Reflecting on our reading journey with 4 children has been interesting. Once the children came back to school, I made time to hear the children reading individually. They enjoyed using this time together to show me their skills and to gain individual tuition on sticking points without the others putting their ideas forward. They have found that using previous technics of mumbling an unknown word or quickly turning a page before it is finished being read, don't work when you are flying solo!
I have found the prompts useful - learning how to help a child without supplying too much information but to guide them towards their mistakes. Having a prompt sheet on the table during reading is a reminder to me, what I need to do during a reading lesson.
My four readers have made progress despite having their learning disrupted for two periods this year. They began as a group together but they have moved at different paces and learnt different skills.
Child A is now at Level 5/6. He has gained more HFW, is beginning to use strategies and attempts to respond to prompts. He is noticing similarities and this is giving him more confidence as he reads more fluently.
Child B is reading at Level 7 and is still not focused on his reading but just wants to get reading over and done with. He doesn't listen to the discussion before reading a new book when I use some of the words I think will trip him up. Rushing his reading means he doesn't notice endings and words that are very similar (came and come) so the prompt, "Did that sound right?" often gets answered with "I don't know."
Child C is reading at Level 5/6. Giving her the words to practice that she had not been able to decode has helped Child C become more confident. When she rereads the familiar book the next day her reading is fluent.
Child D is taking a little more time to acquire the skills and is reading at Level 4. He is beginning to see the connection between written words and alphabet sound knowledge, looks carefully at the text and is able to answer questions about the text. He should begin to make greater gains with these strategies.
Where to from here for me? There is still work to do so that the prompts become more automatic and are the correct one to help, not confuse the child. I am also trying to master the skill of asking a question which contains the unknown word a child wants but asking it in such a way that the child still needs to do some work to solve the problem.
