A few classes ago, we talked about the idea of gradually releasing responsibility to students as instruction continues over time. I found this graphic on the web and thought it did a much better job of illustrating the point than my scribbles on the board did. This will be an important concept we will revisit over and over again as we continue to talk about strategy instruction and methodologies for teaching reading and writing.
We also had the chance to explore reading levels. I found this chart that correlates with the chart handed out in class today but goes further in terms of grade level and includes other leveling systems:
Leveled books are integral to the guided reading approach. As you looked through books in class, you had the opportunity to see how the levels change in difficulty, word structure, plot complexity, topics, etc.Some resources on the web that help us place levels on texts:
Leveled Book List :: This website does an excellent job of listing books that you may already have in your collection that can be leveled. It organizes the books based on their author, title, and even grade level. Definitely a bookmarkable site!
Teacher Book Wizard :: This is a new website for me, but looks like it could be an excellent resource for matching students to texts that will interest them based on the level they are currently at. Plug in some information, select your leveling system and the engine will search for matches. I'm unsure how successful it is in the long run, but the thought seems good. Try it out and let me know what you think.
Sadly, that's only two things off my list. More to come, but must read now.
As always, comment with questions.
16 comments:
I struggle with leveled books. This is why. In my class at Edgewood, there are two groups. A group of high leveled students and a group of low leveled students. The reason I have an issue with this is because the difference in what the children do is extreme. The high level kids are expected to read a story and complete 3 worksheets on the story. The low leveled are just expected to read a basic story. I feel like the low leveled students are not pushed to do more. I feel like they could complete the worksheets if they were giving a chance. Also, the children know what levels they are. Leslie had the lower leveled kids and they said "we know we are the dumb group." Kids just shouldn't be saying stuff like that in 2nd grade, it can destroy their confidence. I believe the students learn best from each other. Putting a high leveled and a low leveled student together would be my suggestion. I just do not want children in my class to know they are the low level readers.
I really like the idea of gradual release of responsiblity. I think I like it so much because it is something you can actually see happening in your classroom and you can see the end product of how far you have come throughout the year. This graph does give a great visual of how this is supposed to look like and I definitely plan on using this method in my future classroom.
I want to agree with Chloe in that I also sometimes struggle with the idea of leveling. Children definitely know if they are in the "smart group" or the "dumb group." This may help the higher group do well becuase they feel motivated. However, the lower groups may feel that they may always be in that low group so why try?
Leveled books still kind of confuse me....am i supposed to level every book my students read? When I was in elementary school I don't remember always having a letter or number on the book i was reading. I do remember taking a STAR test and that told me which levels in accelerated reader i was supposed to choose books from. Is that the same type of idea?
I really enjoy the gradual release theory because students cannot always learn through discovery. They need guidence so they stay on task. Also, many times teachers can fix their misconcptions created during independent learning through modeling. However, I do think what they learn on their own is usually more meaningful to them because they figured it out themselves.
As for leveled books, It kills me that students are so aware and discouraged that they are different levels. However, it is unavoidable in my opinion. They can't learn by constantly reading books that arent suitable for them. I think the only way to make them feel better about it is how we talked about letting them have about 5 books at a time. This way they have ones on level for them and they can have one that is challenging for them to work up to. They can use it as a goal.
Along with some of the other people in class, I am also confused about leveled books. I do not understand the numbers. When I was looking at the leveled book website you gave us I was really confused on how the books were numbered. What kind of level is a child at if the book they are reading has a .25 marked on it? How do we specifically figure out our students level? If they are technically supposed to be reading easier books, can they not try harder books from time to time? Would it be a bad idea to read a book to the class that not every student will understand? Can a highly advanced student read books that are easy for them from time to time? I just have a lot of questions about the leveling system and how it is figured out!
I am pretty much in the same position as the others. I am still confused somewhat about the leveled books concept. I do know what the students in my classroom are separated into a few reading groups because some are at a much higher reading level than most of the others. On Monday, I worked with some of the lower level readers, and it was an experience. They struggled with common words such as "on" and "bit." Pauline was able to work with some of the higher reading students, who were reading a chapter book. I understand that not all students are going to be able to read at the same level, but is it an issue for them to be reading different books than others. As a teacher wanting to read aloud to all of my students, how would I choose books that could relate to all of them??
It's interesting because my cooperating teacher talks about leveling quite often. I worked with a group of first grade students who are considered average or slightly above average readers. I was very surprised because it seemed, to me, that most of them, especially one girl, should be considered in the highest group in the class. My cooperating teacher said she thinks they should be placed in the highest group as well but their principal has done some assessment on them and doesn't think they are. The girl who I have been talking about read really fast for a first grader and hardly made any mistakes. I just wonder what kind of assessment the principal is doing and if the girl gets nervous around her...
