Teaching Reading in Small Groups: Differentiated Instruction for Building Strategic, Independent Readers

246 Pages·2010·4.56 MB·English

by  Jennifer Serravallo

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ISBN-13:978-0-325-02680-0
ISBN-10:0-325-02680-7
www.heinemann.com
Teaching Reading in Small Groups

Differentiated Instruction for Building

Strategic, Independent Readers

Jennifer Serravallo
Foreword by Lucy Calkins
HEINEMANN

Portsmouth, NH
Heinemann
361 Hanover Street
Portsmouth, NH 03801–3912
www.heinemann.com
Offices and agents throughout the world
© 2010 by Jennifer Serravallo
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in
writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
“Dedicated to Teachers” is a trademark of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Serravallo, Jennifer.
Teaching reading in small groups : differentiated instruction for building strategic,
independent readers / Jennifer Serravallo.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-325-02680-0
ISBN-10: 0-325-02680-7
1. Reading (Elementary). 2. Group reading. 3. Small groups. I. Title.
LB1573.S454 2010
372.41'62—dc22 2009039520
Editor: Wendy Murray
Production editor: Sonja S. Chapman
Cover and interior design: Lisa A. Fowler
Typesetter: Cape Cod Compositors, Inc.
Manufacturing: Valerie Cooper
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
14 13 12 11 10 VP 1 2 3 4 5
Contents

Recommendations for Reading and Returning to This Book vi

Foreword by Lucy Calkins ix

Acknowledgments xi

1. Beyond Reading Groups, Beyond Guided Reading 1

Small-Group Instruction and The Five Reading Tenets 5

The Last Word 14

2. Forming Groups: Making the Invisible Visible Through Assessment 15

Some Principles of Assessment 18

Assessing Engagement 20

Assessing Fluency 31

Assessing Print Work Strategies 38

Assessing Comprehension 43

Assessing Conversation 61

Preplanned Groups Versus Impromptu Groups 65

The Last Word 66

3. Without Engagement, We’ve Got Nothing: Helping Children

Want to Read 67

The Urgency of the Engagement Problem 70

Mentoring Readers into Developing a Reading Identity 71

Talking Up Books in Groups 79

Small Groups to Self-Monitor and Fix Up Disengagement 81

Self-Assigning Reading Goals for Purposeful Reading 85

Sign-Up Seminars to Energize Learners 93

The Last Word 95

iii
iv Contents
4. Guided Practice Toward Independence: Strategy Lessons
for Comprehension, Print Work, and Fluency 97
Why Strategy Lessons? 98
Strategy Lessons at a Glance: Structure 99
Explicit Strategies, Effective Demonstrations, Just-Right Prompts 109
Releasing Scaffolding over Time 117
The Last Word 120
5. Talking About Books: Improving Partnerships and Clubs 123
Supporting Book Clubs and Partnerships 124
Differentiated Partnership Work: Kindergarten to Second Grade 125
Read-Aloud Book Clubs: First Grade and Up 131
Chapter Introductions for Clubs: Second Grade and Up 135
Teaching During Partnership and Club Talk 146
The Last Word 150
6. Reading with Fluency and Expression: Shared Reading,
Warm-Up and Transfer Groups, and Performance Clubs 153
Shared Reading: Assessment-Based Support from Teachers
and Peers 155
Warm-Up and Transfer Groups 163
Performance Clubs 167
The Last Word 171
7. Moving Readers to the Next Level: Text-Level
Introduction Groups 173
What Is Adequate Progress? 175
Getting to Know Leveled Books 178
Getting to Know Your Readers Within a Level 186
Text-Level Introduction Groups: An Alternative to
Guided Reading 189
The Last Word 196
Contents v
8. Organizing and Managing Small-Group Conferring:
Common Questions 198
Reading Workshop Basics 199
Visualizing the Room 206
Keeping Track 211
Scheduling Yourself 216
The Last Word 220
References 221
Children’s Literature 225
Index 227
vi Recommendations for Reading and Returning to This Book
•Recommendations for Reading and Returning to This Book
If You Identify with the Following Statements... You Might Find Help In...
• I need help uncovering what kids are doing when reading . . . it just Chapter 2
seems too invisible.
• I need help figuring out how to group kids.
• I need help putting some assessment measures in place for
independent reading.
• I’ve done everything I can think of to try to get my students Chapter 3
reading. There are some who still just sit there during reading
workshop.
• My students do what I tell them in minilessons, but I don’t think
they really care that much for reading.
• My students are fake reading and I don’t know what to do about it.
• My students need to figure out what they need instead of me just
telling them all the time.
• Some of my students feel like they aren’t good at reading. I want
to build their confidence.
• Some of my students read below grade level, and none of the
books in my classroom library appeals to them. Yet, they need to
practice with these books if they ever expect to improve.
• My students seem to understand what I’m teaching them in a Chapter 4
minilesson, but I don’t see the transfer of that knowledge to their
own books.
• Some of my students struggle and could use alternate strategies
for the same goals.
• Some of my students need more help from me before they can
practice a strategy independently.
• I don’t understand what makes a demonstration effective.
• I don’t have a strong understanding of how the prompts I use
when coaching help to release scaffolding.
Recommendations for Reading and Returning to This Book vii
Recommendations for Reading and Returning to This Book
If You Identify with the Following Statements... You Might Find Help In...
• It feels like my students get together in partnerships and clubs and Chapter 5
just share ideas. How can I get my students to talk in ways that
push their thinking?
• My students just aren’t ready to function independently in book
clubs. What’s an intermediate step?
• How can I use the natural groupings during clubs to teach reading
skills and strategies?
• Sometimes students in my book club pick a book to read that they
need more help with. What can I do to help them with a new
genre or provide background knowledge?
• I feel like all of the partnerships in my K–2 classroom are going
through the same moves and routines. Is there a way I could
differentiate better?
• Shared reading isn’t right for all of my students, but I think that Chapter 6
some could benefit from a small-group structure.
• Some of my students have been stuck in a level for a while, and
their fluency is holding them back.
• I know the research about the value of rereading, but I can’t get my
students to do it.
• When I look at my class assessment data, it seems like there are Chapter 7
some students who are moving along at a regular pace and others
who have been reading at the same level for a long time.
• I find that most or all of my teaching is based on my unit of study.
I’m not paying much attention to reading levels.
• Some of my students read far below grade level and I want to
help them to move through levels a little more quickly.
• I don’t have a vision for how this is all going to work. What are the Chapter 8
rest of my students doing?
• How do I keep track of what I’ve taught and stay organized?
• How can I balance what I’m already doing (like guided reading
and conferences with individuals) with the new ideas in this book?
Foreword

