In a previous posting on the Robb Review (9.12.2020), I (Tim) described how much poetry has to offer for the teaching of reading. It is an engaging, joyous reading, and it offers opportunities to develop essential reading competencies in students. However, one of the most significant attributes of poetry is its ability to improve the reading outcomes of children identified as dyslexic or learning disabled and, indeed all children who struggle to become proficient readers.
The brevity of most poetry for children as well as the rhythmical, melodic, and rhyming patterns in poetry (and songs) allow even the most struggling of readers to achieve success. Research tells us that human beings have what appears to be an innate ability to detect patterns in our environment. Seeing patterns allows us to better negotiate our worlds. The patterns in poetry allow children to negotiate their language worlds. All of us know young children who have learned to recite the words to a familiar rhyme or song. While memorizing the lines of poetry and songs is not reading per se, giving children visual access to the written words in those poems and songs can be a beginning step to reading.
Several years ago, I met an amazing woman named Lois Letchford. She had just written a book entitled Reversed which described the journey that she and her dyslexic son Nicholas who went from “learning disabled” to a skilled reader, and highly successful adult. Writing and using poetry was one major transformative component of our literacy story.
Lois’ Story:
In 1994, my son Nicholas went into first grade. He failed. Throughout this year, he bit his fingernails, wet his pants, and stared into space. At the end of the year, standardized testing sealed expectations revealing he could read ten words, displayed no strengths, and had a “low IQ.”
I had the opportunity to homeschool Nicholas for six short months, hoping for a turn-around. Armed with a book series labeled, “Success for All,” I too, failed. Stress levels skyrocketed, and progress remained at zero.
It was my mother-in-law who came to my rescue, offering simple yet profound advice: “Lois, put away what isn’t working and make learning fun.” Her words compelled me to reevaluate my approach to this daunting challenge. But where should I begin? Where did Nicholas excel? Her advice encouraged me to rethink and redesign my approach. But what could I do? What could Nicholas do?
I recalled Nicholas and I previously working with spelling patterns. He could do that. He recognized the patterns and learned all those words. How could I use this strength?
I thought about rhyming words and how to use them. Could I write a short poem to help Nicholas? When desperation reigns, one can only try to find solutions.
I wrote one simple poem and read it to Nicholas. We read it together and found the rhyming words. That first poem titled A Mug of a Bug, was a huge success. He relaxed and recalled it. He was engaged, we talked about the meaning, found the rhyming words, and recited the poem.
One poem led to the next and the next. Each poem added to his knowledge, enjoyment, and purpose for reading and writing. My first poems focused on words with short vowel sounds. Poems then include our travel experiences. One poem was about visits to the thousand-year-old church of St. Nicholas. The memory I treasure is one of Nicholas running ahead of his Grandma to visit it, shouting, “Nana, Nana! They named this church after me!” Connections were growing.
Nicholas’s reading growth appeared slow, each poem seemingly added just a drop into the ocean of required literacy knowledge. Yet, in a poem using the “oo” words as in ‘cook, look, and book,’ I wrote about the last of the great explorers, Captain James Cook. My poem:
Captain Cook had a notion there was a gap in the map in the great big ocean.
He took a look, without the help of any book, hoping to find a quiet little nook.
Captain Cook had a notion there was a gap in the map in the great big ocean,
He took a long look, and filled a whole book which caused the whole world to look!
Poetry is simple. Ideas embedded in poetry were extraordinary. The exploration of this poem tapped into Nicholas’ curiosity, resulting in his asking questions I could not answer.
“Who came before Captain Cook?” was his first question.
“Oh,” I replied, “that’s easy. That was Christopher Columbus.”
“And who came before Columbus?” He shot back.
And I was stunned. It was not a question I had ever considered. His question turned me into a curiosity-driven researcher determined to find answers to his questions.
Though Nicholas’s knowledge of letters and sounds had grown slowly, his intellectual curiosity was boundless.
Why was poetry such a powerful tool for Nicholas’s learning?
