CAFE Chapter 7: Strategy Groups

I am so excited that this is our last chapter!  I have really enjoyed reading this book, but now I want to get out in the classrooms and see it "happening".  I think this book reading and blog will create bigger conversations for us for 11-12 and beyond.

I love that they started this chapter with a hair/hair color analogy.  For MANY women, changing the hair cut, hair style or hair color causes lots and lots of anxiety.  This same anxiety is experienced by many teachers when we talk about guided reading groups vs. strategy reading groups.  I have wanted to work on this area for a long time and I hope this opens up a dialogue among all of us.

I am not as old as these authors are, but their experiences mimic my experiences starting in 5th grade guided reading groups in Houston in 1995.  We had tons of classes on running records and finding out exactly what DRA level the student was at (38, 44, 50, etc.).  Then my job was to find time during the day to divide them into three groups (even if we really needed more like 4 or 5) to meet with for short periods of time to read books from the guided reading book closet.  I would go in there and choose books at the right "level" and that seemed appealing.  Then we would sit down and read together (but not ROUND ROBIN) at my kidney-shaped table.  I felt very successful on the exterior as my schedule was organized, my levels were figured out, and my kids were all in small groups reading books at their level.  Perfect, right?  Wrong.

I remember meeting with my principal and saying that I didn't think it was working.  Not every kid needs the same amount of table time.  Not every kid at a 38 is at a 38 for the same reason. Some had English language learner issues, some had fluency issues, and some had comprehension or lack of comprehension issues, but yet they were still all 38s?  Also, it seemed that the skill I was working on with one group worked better with the book that another group was reading?  Also, it seemed that I needed a concrete list of skills by area (fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, etc.) and then could move through them like a scope and sequence and move the kids in an out of the groups if my "formative assessment" showed that they needed extra help or no.  Wow, and that was all in 1995.....

When I left Iowa City about 6 years ago, our LARS (Title I specialists) were on their way to converting our guided reading groups in our SINA schools to strategy groups instead.  I didn't get to stay around to see it happen, but I have to believe that it improved reading instruction and learning.  When teachers are able to get that specific about what kids can and cannot do, the teaching and teacher improves in my experience.

Are any of you trying strategy groups instead of leveled groups?  I think this is a powerful strategy that we could even look at across grades and not just within one grade/classroom?