I really enjoyed learning about leveled books. I still have a hard time identifying what level a book fits into. In my classroom at Edgewood they have 90 minutes of uninterupted reading. The first part is literacy groups. In these groups they are split up into three groups according to their reading level. Each group reads a different book for their level. After this, they do guided reading. Guided reading is a whole class lesson where they all read the same story. I was just confused about how they choose which stories to use for the whole class and when the time to have mini lessons would be? I looked at the website and it is a good resource! I also was wondering how having students in leveled groups affects their self esteem. I wonder if students feel bad if they are in the low reading group. We have learned about having the higher students help the struggling readers when in the same group, does this not actually happen in the classroom? Just a few things I have been thinking about.
Holy cow that leveled book list site is amazing! It might sound like a nerdy idea but just throwing it out there for others. One of my good friends who is an education major made a list on excel of all her books that she has for her classroom library to keep track of them and easily know what she had for what kind of lesson. I think adding the level to that list would be a great idea as well! This site is definitely bookmarked already for me :) Thanks Nick!
I was taking a look at the leveled books websites and they seem great and really organize books into categories which will save time. But i kind of have an issue with leveled books because in my classroom we have thre groups when doing reading. The books that are chosen are SOOO different. One is normally very high level and one so easy. The students know what group they are in and constanley make comments whether its bragging or putting themselves down and i hate to hear this. Also, as i walk around the room alot of times im not sure if the students are getting pushed enough and i feel that alot of times they can move groups or even eliminate the extremely low reading group beacuse it doesnt seem to do much for them as they whip through the book. So im still confused to when Leveling is appropriate....
I was so happy to see that you had posted websites to look at for help on leveling books. It is especially nice if they have books listed that you do already have so that you can know exactly what leveled students best fit that book. I was always a little nervous about leveled books, for a few reasons. If we do not have basils at our school and create our own curriculum, then we must go through and assign our own books or get new books to match each requirement and level. I would hope we have good resources, such as these websites, to help us do so. Also, if we do have basils then I am afraid of sticking to just those leveled books, but I am worried about if I choose my own books that they will not fit the description of the other ones. These resources will help a lot and I am hoping it will start to make more sense when I have more experience with them. We have barely seen any reading within our classroom at Edgewood and I really wish we saw more. We see writing workshop at least once a week which is nice, but the readin all takes place in the morning, which we will see eventually when we go all day. I just hope it is enough time to see it executed and get experience with it before student teaching.
I'm glad a website about leveling exists because I do not remember talking about this much in my Reading Methods I course. Now that we've discussed this in class, did an activity seeing the different types of books that go in which category as well as viewing this website has helped me get a much better understanding of this part of managing students in the classroom. Unfortunately at Edgewood I have not seen the students do any reading therefore I do not know how my cooperating teacher has arranged the children or what books she has them reading. I plan on talking to her much more about this once I start seeing how reading/ writing are done in her classroom.
The gradual release of responsibility however is very evident when I walk into her classroom. I can see the students maturing each week. She even said that her classroom has come a very long way in the 2 months since school started.
I really like the gradual release chart you posted on the blog. I'm glad we talked about this concept in class and you did a chart on the board but this one that you posted makes it much easier to follow and seems more straight forward. I am also glad that you gave us the leveling website because it was very interesting and helped organize books which is good. As with others who have commented, I feel the same. In my classroom at Edgewood, the students are placed into different groups during literacy time and 2 aides come in and take the 2 lower groups while the teacher works with the higher group all in the same room. I feel that there is a lot of chaos going on at this time and I don't really like the concept of splitting them into leveled groups. There is one exceptional group of 5 students that actually leaves the room and the entire class comments about "the smart kids always get to do fun things, why can't we ever leave?". I don't know if there is a better way to go about leveling but I would like to learn more about the organizational process.
I think these resources will be incredibly helpful to us as future teachers. I am especially grateful for the links and postings about leveled reading. This is something I am not familiar with and I know I am going to encounter it in my future school. In fact, I have already encountered it in my classroom at Edgewood Primary. I worked with kids to assess if their current reading level was appropriate. Thanks to the short discussion we had in class, I felt much more comfortable making these decisions. I also like our discussions about how to help struggling readers. Every time we bring up this issue you (Nick) provide us with your own first-hand experiences which I find to be some of the most beneficial information. I enjoy learning about the techniques you used in your classroom and I hope to use many of them in my own in the future.
I am confused about leveled books and how to use them in the classroom and how you know what levels different books would fall under. In my M401 classroom, I know that my cooperating teacher uses leveled texts and has them categorized by holidays, sports, etc. Is it better to organize them as groups of the same level? Is it easier for the students to know what to read based on the level that would best suite them?
The bookwizard website was really helpful for me and will be a website I look more through as I continue my studies in the education field! My favorite part of the site is the place you can evaluate your library, found at link:
http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/evaluateClassroomLibrary.do.
A tool that enables teachers to find what they could change or add to better the books in their current classroom library will create a better enviornment for the students. Scolastic evaluates this by the information you type in such as the grade you teach, amount of books in your classroom, percent of nonfiction books, genres, and span of reading levels.
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