Ready to Go Guided Reading: Infer, Grades 5 - 6

I wish I could give this 3.5/5 stars. This Ready to Go Guided Reading Inference set had great intentions and there are many things that I love about it. However, there are some things that I dislike too. I am going to get straight into the pros and cons. Pros: -The set comes as a book that is then disassembled into small laminated books/ pamphlets for the students. -There are three different reading levels (2 articles each) for the grade range contained within the set. -It includes a discussion guide with a variety of questions for each article. -It also contains a Guided Reading Model graphic organizer that you could make copies of for the students to fill out. It has three bullets for predictions, vocabulary, questions and opinions. -The texts are colorful and contain pictures. -The texts are high interest articles with a general theme. Cons: -some of my laminated texts had tears, others tore a little as I tore them out of the book. -Text size is SMALL. My students with dyslexia and reading problems would not be able to read this. -Text is BUSY. With all of the little boxes of information everywhere many of my students would have a hard time focusing on the particular section we were trying to read together. -There is too much text for one small group reading session. With my students it would probably take about 4 sessions to cover all the material. By then, they would have a hard time recalling the first story. I wish I could tear the books down into individual pages. The center of the book is across two pages, so that wouldn't work there. -Vocabulary is in the center of the book, but is needed for text on the first page. I really like the idea of these guided reading texts. The thought is good, the execution is just off. I work with ESE students (students who are disabled) and I was thinking about using these with my 7th graders. They may be too much though and the text is too small. I am going to try to find a way to use them regardless. I like the idea, but maybe they would have been better as one sheet guided text with larger font and cleaner design. I don't recommend them if you have any ESE or ESOL students.

These are a nice classroom set for a Reading Center. Each book contains 6 sets of the same story, all are a printed on nice hard paper that is coated so the children can use dry erase markers to underline or circle key points that can be easily wiped away. For the teacher, or a parent volunteer, it comes with a discussion guide to help guide the reading and create thoughtful conversations. It also comes with an observation sheet that can also be used with dry erase markers, which may be more helpful for parent volunteers to understand what the goals are even if they don’t fill it out for every student or for each lesson. The students also have a sheet they can use to fill out, it only comes with 1 so the kids can work as a group with the one sheet or you would have to photocopy it and laminate it yourself if you each child to have one to fill out on their own. Over all I think these are a great set for guided classroom reading. Working as a group and talking about the articles/stories I think help children solidify their reading skills. They get teacher/parent and fellow student input and can compare and contrast ideas and theories. They may work in a home school situation as well, but you would have lots of extra little books.

When I was going to elementary school, there was a reading corner where they had SRA readers that had different levels of reading that allowed the students to read at their own level and at their own pace. I loved them. I loved seeing my own progress and having control over what I would choose to read next. These guided readers remind me of those. There are six copies six readers, a simple one page that folds over into a colorful card full of information and pictures. Given that these are more like overloaded cards than books, they do offer a lot of information. Still, these visually seem to be pandering to reluctant readers. I picked these up for my granddaughter (because at the time the listing said nothing about these being for teachers) and at first I was excited . . . until I realized how very short the content is. She's about to finish the seventh Harry Potter book and 4 cluttered pages of information isn't exactly going to challenge her. She's in 3rd grade and I had hoped these would be mature enough to excite her. Unfortunately, they are not. The listing has been upgraded to say that these are for teachers and there is some content for the teachers to assess the student's reading comprehension, including a matrix to make the assessing easier. There is a sheet that can be photocopied for the students to use for predicting, reflecting, etc. but how much predicting can one do with four pages? Again, I say my granddaughter is in 3rd grade and reading Harry Potter, telling me what she thinks will happen next, who will live or die, and debating whether Severus Snape is good or evil. So yeah, these are great if you have a reader who would find an actual book intimidating and a white page with black print on it overwhelming but for those seeking reading support for an eager reader I think it's safe to say I would pass on these altogether. Fortunately they will not be wasted. I'm going to give them to a friend of mine who is an elementary school teacher. I'm sure she'll find use for them. I'm just glad the listing has been updated to explain this is a teacher resource. Unfortunately too little too late for me.

Teaching infer is always an interesting experience: there are a lot of logic problems that arise. It can be a lot of fun though, especially with this age group. One of the topics in this pack is Global warming, something that this age group is obviously aware and has some basic understanding of. The passage gives a few paragraphs, not too much and nothing too alarming. Then a side column shows a picture of Los Angeles under smog. Then on the other side is a picture of polar bears literally on THIN ICE. These are all very bright and useful. They are also pretty durable. I like the simplicity of the follow up questions and of the writing prompts. They are very useful.

I don't care for how these are set up. The layout and fonts are too busy and distracting. The material is interesting but basic for this age group.