Brittany Trivelli

Guided Reading

In my reading group there will five children, for the porpoise of protecting their identity I
will call them C,P,B, E, and M. All the children are girls expect for M who is the quietest out of
the whole group. All are at level K when it comes to the Fountas & Pinnells a-z book levels.
According to Aurora standards these children are at the level they should be at when they start 2nd
grade. I did not chose the children in the group but rather the group itself. My mentor teacher has
her guided reading groups sorted by the students reading levels. This grouping of abilities lets
the teacher select books according to their levels. In order not to keep her classroom organized I
selected a group bases on their level rather than base on the individual childrens needs.
Before I started planning my lesson I sat down with each student during their silent reading and
had them read a small passage from their books to me. All five children were fine readers and
would try their best at solving unknown words by sounding the letters out. However, P and E
were the only two that would look at the sounding text if they could not sound of the word. All
the children could also answer simple comprehension question about their text. With my findings
I reported back to my mentor teacher.
I talked to my mentor teacher about the two goals and she pacifically requested that one of them
should be comprehension. After researching the Fountas & Pinnells a-z book levels I learned
that comprehension is a key learning point for readers in level K. She requested that I set as a
goal not based on the students needs but according the literacy program her school uses. Due to
this I will have a big aspect of the guided reading session focus on asking questions about the
students thoughts on the story and if they understood the setting, characters, message, and
genera of the book. For the second goal I chose to focus on fluency and helping them

understanding unknown words by looking at the text. Therefore, my two goals for this week of
guided reading are comprehension and fluency
With these two goals in mind I chose four books that I knew contained interesting stories that
would cause the students to reflect on the story line and any prior knowledge. Since they are just
starting on level K I chose books that are interesting when it comes to themes and story. These
books are Julies, baby of the world, A House for Hermit Crab, What happen to Patricks
Dinosaurs?, and How much is a million? They were retrieved from the Aurora book room and all
are labeled level K. Upon further investigation I found vocabulary words that we could explore
together.

What I will say

What
So did
I say
you like the book? Eric Carl is
Hione
group!
This
week authors.
you will be
doing
of my
favorite
I hope
you
your
reading
with me. I know
likedweekly
this book
he made.
that
Miss.
is Crab
normally
What
did McArthur
the Hermit
do insitting
the
where
story?I am but this week will be
different. Youre going to help me with
some
homework.
Just like
you I get
So this
story is about
a Hermit
crab
homework.
My homework
is to better
finding a new
shell and decorating
it.
st
understand
how the
1 graders
Now,
But why would
book beread.
called
A
its
only for
for Hermit
this week
but I am excited
House
Carb?
toPossible
see great
readers, such as
answers:
yourselves,
readhermit
books crabs
and see
what
A shell is wear
sleep,
eat,
you
from them.
I hope
you
are as
andlearn
feel safe.
To them
thats
their
excited
as I am.
home/house.

