In Chapter 6 of Becoming Literate, Marie Clay writes that children face three main challenges after their initial experiences with print. One of those challenges is the directionality of print. In English text, of course, this means learning that print goes left to right. Period.
I hadn't considered this skill to be anything unusual for children to learn until Clay opened my eyes: "The child's everyday experience has actually trained him in different habits from those he needs in reading. An orange, a dog or a favourite toy must be recognized from any viewing angle. Meaning is constant when the object is small or large, is upside-down, back-to-front, or sideways to the viewer...On entry to school he has to learn that in one particular situation, when he is faced with printed language, flexibility is inappropriate." (Clay, 1991). DUH! I had never thought of directionality in reading as something entirely foreign in its adherence to one serial direction in the world of a child for whom every other experience has been multi-directional.
After that "ah-ha" moment, I decided to check out whether or not my kindergarten students truly understood the directionality of print. Using the Sulzby Storybook Reading Assessment, I had my students read a Goldilocks book to me. The students were already familiar with the text from a read aloud the previous week. The book has multiple lines of print on each page, so I was able to gauge whether or not students had learned the following:
directionality
return sweep
high frequency words
using pictures to gain meaning
the language "style" of story telling
In addition, I was also able to take notes on what aspects of oral English the students have acquired. For example, whether or not they correctly form and use plural nouns or regular past tense verbs.
The Sulzby assessment taught me a lot about my students! I was surprised to learn that one of my students has not yet mastered directionality. Not surprisingly, he was also the only one who didn't use the pictures to tell a story, but rather just labeled what he saw in each picture. He jumped back and forth between right and left pages of the book and only attended to the pictures. He paid no attention to the print. My other two kindergarteners demonstrated knowledge of each of the skills I was assessing. One of the students even made a serious attempt to read each word on the page, and he did a great job of it!
Now, I know which of my students are ready to move on, and which needs more work with simple, one lined texts and retelling stories after read alouds. I highly recommend reading the Sulzby article (link above) and trying this assessment with emergent readers.
Guided Reading, focused small group reading instruction, has become a staple of effective reading programs in schools all around the world. In each of those schools, though, Guided Reading may be implemented in many different ways. When I first learned to use Guided Reading, the component that was most stressed was that students should be reading the same book, out loud at the same time. We were trained to tune our ears in to one student each day as he/she was reading aloud with the group and provide support as needed. I taught for many years believing that Guided Reading was nothing more than a group of 3-5 students reading at the same time, at different paces, and sometimes at very different skill levels. According to Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell, experts on early literacy, this difference in reading proficiency among students is one of the main causes of concern for teachers trying to implement Guided Reading instruction.
Because of this, initial and ongoing assessment of students is essential. Dr. Jan Richardson, in her book The Next Step in Guided Reading, gives several examples of assessments that can be done with readers at many different levels. For students in grades kindergarten through second grade, Richardson recommends assessing letter identification, sight word reading, sentence dictation, and taking running records. Running records are an integral component of Marie Clay's Reading Recovery Program.
When analyzing a running record, Richardson identifies six steps to include in the analysis (p. 41-47). I found these to be extremely helpful:
Step One: Determine the accuracy level
Step Two: Analyze errors (structure vs. visual errors)
Step Three: Analyze strategies
Self-monitoring
Cross-checking
Self-correcting
Step Four: Assess fluency (Words per minute, expression, attention to punctuation)
Step Five: Assess comprehension
Does the student substitute words that make sense?
Does the student reread to confirm or repair meaning?
Does the student read with expression?
Can the student retell the main ideas and some details of the text?
Step Six: Select a focus for instruction:
Risk-taking (stop correcting the child; provide encouragement instead)
Self-monitoring
A caveat when working with ELL's: asking "What would sound right?" or "What would make sense?" (p. 43) may not be appropriate for students at intermediate or below English proficiency levels. Students still learning English will not always be able to identify what sounds right or makes sense in what is still an unknown language.
Decoding
Fluency
Oral retell
Comprehension
So, what if your students are Transitional, Intermediate, or Fluent readers? Richardson has assessment suggestions for those readers, as well (p. 49-53). For Transitional readers, she includes a Word Study Inventory (p. 48) that I just started using with one of my second grade groups, and I love it! In the inventory, the teacher dictates words with common phonics skills to the student and then plans word study based on the areas that need improvement. For Transitional, Intermediate and Fluent readers, Richardson recommends the following assessments:
Oral reading (running record)
Retelling
Comprehension questions
Determining instructional reading level (student reads with 90% accuracy and 75-85% comprehension)
Cpmprehension Interview
The above mentioned resources, and many others, can be found in the textbook or on Jan Richardson's website. I highly recommend both!
For ELL's, Guided Reading can be very beneficial in not only improving reading and writing, but also for strengthening listening and speaking skills. When a teacher modifies Guided Reading instruction to include targeted vocabulary instruction (including any front-loading of background knowledge), attention to the structure of English, cultural relevance, academic language, as well as development of oral language, ELL's can make dramatic gains in reading comprehension. In the article Modified Guided Reading: Gateway to English as a Second Language and Literacy Learning, the authors add an important element to the assessment and grouping piece of Guided Reading: the inclusion of English language proficiency level in forming small groups for reading instruction.
Preparing for Guided Reading by assessing and thoughtfully grouping students based not only on reading and writing skill assessments, but also language proficiency, is an important first step to successfully implementing Guided Reading instruction in the classroom.
