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can anyone explain the point of this please ...

2 replies

mimsum · 14/01/2010 23:47

ds (y5) is a very fluent and voracious reader and has been for years, he's in the top group for literacy in his class ... all well and good

however, his group has been doing guided reading once a week - they've been reading Blood Brother. This is the kind of thing which would take him an afternoon at the weekend to get through and is not as challenging or interesting in either language or content as books he'd normally be reading by choice, but he's enjoying it in a mild sort of way. The problem is, they're taking such a ridiculously long time to get through it. They started in September, and they're still only two thirds of the way through, if that.

I just cannot see the point of this - how can they possibly sustain interest in plot, characters etc over such a long period of time? I 'get' the concept of guided reading, but I don't see that this kind of book, with a group of very able readers, read in this protracted way is offering them any worthwhile literary experience

I'd love to know exactly what they're supposed to be getting out of this ...

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piscesmoon · 15/01/2010 08:35

Enough to kill off any joy in reading I should think! I can remember group reading when I was at school myself and sneakily reading ahead-it was so slow and boring.
There is a lot of value in group reading, but it is usual to have short books, at that age, that you do in one session.They are specially produced for the purpose.
Ask the teacher about it.

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smee · 15/01/2010 10:31

I think when it's done well guided reading is about far more than just reading. It's read a bit, stop talk about it, then do some work around that section of the book, so maybe write/ illustrate/ create a new character or bit of story even. So maybe that's why it's taking such a time? Might be worth asking him a few more detailed questions to see if it is that.

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