Friday, May 8, 2026
RPI DAY 4 Reflection
Today’s PLD made me think more about what guided reading should actually look like in a small group setting. One thing that really stood out to me was that guided reading is not just listening to students read out loud. It’s about teaching them the strategies they need to understand harder texts and become more confident readers over time.
I also reflected on how important background knowledge is before students even start reading. Some students already know a lot about a topic, while others need more support first through pictures, videos, discussion, or just talking things through. It reminded me that I need to spend more time preparing students for the text instead of jumping straight into reading.
Another thing I took away was the importance of observing students closely while they read. Sometimes I get caught up in making sure everyone gets through the text, but today reminded me to slow down and really watch for reading behaviours, patterns, and strategies students are using. Those little observations can tell us a lot about what support they need next.
I also thought more about follow-up tasks. They should actually connect to the text and help students build on their understanding, not just be an activity to complete afterwards. That’s something I want to be more intentional about in my planning.
Lastly, I liked the focus on getting students to explain their thinking using evidence from the text. I want to work on getting my students to give deeper answers and back up their ideas instead of just giving quick responses.
Overall, today’s session reminded me to be more purposeful during guided reading and to really use that small group time well.
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Hi again Mohammed,
ReplyDeleteYes we can all be guilty at times of not preparing students well enough for a text. I remember not really understanding how I could set students up for success through the pre-reading activities I was offering. I knew these were important but never really understood how well I could actually do this. Many of the different tools and ideas we shared on day four are practical and sometimes quite simple, but really get the prior knowledge/background knowledge piece ironed out and help us to remember that often our learners need to get these preconceived ideas out of the way in order to focus on the true purpose of the text and so then have better awareness of what vocab might be used in a text. These mechanisms mean we have learners come to the session with a much clearer idea of what the small group text is going to be asking of them... and to feel more confident in their ability to actually be able to tackle these new or tricky words. Secure in their foundation, they can read with a different self-belief and so have better outcomes. It's a powerful process!
What practice implementation did you consider the greatest priority after Day 4, Mohammed? How has it gone, implementing this back in your teaching space?
See you again soon for Day 5,
Ngā mihi nui,
Amie
RPI Coach
The Manaiakalani Network