Lesson#2Rationale

GroupReading

In the same vein of paired reading, group reading I found is better with classes that
have a larger population of students on low reading levels. The GlobalHistory classthatthis
lesson is for is a class that many students often fail. Currently, this is not an ICT class, but I
do a pushin three times per week. In this class are 10th graders and also 11thgraderswho
are repeating the class to try and make up credits. I chose group reading for this class
because I have many students who read below grade level and many who are above grade
level. History provides a wonderful opportunity, however, to be ableto givecontentwhilestill
using leveled reading groups. One of the reasons I like group reading for this lesson is
because even though there are leveled groups,thisisnotovertlyapparentbecausethereare
multiple red, green and blue groups which gives students (orgroups of students) the feeling
that they are not alone.Manystudentsareveryconcernedwithhowtheyareperceivedtothe
rest of the class. Am I stupid? Why am I the only one who is getting the special text?To
alleviatethis,multiplegroupsareformedbasedarounddifferenttexts.
The texts vary in length and in difficulty. Two of the texts are given to everystudent.
These texts are read aloud in a different lesson, but are relevant in this lesson as well.
Students are asked to have these texts out to refer to as they have their group discussions.
During this lesson, the students are the ones doing most of the heavy lifting as they read
aloud intheirgroupsandthenusetheguidingquestionsatthebottomtohelpthemfacilitatea
discussion about what they have read. I take this opportunity to conferfor about 8 minutes
which each of the groups that are considered Red groups while my coteacher, Mr. Otto,
confers with Green and Blue groups. The conferencing is important to assess student oral
fluencyandtohelpguidestudentsintherightdirectionusingquestioning.