H
ere’s what you need to know about this book. It is a book about all the new buzz
words: differentiated instruction, data-based teaching, accountability, formative assess­
ments, comprehension, fluency, small-group work ...it’s all here.Y et the really
extraordinary thing about this book is that Jennifer Serravallo is able to harness the
current pressures, and to use this momentum to help all of us teach reading with that
magic combination of rigor and intimacy. Imagine reading instruction that depends
on the voices of kids, their passions and foibles, hopes, and heartaches, and that
depends on the face-to-face interactions between teachers and students around a
book. Imagine reading instruction for which these moments of flickering amusement
or amazed understanding are not happy offshoots but are at the root of how teachers
teach reading.
This book will serve as a handbook to help you use a whole array of formative
assessment tools to assess readers and lead small-group instruction within reading
environments in which kids read tons and tons of self-selected books at levels they can
handle. Your assessment tools will help you think about learning progressions as you
support children towards their next moves as readers. The book will help you fashion
small groups that are as rich and varied as your children and your purposes. Rather
than advocating for one and only one form of small-group work—guided reading—
Jen provides you with a repertoire of ways to lead small groups, and with suggestions
for how to teach each well.
The book is a stand out for all sorts of reasons.
First, although it is a book about small-group work, it is written by a teacher-
educator who is passionately committed to one-to-one conferring. I’ve always thought
that educators’ views on small-group instruction differ above all based on whether
people see small-group instruction as a variation of whole-class instruction, only deliv­
ered to a smaller group, or as one-to-one instruction, done with several individuals at
ix
x Foreword
a time. Jen’s approach falls squarely in the latter camp. Coauthor of the popular book,
Conferring with Readers, Jen never waivers from her image of teaching as an intimate
interchange that begins with a child, engaged in reading for her own purposes, and a
teacher, leaning in to listen, to understand, and to extend what that child can do.
Jen’s commitment to a responsive and personal sort of teaching is reflected not
only in her content but also in her writing style. The book brims with kids—you hear
their quirky, uneven language, you learn about the stuff that fills their pockets, you see
them sitting, arms linked, two on a chair. The book brims with teachers, too, like those
who aspire to keep Perfect Records and end up with records that might not be showy
but can be used on the run, in real classrooms. But what shines through most of all is
the sense of connectedness between kids and teachers. The instruction is imbued with
connectedness. You’ll see this connectedness as you watch teachers working within
small groups while meanwhile, they keep their eyes on individuals and on data about
kids. And you will feel the connectedness as you come to know the author, Jennifer
Serravallo, and to sense that she hasn’t tried to write a book, to make a monument, so
much as she has tried to connect with you, a colleague.
The book is a stand out also because Jen shows that a teacher who is deeply com­
mitted to teaching reading workshops can not only deal with but embrace the contem­
porary pressures. For teachers who sometimes feel as if data-based instruction,
differentiated groupings, and formative assessments somehow involve going over to
The Dark Side, this book is a powerful antidote. It will help you know that in today’s
climate, you can hold tight to your deepest beliefs about children and literature, class­
room communities, and good teaching.
Finally, the book is a stand out because Jen, as a part of the Teachers College
Reading and Writing Project, has had the privilege of working with some of the most
dedicated and brilliant teachers, superintendents, principals, coaches, graduate stu­
dents, and teacher-educators that the world has ever known. This book shows the way
in which this collective community gathers clusters of kids together, and listens, and
loves, and learns.
—Lucy Calkins