just to see what level they are at...   

• The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn, Level I since I read this the first week of school I was happy to see it is a level I.  
• David Goes to School by David Shannon Level  F
• Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann Level D
• It Looked Like Split Milk by Charles E Shaw Level E 

My favorite word study activity has to be the sound boxes.  I feel like it really helps learn how to stretch their words and they can apply this to all their writing.  It also helps me see what sounds they are hearing. 

Some of the resources I use for these lessons come from: 

• Lesson Plan SOS Becoming a Guided Reading Guru

• Reagan Tunstall's 




• For my guided writing or guided reading journals I use Amy Lemons  

Next up Chapter 5 and I'll be caught up for about a day :/

Don't forget to read what others posted on Maria's blog the linky is close but you can still read how other run their early guided reading groups.   

The Next Step Chapter 3: Pre-A & Emergent Guided Reading

This chapter deals with the youngest readers, since I teach first I don't have any experience with Pre-A readers.  There were no questions for this chapter so I looked on Jan's site and decided to use her Share 2 approach.  Most of my answers will deal with my experience with Emergent Readers.  

2 Things I learned:  
I learned The important early strategies emergent readers use:1:1 matching. checks picture, GMR and cross-checking. I also learned why it is important to have repetitive texts at Levels A and B. Working with Kohen this summer I can say that he has learned the word then simply because its in so many of the books we've used.  We have also been using Michelle Griffo's Pre-Primer Pack.  

2 Questions I have:
How do you encourage tracking and pointing in Levels A & B but then tell students to drop their finger in Level C? I feel like I tell them to track and point because they want to make sure they are reading every word. This makes them feeling pointing is important. I find most of my students take what I say to heart and are then thrown for a loop when I tell them to drop their finger when they get to level C. How can all the components of the lesson be done in 20 minutes?  I don't know about you all but I always plan for my emergent lessons to be 25 minutes in length and I still feel like I run over. 
  
2 Books:Have You Seen My Duckling by Nancy Tafuri Level A

Noodles I Can Help! by Hans Wilhelm Level B  

I was surprised to see how most books have a higher level then I anticipated.  

I also want to share somethings I use with my emergent readers during our lesson.  

• I don't now how much buying power you have but my favorite books to use during our lessons are from The Bella and Rosie series from Pioneer Valley Books.  My students love them so much when I was just able to buy them for my iPad one of my students got a new puppy and named her Rosie.  He told his parents so much about Bella and Rosie they bought me the WHOLE SET!!  
• Going along with my whole one to one matching / print tracking question from above are my Laser Reading Fingers.  My kids love them and they really help get them in the habit of tracking the print.  I think I found the suggestion for these from  DeeDee Wills who heard about them from Deanna Jump?
• I insert Jan's sound box templates into these dry erase pockets.  I'm sure you could find them cheaper else where.  
• To help my kiddo's learn their sight words we also read one of Maria's Interactive Sight Word Books.  I will typically have mine already put together and read it with the kids.  It will be facing them and I will point to the words and have them read the focus sight word.  At the end of our lesson I will give them their own book to make during word work.  They love it and it allows me to not use up GR time cutting and gluing.  

Now to catch up on chapter 4... 

July's Currently

I'm linking up with Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for this months currently.  But first off I have to be honest I am kind of proud of myself for having two posts this week!  

A couple weeks ago Koey started asking a lot of questions about reading and said he wanted to learn so I decided we would see how far we got this summer.  Since he is headed to kindergarten this fall I am not super anxious or putting any pressure on him.  My plan for the summer is to use Bob Books and Jan Richardson's emergent lesson plan and see what he picks up.  He already knows all his letters and letter sounds so I plan to use  the PrePrimer Dolche words pack from Michelle at Apples and ABC's with him.  That's what I am currently printing.  

Can I just say after working the last three summers I am totally loving being off this summer?!  It's so great to not have to be somewhere everyday.  Granted the kids still have swim lessons and karate 3-4 days a week but we have nothing before noon. Its awesome!  I was able to go for a runt this morning, start the laundry and also spend sometime on here.  We have a pool playdate at 1 but that's it for our must dos, LOVING IT!

It does make it harder to jump in the car and drive to Starbucks for my favorite treat though.  After reading Erica's post on her smoothie I decided to give kale a try and have been making myself smoothies instead.  Though a bit more work they are just as yummy and also very healthy, yay for me!    

Well off to work with my little man!  Have a great day everyone !