Prof Sansislas Deheane’s book How We Learn has a chapter on the four pillars of learning. These pillars are Attention, Active Engagement, Error Feedback, and finally, Consolidation.
Every day, I had Nicholas’s attention. He was actively engaged in listening, reading, and responding to details of all poems. Poetry was building his knowledge base, providing a purpose for using those challenging letters and sounds and building an understanding of patterns in language. Finally, the consolidation through repetition by reading, writing, and reciting these poems aided growth.
It took almost 25 years to appreciate the impact of this foundational knowledge. In 2018, Nicholas defied the odds and completed his PhD in Applied Mathematics from Oxford University.
As for me, my book Reversed: A Memoir tells the longer literacy journey from failure to academic success.
If your school experience was like mine, comprehension was an after-reading activity. Many of us remember reading first, then answering questions to prove that we understood. For too long, it seems that comprehension has been seen as the process of giving the right answers to someone else’s questions. To be clear, I see nothing wrong with answering questions. However, consider what is required of the one who asks the questions. That person is reflecting on the text, sequencing information, considering the connections within and beyond the text, summarizing and prioritizing, synthesizing the information, grappling with vocabulary, peeling back layers to explore nuance, and considering the information in relationship to the cultural context and to self. Generating questions, then, may be more complex and more rigorous engagement with text than simply searching for answers to someone else’s questions.
Homework assignments asking students to read a selection or chapter and then answer the questions defined comprehension for me as a student. When I was in the fourth grade, my older brother showed me a “trick” that allowed me to finish the assignment more quickly so we could get outside to play. He told me to begin with the first question. Jot it down. Then, go to the first heading and begin reading. Often, the language of the question mirrored the language in the first paragraphs of the section. The process became something of a game that went like this: drive the “truck” to the end of the chapter to pick up the question. Then, drive to the next heading in the sequence to collect the language that mirrors the question. Drive that truck to my homework page and dump out the language on the page. As the “truck driver,” I collected, transported, and delivered the information. I did not, however, engage with that information. I did not weave my own threads into those laid down in the text. And I certainly did not examine any threads for bias, stereotype, perspective, accuracy, or any efforts to influence my perception of truth. Nor did I pause to examine whether the perspective gave privilege to some ideas at the expense of others or question whether there may be other perspectives that may be missing or deliberately omitted. In fact, as a child in school, it never occurred to me that a school textbook would include anything other than the absolute and unbiased truth.
We know that comprehension is more than giving the right answers to someone else’s questions. It involves engagement and interest, concepts and thought, background knowledge, a rich vocabulary, and a command of language. Comprehension calls upon the reader to question, probe, and push back to move forward. It involves weaving all this together to create something new for the reader, something that leaves them changed. Comprehension requires the reader to take information and ideas from the writer and connect them with their own experiences, conceptual understandings, and background knowledge to weave meaning that is relevant to them, which will likely result in unique insights for each reader.
Although approaches to reading instruction vary, the result must be that the reader has understood the text and made relevant meaning from that engagement. Beyond the ability to decode the print and say the words on the page, this requires the reader to bring a conceptual understanding, background knowledge, and vocabulary related to the topic of focus. It requires an ability to make connections between what is already known and what is newly presented in the text. Of course, a reader can build new vocabulary and develop new concepts through engagement with texts, but in this situation, the text must provide a scaffold that connects to what is meaningful and relevant to the reader. Comprehension is multi-faceted, layered, and nuanced.
To comprehend requires the reader to know but also to think, to question, and to challenge information. To comprehend, we pick up threads put down in the text, but we weave them together with the threads of our own experiences, thoughts, beliefs, and opinions. If we are not conscious, our own biases become one of the threads we add to the weave; our notions of right and wrong, the stereotypes that have quietly become part of our unchallenged truth, become a thread. Therefore, the meaning we make will be ours. It may include threads of meaning shared by other readers, but each reader weaves their own “truth.”
The reader who consciously examines their own biases and stereotypes as they read and examines the text with attention to the presence of bias stereotype will question and actively seek additional voices and presentations of the information in search of a more nuanced and robust truth.
