A concern that has arisen when doing strategy groups vs guided reading is the lack of deeper discussions amongst the students with the same text. When do you have the students come together and dig into books as a group?
I would say if you are working on a comprehension strategy that lends its self to those discussions, this could be a time when you have a group sharing the same text if that works better for you. Remember to keep those lessons to an appropriate length of time.
Most strategies do lend themselves to being able to do in Strategy Groups, but I can understand that there are times when a deep discussion would be a strong lesson, especiallyif you are working with older students.
What do you think about book clubs? Instead of guided reading, per say, you have so many options for the students of books to read. They still have a choice of book to read, but then you are able to get into some discussions with the students. This is for older grades.
Jody, I teach fifth grade and I was struggling with what to do using Daily 5 to promote deeper discussions as well. This is my first year implementing Daily 5 and not using the basal. I decided to use book clubs for a common book for the deeper discussions. The students have a book club reading assignment to finish before we meet for our weekly book club meeting. I try to make the book club readings manageable, so that the students will still have time to read their own choice book as well. When I am meeting with a certain book club group, the other students are completing their daily rounds.
Do you pick the books for them or give them choice within a range of books?
I am still struggling with instructing the students in strategy groups instead of leveled groups. Strategy groups are a goal for me, but I’m making sure I start small with the Daily 5 Routines and individual coaching first. I still grouped my book clubs by reading levels and gave each group 3-4 different books to vote on for the group. On the day that I introduced the books I had the students watch book trailers on each book before they voted. I know I’m not doing everything correctly yet by the CAFE book, but I was also struggling with giving students opportunities for deeper discussions and being able to use a common piece of text for teaching text-based evidence. I have done some text-based evidence instruction during the whole group lesson as well.
What would you say is the difference between “book club” and guided reading?
| Title | Category | Replies | Views | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Is CAFE going to be aligned with the Texas TEKS? | CAFE | 8 | 6.5k | 9 months 2 weeks |
| Alignment of Daily 5 & CAFE with Cambridge Learning Outcomes | CAFE | 0 | 4.8k | 2 years 3 months |
| CAFE strategies book list | CAFE | 10 | 5.8k | 2 years 3 months |
| Alignment with Australian Curriculum | CAFE | 4 | 1.3k | 2 years 5 months |
| Lesson Planning | CAFE | 0 | 1.7k | 4 years 2 months |
| Question about Comprehension--Use Prior Knowledge to Connect with Text | CAFE | 0 | 950 | 4 years 2 months |
| Sharing Videos Online | CAFE | 2 | 1.1k | 4 years 3 months |
| Daily 5, small groups, and conferring 6 feet away | CAFE | 4 | 1.6k | 4 years 3 months |
| New Ready Reference guides | CAFE | 6 | 2.5k | 4 years 3 months |
| Mini Lesson Variety | CAFE | 1 | 1.7k | 4 years 3 months |
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