Conferring with Primary Readers
1. Ask the student to read the guided reading book that was held back from yesterday.
2. Take a running record on the oral reading.
3. As the child is reading, think about:
- what you can specifically reinforce that the child is doing well
- what teaching point would be appropriate to help the reader—not just support the reading of this text
4. Focus on meaning first. When the student has finished reading the book or passage, engage him/her in conversation about the text. Be sure to ask questions (can use questions from LBD Part 3) that will help you assess the level of understanding the student has related to your current teaching focus (ex. determining importance in LBDTheme 12).
5. Specifically reinforce what the child did well in reading to you.
6. Make your teaching point. Your teaching point is differentiation for this student and may include:
- a connection to your specific reinforcement (perhaps the student wasn’t doing something consistently, but you reinforced the attempt; the teaching point can piggyback on the child’s thinking and promote consistency)
- a demonstration of a reading strategy
- reteaching of a comprehension skill
- word work (have a letter and blend chart, Magna Doodle, and/or magnetic letters handy to demonstrate with)
7. Bring the conversation to a close with a question designed to link your teaching to actual practice and build reading independence. Here are some ideas:
“So, what are you going to work on now in your reading?”
“So, what are you going to remember to do in your reading?
“What did we talk about today that you want to remember to do when you are reading?”
“We talked about how good readers ______. Can you remember to do that today?”
“We talked about how good readers _____. You can remember to do that in your reading!”
DLT, March 2009