Throughout most of my early school years, I would have said that the one who could answer the questions was the one who had the best comprehension. If asked to write a definition or to describe what comprehension is, what would your students write? What might their responses reveal to you about where our instruction needs to be tweaked?
For more in-depth discussion and sample lessons, see Critical Comprehension: Lessons for Guiding Students to Deeper Meaning Katie Kelly, Lester Laminack, and Vivian Vasquez (2023) Corwin.
If you’ve been on social media, watched the political frenzy unfold, or tuned into the media-fueled misinformation of Emily Hanford’s six-part podcast “Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong,” then you know that guided reading was caught in the crossfire on a contentious battleground. On one side of the conflict are those who view guided reading as a malicious evil invented by delusional educators seeking financial gain. On the other side, we find those who see guided reading as a professional force of good for our children. The 1st group simply dubs it as “BAD,” while the 2nd acknowledges the merits of guided reading but not as a panacea.
The Guided Reading Debate: Problematic Pitfall or Promising Practice?
Given this never-ending tug of war, we find ourselves in a clash of perception:
Problematic pitfall? Promising practice? Somewhere in the middle?
The answer depends on who you ask and what we can glean from their response:
• Is it a definitive “NO,” or are there shades of benefits with some cautions?
• Is it based on self-claimed expertise or actual experience and knowledge?
• Does it add to or diminish the hope of meaningful, productive discourse?
• Is it motivated by a personal agenda or commitment to the needs of children?
• Are useless fillers like “proven and settled used or specific points shared?
To be clear, believing something because a reporter, teacher down the hall, politician, organized group, or next-door neighbor tells us its true does not an informed view make. If we are to move guided reading from Hanford’s calculated chopping block, we must be willing to put guided reading under a professional microscope. Perceptions rising from the level of experience and knowledge, or lack thereof, dramatically alter the message from informed to opinionated, the latter being all too prevalent these days.
But even experience and knowledge won’t guarantee “impact potential.” No matter how promising a practice may be, potential is only realized if it is honored where it matters most: putting it into action in the company of children. Impact potential demands a clear understanding of the WHY of guided reading that becomes a GPS for HOW and WHAT. This also requires us to know our children so that we may craft a guided reading lesson based on that knowledge and observations not only in guided reading but whether that learning transfers to other contexts. Unless we bring all of that to the guided reading experience, it is but another failed time-wasting experiment best alleviated altogether.
In the wise words of Regie Routman:
“Only when we develop common beliefs that align with research-based, principled practices can we effectively apply guided reading – or any instructional construct – to benefit all learners.”
Guided reading is one of many principled practices that are mutually supportive. In this age of political mandates that summarily dub some things as “GOOD” and others as “BAD,” guided reading misinformation has launched a knee-jerk reaction as leveled readers and manuals are literally tossed into the trashcan both literally and figuratively and teachers are FORBIDDEN to use guided reading altogether. When did personal desire and political agenda devoid of knowledge to back it up grant anyone the right to say what is and is not worthy? Yet, it seems quite fashionable these days.
Let’s start with a definition of guided reading from Fountas and Pinnell. It’s worth stating that Fountas and Pinnell were also shamefully targeted in part 5 of the story Hanford sold us (and thus guided reading by default) without evidence to support this mean-spirited slam. But then as we have often seen in the Science of Reading debates, blind faith in unsubstantiated calculated claims run rampant. As a long-time educator, I don’t waste time on opinion, so I proudly share this quote from two brilliant minds:
“Guided reading is a small-group instructional context in which a teacher supports each reader’s development of systems of strategic actions for processing new texts at increasingly challenging levels of difficulty.” Fountas and Pinnell
These words define my belief system across fifty-one years in education. I was trained in Reading Recovery, yet another victim of lies in a story we were sold. I have engaged in guided reading for decades as an interventionist and a literacy consultant supporting schools. The impact potential of guided reading is null and void unless we approach it in ways intended, but that does not negate its impact potential. I have seen mindless implementation of guided reading as children lose ground not due to guided reading but to ignoring critical tenets of the process in place of an implementation free for all.
