Individual Reading

[Guest]

Hello

 

At the moment my head (who is fantastic with early years) likes me to try to read with my Reception children on an individual basis once a week.

 

Part of me can see why. The kids get very little support at home, and for some children I can see the benefits.

 

However, I feel like it's taking far too much of my time, when at the end of the day most of my time is spent filling in school and home diary records. (I've tried limiting this but we are all asked to keep record to inform next steps etc). I've got 27 children so between me and my TA we are taken away form other activities for a lot of the time.

 

What do others think?

[Susan]

Inclined to agree with you and for those reasons I prefer Guided reading! Its much easier to actually teach some reading skills, reinforcing your big book shared reading and pick up individual reading as and when.

Good luck!

[Guest]

kelly as a mum i used to go in and listen to the children read and as i was a pre-schooler as well i think it carried more weight. could you not find a pre-schooler mum or just a mum to listen to them? it might take the load off a bit?

[Guest]

sorry to go against the grain but at the moment we dont listen to our children read individually at all and i think it is a real shame! on my final practice all the children were heard once a week and they gained so much from it. here we only here them in guided groups and it is impossible to give the individual attention that for a lot of them reading requires

[michaelle]

Either I or my TA do hear mine read once a week but I other than keeping a tick sheet and filling in very brief comments in school diary I dont keep any other notes. I write more detailed stuff during guided reading.

[Lorna]

We have to hear our children twice a week individually- onec by class teacher and once by other adult.

We also have a rule tht only parents that are better reading trained should hear children and make a comment in record books- other parents can hear but not comment.

 

We find it a real nightmare- time wise etc.

I try to raed in pairs or groups of threes for the more able but they are so little and need individaul attention.

 

Sorry

 

L

[Guest]

This is really difficult - wish there was a magic answer.

 

Last year, for the first time, I stopped hearing individual readers in favour of just Guided Reading sessions - what a nightmare - I really lost track of where the children where and felt lost quality 1:1 time with them, where you often find out so much more than just reading stuff.

 

So this year, we have gone back to hearing individual readers and guided reading. This is how we do it:

Mondays - guided reading session with follow up group work

Every day after lunch - I have a 'reading workshop' where children take part in adult iniitiated reading tasks (ORT on computer, jigsaws, appropriate task on graphics table) while myself and my TA hear 3 each (we have 30 in class) It can be a might mad at times but it works OK and only takes about 10 mins.

 

.

[Guest]

I like to hear the children read individually at this stage in their reading development. I don't introduce guided reading until after Christmas - and only for some children initially.

[Marion]

Hello

 

At the moment my head (who is fantastic with early years) likes me to try to read with my Reception children on an individual basis once a week. 

 

Part of me can see why. The kids get very little support at home, and for some children I can see the benefits.

 

However, I feel like it's taking far too much of my time, when at the end of the day most of my time is spent filling in school and home diary records. (I've tried limiting this but we are all asked to keep record to inform next steps etc).  I've got 27 children so between me and my TA we are taken away form other activities for a lot of the time.

 

What do others think?

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Cant someone else hear the children read? Helpful sensible parents? At this stage in the year I prefer to hear the children read individually at least once a week but welcome parental help to make sure they are heard more often.

[Guest]

Our parents are mostlY lovely, but very few like to get involved, other than school trips etc. Many of our parents have problems with reading themselves too, or cannot speak English very well, so this one is difficult.

 

Thanks for your replies though. I'll keep thinking of ways round it!

[basilbrush]

This is really difficult - wish there was a magic answer.

 

Last year, for the first time, I stopped hearing individual readers in favour of just Guided Reading sessions - what a nightmare - I really lost track of where the children where and felt lost quality 1:1 time with them, where you often find out so much more than just reading stuff.

 

So this year, we have gone back to hearing individual readers and guided reading.  This is how we do it:

Mondays - guided reading session with follow up group work

Every day after lunch  - I have a 'reading workshop' where children take part in adult iniitiated reading tasks (ORT on computer, jigsaws, appropriate task on graphics table) while myself and my TA hear 3 each (we have 30 in class)  It can be a might mad at times but it works OK and only takes about 10 mins. 

 

.

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Bungalow, agree with what you're saying, i'm very loathe to give up individual reading, with your guided reading session on a monday - i take it thats separete to your reading workshop - does it mean that you only hear 1 group of guided reading a week...

 

thanks

[Guest]

I agree others that have said that individual reading is so important for the children at this stage, and unfortunately it does mean grabbing them here and there to get them all done in a week.

 

We don't start guided reading until the summer term... and even then just with maybe the best 8 readers.

[Guest]

I went on a Guided Reading course last year and asked the question 'If I didn't have time to do both - or have the staff - which one should I do?' The answer came back that guided reading would win hands down each time. Guided reading is the specific teaching of skills and can therefore be taught to a small group. The GR session is a mini lesson in itself, starting with an introductory activity, book intro etc etc.

 

They then advised that once these skills had been developed within the group scenario, ones who were causing concern or ones who you felt could progress more would then be targeted for the individual 1:1 reading. This came from both Early Years and KS1 Literacy Advisors from the LEA who were leading the training.

 

Have to admit that until we have appropriate reading scheme, reading isn't as well done as it should be anyway!

 

x

[Guest]

I went on a Guided Reading course last year and asked the question 'If I didn't have time to do both - or have the staff - which one should I do?'  The answer came back that guided reading would win hands down each time.  Guided reading is the specific teaching of skills and can therefore be taught to a small group.  The GR session is a mini lesson in itself, starting with an introductory activity, book intro etc etc. 

 

IF it's the 'specific teaching of skills' though... would they not get even more out of being 'specifically taught' one-to-one? Personally, I feel I can give so much more to a child, and meet their specific needs on a one-to-one level... guided reading just can't meet every child's needs every time, whereas individual can can't it?

[Guest]

Hi

 

This year I am job sharing reception and work in nursery in the morning.

Last year I aimed for one guided reading session a week with children and then between myself and the TA we heard the children share/ read stories 3 times a week. Last year this was manageable as we only had 14 children, every afternoon after lunch all the school (thoeretically was engaged in individual rwading sessions) so could stagger. One day I heard some read whilst the TA shared stories with children in our book corner.

 

This year due to part time working and the way we divede the individual reading up if we are short staffed its hard to work. BUT our biggest problem is that most parents don't share the books at home, so we have to share them at school. Again the abilities are so skewed that guided reading with some children is limiting. With the more able its great- but some children still don't hold a book the correct way up, understand that they can alk about the pictures etc, have speech developed to understand what they are saying bar one word. We are persiting with the mix as some children get a great deal from paired talk / shared book skills in the guided reading. But the majority of the class need individual reading and this is what they get.

 

Does this make sense!!!!!!!!!!

 

Lisa E

[Marion]

IF it's the 'specific teaching of skills' though... would they not get even more out of being 'specifically taught' one-to-one? Personally, I feel I can give so much more to a child, and meet their specific needs on a one-to-one level... guided reading just can't meet every child's needs every time, whereas individual can can't it?

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I agree surely the same skills taught in a guided reading session can be taught to individual children, however the problem most of us face is TIME!

Nearly half my class dont share books at home with parents on a regular basis (if at all). I feel its important someone hears them read and am lucky that I have a few very able parents that take on this role in school and support the staff so all children are heard individually.