Chapter 11 Discussion

In Chapter 11, the book discusses the importance of shared reading and guidance reading in the classroom. The chapter explains that there is no set age to start with shared reading. I believe that the younger a child is when introduced to shared reading, the more apt they are to become interested in reading. Of course it is a good idea to expose children to reading and books before they are enrolled in school and even before they can read. Picture books especially are designed to capture the attention of young readers and provide an opportunity to follow along with the story as it is being told. In a sense,they are being able to read as well. When my nephew was about three years old, I used to read these picture books to him. He had a few that he made me read over and over again to him. Once I read these to him several times over, he decided that he was going to read them to me. I was surprised and interested to see how he was going to accomplish this. I knew he didn't know how to read yet, so he just flipped through the pages and followed the pictures and described the story to me, almost exactly as it was told through the book.

Many children are striving for that sense of independence so when they are familiar with the reading or are early learners of reading, they want to learn things on their own. As teachers, there are many tools that we can use in order to help achieve this. The use of big, bold, easy-to-read text is a great way to help those students who are learning to sound out words and using the sound-it-out as they go along method of reading. Plus, bigger font is easier to read than the smaller words and it gives the child a better view of how letters look so that they become more familiar with them. You can also do "picture walks," even if they are considered controversial. My teachers in elementary schools used to do picture walks before many of our readings in class in order to get the students to guess what was going to happen in the story. Also it gave us a visual of what the characters would look like and it would get us interested in what was going to happen.

Guided reading is grouping the students together with other students who are on the same reading level and grade level with each other. This gives the students the opportunity to help each other when they learn something new with the assistance of the teacher. Once the student's abilities change, the teachers changes the groups around to accommodate for the change. I believe that this is a good strategy in that it gives the students the ability to scaffold the other students and therefore, they are being able to share what they learned with the other students. I also believe that in some circumstances it is better for a student who comprehends a subject to teach another student because they are on the same age and level that they can translate it in a way that they will understand.