Reading Group

After completing WIDA test with all my 27 students I analyzed and thought over the data. It became obvious that a group of my EAL beginners have similar needs in reading. Their comprehension was low due to the insufficient vocabulary.

Having in mind that we still had five weeks before the end of the school year, I came up with a proposal for my team of classroom teachers. I offered to change our timetable to meet the language needs of our students in a most effective way.

My idea was to group the students with similar reading needs and provide intensive reading instruction with the focus on comprehension. The first morning period suited all the three classroom teachers and the last Monday we started.

I have five students in my reading group. We use leveled multi-copied books from our library. Daily we read a fiction or factual book. My students are engaged in rich discussions of the story plot or facts. With five students in a group, it is easy to make sure that every child participates making comments, asking and answering questions, etc.

In the 45 minutes of the lesson, we do pre-reading activities including predicting, discussing fiction or non-fiction features, reading illustrations and vocabulary check. Next, we read the text, discussing vocabulary, unpacking concepts, highlighting main ideas and drawing conclusions. At the end of the session, we retell stories and make connections.

Shintaro is always the first one to choose the most amazing fact.