1 Day
Day 2

As
we did
are he
reading
we will be
How
feel intoday
the end?
taking
a close
look at the story and
Possible
answers:
what the characters are thinking and
feeling.
have
chosen books for you to
Did he Ifeel
better?
read
this week
and I hope you like
Possible
answers:
them. Some were my favorite when I
was
your
age.this storys genre be? All
What
would
the characters are animals but they talk
Todays
is by an author that I am
to one book
another.
pretty
sure
you have
read before:
Possible
answers:
Animal
fantasy,Eric
Carl.
Some
of his books were brown
realistic
fiction
bear,
brown
bear this
whatstory
do you
see
Animal
Fantasy,
could
happen
and
thelife.
very
Hungary
caterpillar.
I
in real
Hermit
Crabs
look for new
love
hiswhen
booksthey
because
they
all have
shells
get too
big.
charming
stories about animals. Most of
Possible answers:
them are animal fantasy. We will be
reading
A House for the Hermit Crab
Word Work
Now
just going
by looking
at at
the
title and the
We are
to look
something
a
cover
the book
we can
see going
the main
little of
different
today.
We are
to
character
of the story.
look at prefixes
today.AAhermit
prefix crab.
is
something we put at the begaing of a
Before
you changes
start reading
I have some
word that
its meaning.
For
vocabulary
wordsI for
toword
look polite
at. Can
example, when
sayus
the
we
all turn
to the
page
in ourisbook
what
do you
think?
Bailey
very polite
where
the Hermit crab is with some
today.
yellow-brownish
We have to be
Now when I saycoral?
impolite
detectives
andput
look
theofspecial
That im that
in for
front
polite word
we
are going
to look at.right?
Ill give
youim
a is a
changed
its meaning,
That
clue
to find
the we
word.
want you
all to
prefix.
Today,
areIgoing
to look
at
point
to theun.
word
that
begins
withisa G
the prefix
Lets
say
Briaden
on
the second
Once
you
think If
walking
downpage.
the hall
with
scissors.
youve
found this
word
put
your
other
he is holding
them
right
and
isnt
hand
on your
one
that
isnt
running
he isheart,
beingthe
safe.
But
if he
is
pointing
the word..
All of my
runningto
down
the hall swing
the
reading
fundunsafe
the word!
scissorsdetectives
around hehave
is being
Great Job. This word is gingerly. I
want
you all to look at this word and
Kind-unkind
say
it once with a level one voice.
Fold-unfold
Great.
This is another word for gentle.
Clean-unclean
So
quietly
read
this sentence again but
Look
at new
book:
replace gingerly with gently. Does it
make
Here sense?
is the book you will be reading

Why I said it
Why I say it
Introducing myself and letting them
know why I am in the teacher seat
rather
than
Miss. M.
Asking
questions
about the story to
evaluate if students comprehended it
and help them make connections with
past readings.

Build excitement and discus and goals

for them this week.

Making connection with the text and

touching upon what the book is
about. This will help them build up
their comprehension of the book.

I want to try and introduce a new

English concept to the students. They
have not looked at prefixes yet and I
Looking
new
words the
want toat
see
if Ivocabulary
can communicate
a new
students
not know.
Children at
concept may
to them
successfully.
level K need to discover new vocabulary
words by attending to the story,
illustrations, and his/her own
background of experience.

The picture walk will help build

comprehension for the students. It will
help them identify different aspects of
the story.

Day 3

What Ill say

So, how did you like Julius the baby of
the world? I'm pretty sure those with
little brothers or sisters had a lot of
connections to this book.
So we already talked about how Lilly
didn't like her little brother. What did
she do to show her feelings that she
didn't like him?
What genre was it again?
Reading response
How did her feelings change at the
end? Show me evidence by rereading
the story and look for it.
Evidence is proof of something. For
example, I know that Lilly didnt like her
brother because she was mean to him.
In order to prove this Ill flip through
this book to find her acting mean to her
brother. Here, I found a page where she
is trying to scare him, make him
disappear, and ignoring him. That is my
evidence that she doesnt like him.
I now want you to look through this
book for more evidence that Ill give
you sticky notes to put on pages that
have evidence. While you are rereading
I will have some of my friends quietly
read to me.

Word work
Now lets look at word with a prefix that
is different from the one we looked at
yesterday. We looked at un now we
are looking at re. Lets look at the
words rethink and rewrite. If I separate
re and the word, for example, re and
think I have one word but re is not a
word.
Re
Repay
Return
Review
Reset
Rethink
Rewrite
Let's look at our next book. I want you
to slip through the book. Then look at
the title. How can a give us a clue about
what the story is about?
Are the dinosaurs in the book doing
what normal dinosaurs do?

Why I said it
Asking questions about the story to
evaluate if students comprehended it
and help them make connections with
past readings.

I want to try and introduce a new

English concept to the students. They
have not looked at prefixes yet and I
want to see if I can communicate a new
concept to them successfully. I to
confront the misconnection that one
student had that all prefixes are
compound words.
This is book is a little bit more difficult
when it comes to comprehension. It is a
story within a story. Its a realistic fiction
story of a boy telling his brother a story
about a fantasy

What I will say

How are these dinasours different from
real ones?
Possible answers: they help people,
they were bridges, they built stuff.
What do you already know about
dinosaurs?
They lived before humans, they were
lizards, came in different forms
These are Patricks dinosaurs. As
Phoenix pointed out in the title, the
dinosaurs belong to Patrick but they are
in his mind. They arent real. So what
genera would the story be?
Now I want you to look at the end of the
story. Patrick says that the dinosaurs in
his story, once in a while, come to earth
to see how they are different. Some
friends already found some of the
hidden dinosaurs that the author put in
his book. Can you find them all?

