Carrie McNeil
Author
Carrie McNeil
Affiliation
Cape Breton University
Abstract
This paper explores guided reading in remote learning situations. With the emergence of the Coronavirus, many schools have been forced to move into remote learning situations. Remote learning has presented many challenges to both students and teachers. For teachers, it is very difficult to replicate in person learning in an online learning environment. For elementary teachers, reading instruction poses a particular challenge. Guided reading involves tailored instruction for small groups of students that meet at least once per cycle. Research has been limited in both the areas of elementary education and guided reading, so this did pose a challenge to the author. This paper will a) review guided reading along with its benefits and challenges; b) review literacy instruction in remote learning environments and c) highlight some applications that can be used for guided reading online.
Keywords
Guided Reading, Literacy Instruction, Remote Learning
Overview
Guided Reading and Remote Teaching (3:04)
Introduction
It is the expectation of the Nova Scotia Department of Education that all teachers engage in guided reading at all grade levels. Guided reading has become a common practice in elementary schools but less so in middle and high schools. With the emergence of Coronavirus, many schools have had to move into remote teaching. Morgan (2020) says that while closing schools saved lives, it did present challenges to both students and teachers. For students, inequitable access to technology, lack of home support, and mental wellbeing were some issues that arose during Covid. For teachers, they were thrown into online learning with little to no professional development or training. For elementary teachers, a particular challenge they were faced with was how to move their guided reading practice online. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it will explain guided reading, it’s benefits and challenges. Second, it will demonstrate how literacy instruction can work in remote learning situations.
Literature Review
What is Guided Reading?
Fountas and Pinnell (as cited in Ferguson, & Wilson, 2009) define guided reading as, “an instructional setting that enables (teachers) to work with small groups of students to help them learn effective strategies for processing text” (p, 189). They suggest that nowadays guided reading is seen as more of an intervention for struggling readers, but I disagree. In Nova Scotia schools, guided reading is the expectation for all students at all grade levels. Iaquinta (2006) believes that guided reading has three purposes: to meet the instructional needs of all students, to teach students to read increasingly challenging texts with comprehension and fluency and to “construct meaning while using problem solving strategies to figure out unfamiliar words that deal with complex sentence structures, and understand concepts or ideas not previously encounter