Monday, August 10, 2015

Book Study: Week 5 (Transitional Guided Reading)

It's week 5 of the #GuidedReadingGals' book study on The Next Steps in Guided Reading by Jan Richardson!

This week, Tobi from Teacher Talk with Mrs. Sadler is blogging about Chapter 5: Transitional Guided Reading. Go check out her page for an in depth blog post about Chapter 5! 

Last week's chapter was about early guided reading (levels D-I) and I shared a two day lesson plan that I used when teaching a level H group. Transitional guided reading group lessons (levels I+) have a lot of the same components as the early guided reading lessons. 
For example, in both lessons you:
- prompt for reading strategies
- have teaching points
- have discussion prompts
- work on guided reading

There are two differences though that I wanted to share:

Vocabulary
In early guided reading groups, you teach and review sight words with your students. By the time they reach transitional guided reading group levels, students should have mastered their sight words and are now ready for vocabulary instruction.

Jan Richardson states that there are 4 steps you should do when teaching vocabulary:
1. Define the word (do not ask students if they know the word because it can lead to confusion; just say the word and give them the definition)
2. Connect the word to their background knowledge and experiences
3. Relate the word to the book (discuss how the word is used in the book)
4. Turn and talk about the word (have students tell each other the meaning of the word)

**Jan Richardson also states that you should not introduce new vocabulary words if the definition is in the text, glossary, or illustration because you aren't teaching them to be independent problem-solvers!

Word Work
The big takeaway here is that..... 
**Not all transitional readers will need word work!**

Jan Richardson states that if students have proficient phonics skills and are fluent decoders, they do not need word study. You can use the Word Study Inventory and observations to determine whether or not your transitional readers need the word study component. I tend to spend more time on higher order questioning and guided writing with my transitional readers who do not need word study. 

There is so much more to this chapter so don't forget to go check out Teacher Talk with Mrs. Sadler for a great post about Chapter 5!!

Check out each week of the book study by clicking the links below!

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