My goal in this post is to offer those critical tenets that will shift the view of guided reading from problematic pitfall to promising practice. Unless we can address these “Tipping Points” I detail below, I advise abandoning guided reading and expending precious limited minutes in far more productive ways. Wasted time is never a good idea!
TWELVE TIPPING POINTS TO GUIDED READING AS A PROMISING PRACTICE:
TIPPING POINT #1: Invest in teachers from the start with ongoing support in mind.
I start here since all that follows will otherwise fall short. Before implementation, buy high-quality leveled texts in varied subject areas and topics of interest and create an easily accessible book room with text sets up to six. Build a strong bridge of ongoing professional learning with expert coaching support. Give teachers release time so they can observe and critically analyze and discuss lessons and then apply this learning in small groups with support. Without time and financial backing, failure is inevitable.
TIPPING POINT #2: Keep your sights on the end goal and use this as your guide.
The central goal of guided reading is to provide a teacher-supported context where students are actively doing the bulk of the work and the volume of reading is high. The end goal is to promote independent joyful experiences that draw from what students are learning in other contexts. In other words, we don’t do guided reading for the sake of doing guided reading but rather to offer a support platform that increases independence and, thus, ultimately alleviates the need for guided reading in the future. Guided reading was never meant to be a permanent instructional fixture but a temporary stepping stone.
TIPPING POINT #3: Acknowledge guided reading as one part of a bigger framework.
There are many rich components in the learning day. Yet, guided reading often gets far too much expenditure of time. This excess view forces us to alleviate relevant practices that fall within this comprehensive system. If guided reading robs time for read-aloud, shared reading, independent reading, or other essential features within that framework, we are preferencing guided reading at the expense of a much bigger picture.
TIPPING POINT #4: Celebrate the depth and breadth of what it means to be literate.
Acknowledge the reciprocal nature of reading and writing and embed it into your guided reading process. Remember that guided reading is about engaging children actively in reading, analysis and reflection on texts both through dialogue and written responses. We demean that process if children take turns reading or the teacher reads to them. And if the teacher is talking more than children, we ignore the powerful invitational nature of guided reading that contributes to growing independence and love of learning.
TIPPING POINT #5: Avoid ill-conceived structures that are not supported by research.
A flawed approach known as the walk-to-guided reading model is common but has no research basis. Professionals who spend the most time with children have the most to offer them while those who know them least raise the risk of negative impacts such as rigid ability grouping, stagnant groups and lessons that are more an act of obligatory compliance than a student-centered practice. Each of these issues translates into a one-size-fits-all view that is grossly ineffective.
TIPPING POINT #6: Widen the range of what counts in a guided reading experience.
In Teaching Readers (Not Reading), Peter Afflerbach asks us to ‘move beyond skills and strategies to reader-focused instruction’ such as engagement, self-efficacy, and motivation. Preferencing skills like cause and effect while ignoring how to use a text to support meaningful discourse with peers or how to self-question using the text as a rich springboard are relevant goals. In guided reading, we teach children what it means to be literate in the real world while making them active participants in that process.
TIPPING POINT #7: Avoid scripted low-level activity-based guided reading programs.
As the name implies, guided reading is about guided reading with a focus on readers, not trivial seatwork. Each minute filling in a blank sheet usurps time that could be used for reading, rereading, revisiting, and the collaborative talk and writing it inspires. Beware of the publisher code “with fidelity” designed to devalue professional decision-making. The impact potential of guided reading requires in-the-moment decision-making based on our knowledge of literacy research and children. Flexible references shift us from program-centered to student-centered. Responsive teaching lives within teachers.
TIPPING POINT #8: Put reading levels and the limited role they play into perspective.
Reading levels are commonly misinterpreted from theory to practice. Fountas and Pinnell remind us to level books, not children, and only in the context of guided reading:
“Text levels play an important but quite limited role in students’ literate lives in school.”
