Guided Reading with ESL Students

Elementary Age Schoolgirl Reading Book In Class With Teacher. Stock Photo. Clipart.com School Edition, Vital Imagery Ltd., 01-07-2015, https://schools.clipart.com/download.php?iid=978228&tl=photos. Accessed 27-09-2021.

For my ICDP this 2021-2022 school year I will be focusing on Guided Reading for my Individualized Career Development Plan (ICDP).  My reason for choosing to focus on this area is that my practice as an ESL teacher in our building has shifted based on various professional development opportunities I have pursued.  Two years ago, I trained in Reading Recovery, which had a significant impact on my practice.  Last school year, I spent time with Jennifer Burns and our AEA ESL consultant reflecting on how Guided Reading and implementation of Literacy Footprints fits in with the teaching of English as a Second Language, and what a Modified Guided Reading Lesson looks like.  All of these conversations and classes around literacy have been percolating in my mind, but I have not yet taken the time to really reflect on how what I’ve learned applies to my specific role at Central as an ESL teacher, and to create a lesson structure that supports best practices in both literacy and language.

Our building data in the area of Guided Reading is something to celebrate, as 94% of students at Central made one years’ growth or were on grade level.  For my students, who are almost all discrepant to start the year, one years’ growth is not enough.  My students need to make accelerated progress in order to eventually catch up to their grade level peers.  The majority of the EL’s on my roster made accelerated progress last year, but are still not caught up.  I also have noticed a trend of very low writing scores on our state mandated assessment for EL’s, called Elpa21.  I need to shift my instructional time away from word work and sight word instruction, now that we have adopted Literacy Footprints as a building.  I need to focus more on building oral language and vocabulary to support writing, and using a Modified Guided Reading (MGR) structure to support with language as I teach literacy.  I also need to shift the way that I approach writing with my older students, using assistive technology to allow students opportunities to compose longer writing passages rather than just focusing on transcription at the sentence level.

This year, I will have the opportunity to work with Jennifer Burns in a monthly Guided Reading course with my colleagues.  I will also be attending the National K-8 Literacy and Reading Recovery Conference in Ohio with Erin Klopstad, and continue to attend Ongoing Professional Development (OPD) through Reading Recovery.  These professional development opportunities will support me as I work through determining how to teach language alongside literacy, and what to focus on as an ESL teacher who also teaches reading.  I will know I am successful if I see improvements in my students’ ELPA21 scores in writing, and continued accelerated progress in their reading.