Today I want to offer three things to think about when considering using the “walk-to-read” model. If you’re unfamiliar, walking to read is when you group like-skilled kids together – above, on, and below benchmark, and you teach them at that level until they reach benchmark.
- The first thing I want you to consider is when you take a group of kids that struggle with reading and pull them to a below benchmark group and teach at that level for the entire reading class, or even a large portion of it, it’s possible to lose touch with what the actual benchmark is. I suggest that you take only a portion of your instructional time and do a walk-to-read where you’re pulling like-skilled kids together.
- The second thing that I want you to be aware of is that kids who get tracked into a certain level can get stuck there! Sometimes they just need a quick pick me up for three or four weeks on a skill, and then they are on to benchmark information.
- And the third thing I want to caution you about is if you lend your kids to another teacher for a walk-to-read model, it’s possible to get out of touch with your kids! You need to put techniques and strategies into play that allow you to stay in touch, remember what the benchmark is, and make sure that you do not have kids tracked in that walk to read model.
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