Yet, it is common for classroom libraries to be organized by levels in a gross departure from this intent. Worse, putting a child’s reading level on display inadvertently labels them publicly which is an unethical invasion of privacy that robs children of choice.
TIPPING POINT #9Coordinate your efforts for children who need intense support.
The small group nature of guided reading makes it ideal for children who need more. This requires an “in addition to” stance in a spirit of all-hands-on-deck. Sending children off to a fix it room while ignoring what happens the rest of the day leaves little room for escape and does more harm than good by sending mixed message. Guided reading meets children where they are – not based on a grade. We increase intensity for accelerated progress by forming groups of three with added support across settings.
TIPPING POINT #10: Emphasize guided reading assessment in the context of learning.
Standardized tests are an educational staple, but they tell us little about guided reading. Using a DIBELS repeated reading fluency test is like comparing apples and oranges. Assessment should fit the goal of strategic reading and engagement, such as running records with analysis and direct evidence drawn from the guided reading experience. This experience in action offers varied sources of information based on engagement within that process. Formative assessment and observation are valuable informants.
TIPPING POINT #11: Acknowledge the wide range of small group options with purpose.
Guided reading is a small group teacher-supported, student-engaged instructional context that occurs through active participation in ways that raise intensity. Yet, it is often the only small group option in place while ignoring variations like student-led small groups. In What Are You Grouping For?, Julie Wright and Barry Hoonan write,
“Students’ curiosity and interest are more trustworthy and energizing drivers of grouping decisions than anything else. When we harness the power of the social and personal, it becomes far easier for us to teach into their academic needs as readers.”
TIPPING POINT #12: Engage in a range of literacy behaviors that work in concert.
It’s called Guided Reading, not Guided PHONICS or Guided WORKSHEET. While there are opportunities to model, teach and support discrete pieces of reading like phonics, our focus is on applying it in the context of reading rather than skill and drill phonics in isolation. We consistently return to our first tipping point by keeping in mind that guided reading focuses on what children can do with support and thus allows them to apply this in other contexts independently. This transfer illustrates that learning occurred.
CLOSING THOUGHTS:
We live in a technological era where anyone with a computer, social media account, YouTube channel, media platform, blog, or podcast can sell whatever misinformed story they invent without reins. This makes it our responsibility to consistently evaluate all sources of information thoughtfully and honestly. Since Emily Hanford emerged on the educational landscape in 2018 with Hard Words: Why Aren’t Kids Being Taught to Read? Guided reading has been in the line of fire. These days, blind faith, mandates, and opinion spread rapidly, particularly when it’s disguised as the “truth” and carefully crafted to pull at our gullible little heartstrings.
On the other hand, good intentions and desire are not enough even when schools honor the translation and informed implementation of guided reading. The value of anything resides in our ability to apply what we know in practice and always in the name of kids. This is a more effective use of time than cowardly social media mudslinging and name-calling that has become a favorite pastime at the expense of those who have spent years committed to research-informed literacy beliefs. It’s exhausting and ignorant.
It is our professional imperative to stand up for practices that have value but also to consistently re-evaluate the quality and worthiness of what we bring into our schools. We must be able to demonstrate that they are designed to honor precious time with our children and reconsider, adjust or alleviate those practices if they don’t. After playing an active professional role in guided reading for decades, there is no question in my mind that it is, in fact, a promising practice. But to bring that promise to life, we must be willing to refute misinformation and ensure the highest quality implementation using my Twelve Tipping Points as a collective high priority.
Do you ever stop to think about the chapters of your “reading life”?
We’ve all got them. What are the highlights of your chapters?
It’s been a while since I’ve thought about my reading life, let alone written a new chapter. That is, until now.
This season is providing time and space to reflect. It’s giving me confidence to take action.
