This article really opened some doors for me. Not only because I completely agree with the concepts behind it, but also because I can relate to it. The entire concept of placing children into appropriate reading groups and having them read leveled text appropriate for them is a magnificent idea. I simply cannot imagine a teacher not doing this for their students, in part because it is not difficult to do and also because it will benefit each student so much (which is why teachers are there in the first place, right?).
In elementary school, staring in Kindergarten, I was a struggling reader. I went through 2 years of elementary school (Kindergarten and First grade) lacking good reading ability. When I reached the second grade, without being tested, I was placed into the highest reading level in the classroom – they had went off of the fact that I had made good grades in K and first grade. From the first day of school, each day we would get into our reading groups and have “round robin” reading, just as Jon had to do in the article. I can remember it like it was yesterday because it was a nightmare for me. We were reading the chapter book, Charlotte’s Web (which I still can’t read to this day because it brings up horrible memories), and when it came time for me to read I wanted to crawl under the table. I simply couldn’t read the words or pronounce what I was seeing on the page. The teacher would help me along, but it was so embarassing for me to sit there with all of the other group members who were fluent readers. I would read maybe one paragraph, while they usually read several pages at a time. Eventually, I was taken out of this reading group and placed into a lower group, where I was much more successful. I even got the Hooked on Phonics program which really seemed to help.
I understand that this article focuses on children reading Social Studies content books, but I felt this story was relevant for the idea of having several leveled reading groups within a classroom. Doing this allows each student to gain much more from the text they are reading and to actually feel successful. If they are constantly reading something that is over their head, they will gain nothing from it – instead they will get frustrated and eventually give up.
This article is such a great resource to use for pre-service and in-service teachers, because it talks about such an important concept. Because it provides several books that can be used during Social Studies’ lessons that can accomodate each student, there is no excuse for children to not be reading on their appropriate instructional level.
