In this blog, we explore the Guided Window feature on Reading Plus and how it works to build pupils stamina and fluency.
What is the Guided Window?
Reading Plus begins with an adaptive assessment. The assessment provides personalised data that measures a student’s efficiency, comprehension, vocabulary, and motivation. Using this data, the programme places the student at their current reading level and adjusts to their needs over time, helping them become independent readers.
Students will typically see text presented using the patented Reading Plus Guided Window system in order to model good reading behaviours.
The patented Guided Window scaffolds the reading experience by guiding the reader’s eyes across a page of text. This is done at a bespoke speed for each pupil to build fluency and stamina.
A bespoke reading experience
As a scaffold, the Guided Window provides a focus for visual attention that helps students maintain their place as they navigate their eyes across lines of text. This is similar to a student or teacher using a finger or index card as a guide for the eyes. This format encourages focused attention and the sequential intake of text, providing the student with a reading experience that models effective, fluent silent reading.
Overcoming reading hurdles
With this practice, students begin to overcome non-fluent reading behaviours that are often seen in emergent readers, such as habitual re-reading and decoding words they already know. This scaffold changes the way students approach the text while gradually and effectively increasing the rate at which they can read text with good comprehension (i.e. their comprehension-based silent reading rate). As students improve fluency and stamina, they are able to focus their efforts on comprehension and gaining knowledge rather than on the mechanics of reading. The Guided Window makes reading productive, and this in turn makes reading more enjoyable.
Personalised intervention
The speed of the Guided Window gradually increases as students continue to demonstrate consistently strong comprehension. This scaffold is removed (or made optional) when a student reaches year-level reading expectations, at which point the amount of independent reading is increased.
“The Reading Plus assessment showed that those who read at an age-related level and who perform reasonably well in assessments were often reading too quickly and missing the subtle cues for deeper understanding, which was the reason they were losing marks with their 2 and 3 mark comprehension questions. After using the guided window on Reading Plus, they were reading at a slightly slower pace, which meant they didn’t misinterpret or miss the information they were reading.” – ‘Suzanna Morrison, Year 6 teacher, Assistant Principal and English Lead, Whetley Academy.
Developing independent readers
Independent reading provides a more traditional reading experience and allows students to practice and apply fluency gains made during guided reading. Students see a full screen of text and click the “Go on” button on their computer or tap the touchscreen on a tablet when they are ready for the next screen of text. A subtle pacing guide is provided for additional scaffolding if needed. Students who need to increase silent reading stamina will read text selections in sections. For example, a student may begin by reading 1,000-word passages divided into four segments with breaks in between. As the student builds stamina, increases fluency, and demonstrates competence with more complex text, the lengths of the text segments will increase, and the number of segments decreases.
For more information on how Reading Plus can benefit your school, please contact us today.