The Global Village Project

Guided Reading for Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE)

Anne Garbarino

Mary Lou McCloskey

The Global Village Project www.globalvillageproject.org

Overview

1.  What is GVP?

2.  Challenges of teaching reading to newcomers

3.  Challenges of SIFE

4.  What is Guided Reading?

5.  How we adapt the program for our adolescent SIFE students

6.  Our results

What is GVP?

Private, free, non-profit school for refugee girls with interrupted education.

Strength-focused

Challenges of Refugee Adolescents with Interrupted Education

·  Trauma

·  English Language / Literacy in any Language

·  School Culture & Community Culture

·  Content learning /Academic Language

·  English Language; Literacy in Home Language

·  Culture of School and Community

·  Academic Background and Language

What is Guided Reading?

·  A method of reading instruction in which students are grouped by instructional level and taught in small groups.

·  Teacher introduces reading, builds background, provides direct instruction on highlighted language features and skills

·  Students read independently while teacher “taps in” to listen to individuals.

·  Group discusses reading.

·  Students may respond to reading in writing in a variety of ways.

·  Students participate in additional word work and phonics.

·  Students re-read GR texts as well as other texts on their own.

·  Students are assessed individually and regularly using running records and groups re-formed accordingly.

·  Guided Reading is…

·  Leveled reading program

·  Designed for Elementary learners

·  Scaffolds oral language, and decoding, fluency and comprehension

·  Scaffolds increasing independence in reading

·  Proven effective for at-risk learners including ELs

Advantages of Guided Reading for SIFE Students

·  Proven success with English learners

·  Scaffolds oral language development through rich, supported interaction with both peers and teachers

·  extends both language and background knowledge

·  provides learners with continual success through incremental instruction and expectations

·  encourages choice independent reading

·  incorporates content learning at accessible levels

·  differentiates learning by need

·  Needs of students with reading challenges are evident, and addressed.

Challenges of GR for SIFE Students

·  Materials designed for younger learners (this is improving!)

·  Readings often demand context knowledge students don’t have

·  Challenge of working with other students at different age and grade levels

·  Learning how to work independently

Challenges for the School

·  Costly materials

·  Finding appropriate materials for lower levels

·  Adequate qualified teaching staff to accommodate small groups

·  Scheduling and logistics

How we implement GR

·  School-wide GR time

·  Extra staff for GR

·  Rotation of teachers

·  Trained, consistent volunteers to support GR

·  Wide range of materials organized by levels

·  Built in individual assessment time

·  Technology support to save time

·  Students and teacher set semester goals for reading progress.

How we supplement GR

·  Independent reading

·  Volunteer station

·  Cooperative learning

·  Book logs GR/IR

·  Participation log

How we benefit from GR at GVP

·  GR texts used to support school-wide thematic units.

·  Students read genre in GR that they are exploring in writing workshop

·  Creative scheduling provides small-group classes for STEAM mini-units

·  Our instruction is focused on what individuals really need.

·  Consistently high student engagement and accountability

Our Results

·  Students read a lot!!

·  Students learn to read critically

·  Students consistently achieve the GR equivalent of 2 grade levels per year.

·  Some students have improved up to 4 grade levels

GR for SIFE Garbarino & McCloskey SETESOL 2016.10.14