Let's Talk Guided Reading...
You will hear the phrase "Bands of Text Complexity" a lot when it comes to Guided Reading.
Fountas and Pinnell, two professors with an immense amount of knowledge in literacy comprehension, have used their research to create text reading level bands. The information provided below is from the F & P website to help you better understand the actual guided reading process:
Ten Text Characteristics for Guided Reading
There are so many elements that go into Guided Reading. My job, as your child's teacher, is to determine what "band" your child is in. Please click on the link below that explains the Level of Text Complexity:
Fountas and Pinnell, two professors with an immense amount of knowledge in literacy comprehension, have used their research to create text reading level bands. The information provided below is from the F & P website to help you better understand the actual guided reading process:
Ten Text Characteristics for Guided Reading
- Genre/Form: Genre is the type of text and refers to a system by which fiction and nonfiction texts are classified. Form is the format in which a genre may be presented. Forms and genres have characteristic features.
- Text Structure: Structure is the way the text is organized and presented. The structure of most fiction and biographical texts is narrative, arranged primarily in chronological sequence. Factual texts are organized categorically or topically and may have sections with headings. Writers of factual texts use several underlying structural patterns to provide information to readers. The most important are description; chronological sequence; comparison and contrast; cause and effect; and problem and solution. The presence of these structures, especially in combination, can increase the challenge for readers.
- Content: Content refers to the subject matter of the text-the concepts that are important to understand. In fiction, content may be related to the setting or to the kinds of problems characters have. In factual texts, content refers to the topic of focus. Content is considered in relation to the prior experience of readers.
- Themes and Ideas: These are big ideas that are communicated by the writer. Ideas may be concrete and accessible or complex and abstract. A text may have multiple themes or a main theme and several supporting themes.
- Language and Literary Features: Written language is qualitatively different from spoken language. Fiction writers use dialogue, figurative language, and other kinds of literary structures such as character, setting, and plot. Factual writers use description and technical language. In hybrid texts you may find a wide range of literary language.
- Sentence Complexity: Meaning is mapped onto the syntax of language. Texts with simpler, more natural sentences are easier to process. Sentences with embedded and conjoined clauses make a text more difficult.
- Vocabulary: Vocabulary refers to words and their meanings. The more known vocabulary words in a text, the easier a text will be. The individual's reading and vocabulary refer to words that she understands.
- Words: This category refers to recognizing and solving the printed words in the text. The challenge in a text partly depends on the number and the difficulty of the words that the reader must solve by recognizing them or decoding them. Having a great many of the same high-frequency words makes a text more accessible to readers.
- Illustrations: Drawings, paintings, or photographs accompany the text and add meaning and enjoyment. In factual texts, illustrations also include graphics that provide a great deal of information that readers must integrate with the text. Illustrations are an integral part of a high quality text. Increasingly, fiction texts include a range of graphics, including labels, heading, subheadings, sidebars, photos and legends, charts and graphs. After grade one, texts may include graphic texts that communicate information or a story in a sequence of pictures and words.
- Book and Print Features: Book and print features are the physical aspects of the text-what readers cope with in terms of length, size, and layout. Book and print features also include tools like the table of contents, glossary, pronunciation guides, indexes, sidebars, and a variety of graphic features in graphic texts that communicate how the text is read.
There are so many elements that go into Guided Reading. My job, as your child's teacher, is to determine what "band" your child is in. Please click on the link below that explains the Level of Text Complexity:
After reading the explanation of the Bands of Text Complexity, you will see the various abilities that readers must master before moving into another band.
Please keep in mind that when you go to the library, you don't walk in and ask the librarian, "Where are the level Q books? Because I am a level Q and I can't read anything other than a level Q."
You read books, magazines, & articles based on your interest! Think about how much it restricts a child to identify them as a letter.
By identifying the Band, that allows the children to have access a variety of texts while progressing on different skills throughout their time in that Band.
For example: 3rd graders are typically in the NOPQ band. They might be great at one skill on a level P, but struggling on a different skill in O. I will allow them to have access to books within the band to help them progress and grow.
They do not need a challenging book every single time I meet with them or they read independently. They need to feel success with an easier read as well as a challenging read to set and reach their goals.
Please let me know if you have any further questions about Guided Reading!!!
Please keep in mind that when you go to the library, you don't walk in and ask the librarian, "Where are the level Q books? Because I am a level Q and I can't read anything other than a level Q."
You read books, magazines, & articles based on your interest! Think about how much it restricts a child to identify them as a letter.
By identifying the Band, that allows the children to have access a variety of texts while progressing on different skills throughout their time in that Band.
For example: 3rd graders are typically in the NOPQ band. They might be great at one skill on a level P, but struggling on a different skill in O. I will allow them to have access to books within the band to help them progress and grow.
They do not need a challenging book every single time I meet with them or they read independently. They need to feel success with an easier read as well as a challenging read to set and reach their goals.
Please let me know if you have any further questions about Guided Reading!!!