Prefix
Today we are looking at the prefix anti.
Anit means against something. Like
Antifreeze stops ice.
What is something you dont like? What
food dont you like? Take that food and
add anti to it.
Antifreeze
Antigravity
Antiweed
Antibully
Think how much a million is. Can you
picture it? Can you see a million
pennies? Or a million people? It is a
large number that hard
then what about a billion what
about a trillion.
+ pulls out book

Why I said it
Asking questions about the story to
evaluate if students comprehended it
and help them make connections with
past readings.
This is book is a little bit more difficult
when it comes to comprehension. It is a
story within a story. Its a realistic
fiction story of a boy telling his brother
a story about a fantasy

The book we will finish off with will be

any easy book. It is a fun story about
children and a wizard counting to a
million with different objects.

This book will help you think about how

much a million is. It shows what it
would be like if there a million fish,
stars, people, and so on.
Hand children book.
This book even looks at billion and
trillion when it comes to counting. Lets
write out these numbers and see how
many zeros they have in them.
Write out 1,000,000. How many zeros is
that?
Write out 1,000,000,000. Thats three
more zeros!?
I want you to flip through this book and
tell me what you see. They count with
different things, what are they?

Guided reading reflection

I had fun planning the reading sessions. I got to pick out my own books and plan my own
lessons. I am aware that some students didnt get this chance but I was glad to have it. Some of
the books I picked were ones that I even appreciated as a child. These books had timeless themes
that I felt the students would enjoy and they did. All the sessions went smoothly and all the
children were very engaged in the books and even the word work. Each time we sat down they
would share with me about how they adored the books. This gave me a sense of pride and made
me look forward to the next time we would meet. I had more fun with this project then I thought
I would. We would then go into discussion about the books.
Focusing on prefixes was very fun for both the students and I. At first I was a little
nervous about introducing the topic to them because they had never directly worked with it in the
past. Would they understand what I was trying to teach them? Did I possess the skills to
communicate my message to them? The answer was yes and they had fun. I can tell it worked
because once the students understood the meaning of the prefixes and how they changed the
word they would try to add the prefixes on other words to see if it made sense. This part of the
guided reading became very interesting when we talked about the prefixes Anti. One student said
she was anti-teacher which kind of surprised me and kind of didnt. Shes often called the spit
fire of the group by my mentor teacher. I told her that she was breaking my heart when she
said that, I didnt want to spoil the playful mood that the discussion had created.
The problem I had was getting students to focus on the books rather than their discussion.
The books were inspiring to them, maybe a little too much. The books topics would often lead to
talks that would eventual get off track from the guided reading session. The discussions were

often informational but I had to stop them in order to get done in time. When we were looking at
What Happened to Patricks Dinosaur, for example, children started to talk about what they knew
about dinosaur which lead them to taking about Jurassic Park which then lead them to chat about
the new Jurassic World movie coming out then somehow it got them chatting about night at the
museum. I had to stop them.
Overall, this guided reading project really gave me the experience I needed. We read about
guided reading and watched our teachers host their own groups but actually creating ones own
guided reading session was something else. I personal saw how beneficial the lesson was for
both the children and I. Students get the one-on-one instruction they need in order to further their
own development. Sometimes this is hard to come by when teachers have to educate a whole
room of 7 years old. With guided reading I was able to take a closer look at each childs reading
strengths and weaknesses. If I could have another week with them I would engage them in
stories that were a little more complicated when it comes to storyline. All the students received
the books well and understood them for the most part. I think I would talk to them more about
dinosaurs because they seem to have a lot of questions about them. I could possible integrate
some science and/or history standards in there. Cant wait to plan another one.