My Reading Life: Chapter 1
“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” – Margaret Fuller
Some of my earliest childhood memories include being surrounded by words: rich and colorful storytelling, adults who value words, written and spoken, and of course, books. I read nightly bedtime stories and taught early and often to borrow books from the public library. At 10 years of age, I’d ride my bicycle to meet the local public library’s summer bookmobile, which uncoincidentally was eventually filled with books from my favorite authors and genres. Working at the public library as a high school student, I read nearly as many books as I was responsible for reshelving. As a teacher, I began to remember our classroom library, which I made sure was stocked with more books than there was bookshelf space to hold them. As a teacher leader, I simultaneously pursued certifications in literacy and school leadership. Decades later, as a parent, I was afforded opportunities to “spoil” my own children with the gifts of words, like I once was. I remained a voracious lifelong reader, especially of certain topics and genres. I knew books made me better for others.
I recognize how fortunate I am to have grown up like this and to have circumstances that have helped me sustain an active reading life. This has driven me to be a “reading principal,” discussing books with anyone willing to engage. It’s my responsibility to model being a lifelong reader, create space for others to share, and for students to explore their own reading lives.
My Reading Life: Chapter 2
“The comeback is always stronger than the setback.” – Unknown.
This became a mantra as our school communities courageously faced, navigated, and conquered myriad challenges of global pandemic times. Priorities shifted from “getting lost in a good book” to ensuring students had resources to meet basic human needs. What educators “had to do” replaced what we “got to do.” Like so many, I found myself leading a team focused on others’ health, safety, and wellness. It wasn’t only a top priority; it was the only priority. I was and am fortunate.
The reading life I once knew changed suddenly and drastically. I felt constantly distracted. I had difficulty sustaining attention on any reading materials besides critical information to aid our team’s focus on doing what’s best for students.
In quieter moments, I’d try losing myself in a book but found I just couldn’t. I was not alone. The more I spoke with others, the more this seemed to be a common challenge. We were in survival mode. After a while, we wondered if or when we’d return to more typical times.
Sometimes, we sensed a slow crawl, walk, and occasional run toward the comeback.
We wondered, when was it that we’d return to doing what we “get to do”?
My Reading Life: Chapter 3
“Mood follows action.” – Rich Roll
At the end of another school year (our first with sustained typical routines), I was thrilled to get my hands on a copy of Laura Robb’s latest book,Increase Reading Volume: Practical Strategies That Boost Students’ Achievement and Passion for Reading. While it was among an ambitious stack of books I’d set out to read, it quickly rose to the top of the stack, becoming the literacy masterclass I didn’t know I needed.
In one of the first sections that resonated with me as a lifelong reader, Robb emphasized the importance of “keeping in touch with your reading life.”
She explains, “A personal reading life enables you to experience the power of visualizing as a path to understanding, the need to talk to someone about a book resonating with you, and that sometimes, reading can be challenging work. Your enthusiasm for and engagement in reading can rub off on students as they choose books they want to and can read, ensuring they will be engaged” (Robb, 2022).
These are precisely the words I needed to reignite my purpose for reading.
My next steps became clear.
My Reading Life: Chapter 4
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.”
– James Clear
First, I listed books I’d been meaning to read, reread, or give as gifts. I visited the public library, collected gift cards I’d received to make purchases, and splurged a bit at bookstores. I made an agreement with myself to read every day – a certain number of pages or a certain number of minutes, whichever came first. I’d use two bookmarks, one marking my starting point and the other my ending point for each reading period. I’d keep a calendar, making an X each time I read. Most days, I met my goal. Some days. I didn’t. But I never felt the shame of failure, only the opportunity to try again the next day. Instead, I said to myself I’d never miss two days in a row, marking off two days’ worth of reading, often meeting or exceeding that goal. I positioned books wherever they’d be most accessible. Seeing a book next to my workout clothes, the coffee pot, or my car passenger seat were all regular reminders of my commitment to daily reading.
To date, I’ve read more words, pages, and chapters than I have in many seasons. I’m finding each book I read is often replaced by two on my “to read” list. There’s a good chance I’ll never finish my entire stack. This renewed habit gives me the confidence to talk with others about exploring the next chapters of their reading lives. Books are making me better. Books make us better.
