Increasing Students Reading Abilities with Guided Reading

 

Royalty Free Clipart Image of a Student in Class Reading With a Teacher. Stock Photo. Clipart.com School Edition, Vital Imagery Ltd., 01-09-2009, https://schools.clipart.com/download.php?iid=193887&tl=photos. Accessed 21-09-2021.

During the 2021-2022 school year, I will be focusing on Guided Reading for my Individualized Career Development Plan (ICDP). I chose this topic for a variety of reasons. First, my guided reading block and literacy time is a strong passion of mine. It is my favorite time of day with my students and I enjoy building reading skills with my students. Another reason I chose this topic is because literacy instruction and reading skills for students is an important part of their education. It is essential that students can read and comprehend a text not only at school but in their life as well. 

Last year we added Literacy Footprints to our guided reading block along with Jan Richardson’s Word Study but this is the first full year using the Literacy Footprints in the classroom. For my ICDP during the 2020-2021 school year, I focused on word study, so I believe this will be a continued study from that practice just a year ago. As a building, we had 94% of students that made one year growth or were at or above grade level for last year. This is an important success. This year, I have five out of nineteen students that are coming into first and second grade reading below reading level. I would like to move those five students up to grade level and also continue to progress my current at level students as well. 

I will be taking a class with Jennifer Burns once per month that will serve as my research and new learning to help enhance and support students in guided reading instruction. I will continue to use my text from Jan Richardson in both word study and guided reading as well to support my instruction for students. I will know if students have improved by analyzing running records as well as end of the year leveling this spring. This data will be my evidence of student achievement in my classroom.