Professional Documents
Culture Documents
I have been doing a book study on the professional resource, The Next Step Forward In
Richardson (2016). As a school district, we received this new copy of the Guided Reading book
at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year. As a staff, we have been utilizing the new book as a
reliable resource. We have explored all types of readers: pre-a, emergent, early, transitional, and
fluent. Each type of reader has different strengths and needs. I will outline each reader profile in
The first type of reader I examined was the Pre-A reader (artifact a). These readers know
less than 40 uppercase and lowercase letters, they lack concepts of print such as turning pages,
differentiating between words and letters, and where to start when reading. Some Pre-A readers
need assistance writing their name. I learned that Jan Richardson recommends doing a tracing
letter book with these students starting the second week of school. This tracing book should have
a page for each letter with an uppercase and lowercase letter. The goal is for students to learn
correct name of each letter. Students also need to be able to manipulate letters by using magnetic
letters. Jan Richardson believes that this is a rapid learning process and not many students should
be in this stage for a very long time. During a Pre-A lesson, students work with their name, work
with letters, work with sounds, work with books, and also participate in interactive writing and
cut-up sentence. These lessons should be used 5 days a week, for about 20 minutes at a time.
The next type of reader I explored was the Emergent reader (artifact b). As a kindergarten
teacher, this is the type of reader that the majority of my students are during the school year.
These types of readers are able to write their own name, can identify 40 letters and sounds, can
form letters correctly, have left to right directionality and can correct errors and make
predictions. During this level, students are exposed to many different components. During a
guided reading lesson, students participate in sight word review, book introduction, reading with
prompting, discussion, reading strategy instruction, learn a new sight word, in addition to word
study and guided writing practice. Depending on the group, it is recommended to meet for about
After a student has mastered reading at an Emergent reader level, they progress onto the
Early reader stage (artifact c). During this stage, students are able to control left to right
directionality, use pictures to help solve unknown words, can read and write 60-80 sight words,
use foundational skills to decode challenging words, use challenging vowels patterns to decode
words, can retell the story and monitor while reading. During an Early reader guided reading
lesson, students are exposed to many different components. Students participate in sight word
review, book introduction, reading with prompting, discussion, reading strategy instruction, learn
a new sight word, in addition to word study and guided writing practice. These lessons should
When students have mastered reading at the Early stage, they then move onto the
Transitional reader level (artifact d). This group of students is extremely diverse and their needs
may vary. These students know a high number of sight words, they struggle with decoding
vocabulary words, specifically multisyllabic words with complex vowel patterns and endings, a
lot of these readers need word study activities that target complex vowels with inflectional
endings, additionally, these readers need to continue working on decoding, retelling, and fluency.
During a guided reading lesson for transitional readers, students are exposed to a new book,
reading instruction with coaching, a time for discussion, teaching points based on the readers
needs, writing, and word study. These lessons last about 25 minutes per session.
The last stage of guided reading is focused on Fluent readers (artifact e). These readers
have automaticity with word recognition, have efficient and flexible word-solving strategies, will
need to learn strategies for monitoring comprehension, and will need to explore deeper levels of
comprehension. Jan Richardson provides many different comprehension strategies you can use
throughout her guided reading lessons (artifact f). During transitional reading lessons, students
are reading new books, diving into new vocabulary, reading and responding to work on fluency,
discussing, writing, and working on comprehension. These lessons take about 25 minutes per
session.
By following the lesson plans that can be found in Jan Richardson’s The Next Step in
Guided Reading book, students will build and develop their foundation of reading. There are
many different elements of the guided reading lesson plan that enables students to be
well-rounded readers. Jan Richardson provides a gradual release to build strong readers.
As a third year teacher, I feel I have a pretty good handle on teaching guided reading. Of
course I am much more familiar with Pre-A, Emergent, and Early readers as those are the
students I work with on a daily basis. I am not as familiar with Transitional and Fluent reading
stages because those are not something I use in my classroom. I believe by doing this
independent study, I have been able to explore and become more comfortable with all types of
readers.
This has been impactful because I have had the opportunity to utilize what I’ve learned in
my classroom. I feel much more comfortable teaching reading strategies to my readers. Reading
strategies are necessary to build a strong foundation for all readers. By completing this book
study, I have been able to distinguish between the different types of readers while personalizing
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