Guided Reading In Reception

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

I am in the beginnings of discussions with Y1/Y2 teachers in my school about Guided reading - when to etc and how to do it. Now that the Foundation stage is established I wondered what other people do and how they manage to fit it in any ideas please thanks Abi

[AnonyMouse_2157]

hi Abi

we start 'Guided Reading' after the children have been in 3 or 4 weeks. However, this is done as a session merely to introduce them to shared reading sessions and the enjoyment of books. We teach basic skills like book handling, picture reading and encourage lots of talk before reading together. Keywords are sent home in groups of words but our focus will be mainly on the introduction of Jolly Phonics up until Christmas when the big push comes with keywords after. (although those that are ready for keywords now will be encouraged onwards and upwards)

 

We have a scheme (Nelson PM Starters for Reception coupled with a few Alpha Kids and Heinemann sunshines for a bit of variety). Unfortunately the guided ones don't go home as we can't run the risk of not getting a complete set back

 

When i first arrived at the school we were expected to hear 6 children a day, this meant giving up my teaching of kn.& U of the W or creative dev for example in the afternoons for readers. This was awful and not only was it difficult to 'hear' let alone teach reading skills in a very busy reception class but I also felt that I was missing out on teaching the other areas of learning.

The one way I and my colleague found to fit it all in was to plan for 1 guided reading group per day (6 children). We do this at 2.45 in 2 small rooms that we have available for this very purpose at this time of day (it's used during the day for Year 2 maths groups and ELS groups etc). Although reading last thing in the day is not an ideal time, we have found it to be more beneficial as the children are in a quiet environment and therefore more focused (usually

 

MY T.A at the same time has the rest of the class on the carpet for a speaking and listening activity (the toy bags that go home) and a story. This way they are all contained on the mat. By the time she has finished this we re-join the group for home-time.

The groups are colour coded and I start with the less on Monday leading on to the more able by the end of the week. When possible I do make time to hear those that need extra support both higher and lower.

hope this helps a little

Liza

[Guest]

Hi Liza,

Thanks for that. We are very short in supply of books at our level. Do your children take home books from the reading box? and how do you get your parents to help at home, if you do, and if they will.

I have been sending the reading scheme books home, but we havn't got lots to choose from. I have already sent some key words home, as they are ready. I've got 1 little boy who is reading at yellow level on book bands, so as usual a huge range of levels.

Thanks again.

[AnonyMouse_379]

We don't do guided reading in eeception with groups but aim to herar the children individually each week... once by the teacher and pnce by another adult.

We also don't give out reading books until the end of the autumn term or beginning of the spring term... onece the children are able to recognise most of the letters and blend letters to form words.

We do whole class big boiok times... focussing on skills....

 

I will watch this thread with interest as I have wondered what others do and whether we should do guided reading.

 

L

[Guest Sycamore]

Hi

I do Guided Reading using Rigby Star and Rocket scheme. This introduces the 45 sight words but I also spend alot of time discussing the pictures and telling our own stories at first. The children then take home the book to share with their parents. I also do big book reading with the class and with small groups. I don't actually hear the children read individually unless they are struggling in their group or as last year the child was reading beyond the level for the rest of the class. I feel this is enabling me to spend at least 30 mins on a book with a group of children rather than rushing through a book in 5 mins with an individual. personally I believe that this enables me to spend time on other areas of the curriculum and not have the thought of getting through the class with their reading which seemed to consume all day everyday and lunchtimes!

I know this is a personal and also a school choice but that is what I do! Hope this helps.

(apologies for lack of punctuation and probably terrible spelling at this time of night)

[AnonyMouse_2157]

Hi there Abi

firstly the children take home two books each week. One from the story box ('real' books) which they choose themselves and one from our reading scheme (sorry to hear you don't have a great supply )

 

We involve our parents in two ways initially, to help them to understand our approach to not only reading but also to learning in the foundation stage.

We hold an infomal coffee morning right at the beginning of term before the children are in full time. This is to introduce the recpetion staff and show them a power point (packed with lots of lovely photos) explaining the ethos of the foundation stage and the practical play nature of learning in each of the six areas. Out of the 54 potential parents this year we had 36 turn up.

 

We also hold INSPIRE workshops. This is a way of getting parents, child and teacher working together on an aspect of learning (we have 2 each year, 1 CLL based and 1 Math Dev based). At the CLL INSPIRE we can outline our approach to both reading and phonics and what we would like the parent to do at home with their child. Parent and child then make a game/puppet etc to take home.

 

Liza

[Guest]

I'm with Lorna on this one! We don't hear group reading in Reception except possibly in the second half of the summer term - and that is only after each child has read individually earlier in the week. We use the big book sessions as our whole class guided reading. We hold a reading meeting for the parents in the autumn term, explaining our "real" books reading scheme as opposed to a single reading scheme and explaining how we approach reading in our school and all the different ways they can help at home. There is a reading contact book in the children's book bags for parents to communicate daily on any aspect of their child's school life...

[Guest]

Thanks everyone for replies. All really interesting. I always used to do individual reading but with the Literacy strategy I was told guided reading was the way forward. I find it a real struggle to fit everything in. I have tended to do guided reading at 2.30 while my CA takes story time or singing. I don't start this until nearly Easter and do whole class teaching straight away, although I think that many of the children are still not ready for this kind of teaching, am I in the minority.? I think we have so many pressure on us

to get started straight away before the children are ready.

Abi

[Guest]

Reading is always one of those big debates and I don't think there will ever be a solution, it takes up a lot of time and that's that!

 

We do guided reading at school with groups of 5/6 children at a time. We talk about the book, the features of the book, some key words and strategies then we read it together or take turns. Once they have read the story once, I ask them to read it again on their own. The whole activity takes at least 20mins. We obviously do whole class shared reading too and our Year 5 class have been trained to do peer reading with reception. Once reception start on guided reading, they will also read individually with a Year 5 child.

 

It has always been obvious that those children who read at home, progress faster, this year I think I will use parent helpers to target children who are not reading at home when they first come in in the morning. I tried listening to individual children read, but it took forever and I didn't think that the quality was necessarily as good as when I teach reading to a small group. The group readers are always available to the children to choose to read once they have read them in their groups.

 

Home readers consist of 3 levelled reading books from a variety of schemes and a library book.

 

I really don't think it matters greatly as long as the children are experiencing a good range of quality texts and stories and are given the tools and strategies to help them enjoy reading.