One of the major approaches to teaching reading we'll refer to as the Fountas/Pinnell approach (or maybe F/P would be easier!) because it's based on the work of two experts in the area of reading, Irene Fountas and Gay Sue Pinnell. These are, by the way, two highly regarded professionals in the area of reading. They wrote a book called Guided Reading in which they promote a system of grouping children in what they refer to as dynamic groups. By the F/P definition of guided reading, the teacher works directly with a small group to help students apply skills and strategies as they read. The children in the small group are at about the same reading level. The "dynamic" part of this grouping system is that students are to be moved from group to group as their needs dictate---up if the reading needs to be more challenging for them, down if less challenging.

As I have visited classrooms and observed what teachers feel is dynamic grouping ala Fountas and Pinnell, the failure that I note in many classrooms is that the grouping is not dynamic. It seems that students, most often, get permanently assigned to these groups, returning to the age-old system of redbirds, bluebirds, and, unfortunately, buzzards. I know that is not the intent of those authors, but it does happen! To me, dynamic grouping is a euphemism for ability grouping---maybe a kinder, gentler term.

Another negative aspect of dynamic grouping is that the teacher's time is consumed with a few students while other students are given busy-work. This busy-work is far more sophisticated that the old kind of busy work that I gave so often in my classroom before I discovered a more productive way to "occupy" students' time. This busy-work involves literacy centers that are visited by the other students. Far cleverer than the worksheets and workbooks we once doled out during this time, but nonetheless, busy-work.

One more drawback is that teachers' time must also be consumed with identifying the levels of books that students should work with during this guided reading time. The levels are not just the 3.5, etc. that we once assigned to designate readability levels. Instead, these levels are extremely small gradients, ranging from a -- z with descriptors to aid teachers in pinpointing with great precision exactly what letter of the alphabet a book level corresponds to. Even though the descriptors are well defined, they are still left to a great deal of teacher-subjectivity. I worry, too, that teachers spend far too much time worrying about whether a book is an "m" or a "p." Life is too short! This reminds me of the line from T. S. Elliott's J. Alfred Prufrock poem that I loved so well---"measuring out my life in coffee spoons".

I realize that I'm presenting the negatives of the F/P approach here. (It's great sometimes to have this avenue for giving my opinions and biases!) I'm obviously a proponent of Four-Blocks and I naturally find fault with those models and philosophies that divide and label children. I do want to make some attempt, though, to give you some summary bullets of what the principles are of F/P and of Four-Blocks. Perhaps these points will make it an easier, more objective comparison for those of you trying to understand the difference between the two. I hope that I'm being fair to Fountas and Pinnell in representing their major points. Yes, I do own the book, Guided Reading, by these two women, and I have enjoyed reading it and using the strategies in small groups. Here are the points I feel that F and P make in their book:

Guided Reading the Fountas and Pinnell Way

• Takes place in the context of a small group of students.
• Children in the group are able to read about the same level of text
• Goal is for students to read independently and silently
• Emphasis on increasingly more difficult material
• Children are placed in groups and regrouped in a dynamic process
• Part of a more comprehensive language arts program that provides balance.

Guided Reading the Four-Blocks Way

• Children are NOT ability grouped
• Teacher starts with whole group to present lesson and then connects students to text and provides appropriate support for success through formats (echo, choral, ERT, playschool, book club, partner, shared, etc.)
• Grade-level and easier texts are used on a rotating basis
• Emphasis is on comprehension skills and strategies, practiced and applied in the context of real reading
• Only one part of a balanced approach to reading, 1 of the 4 blocks

These points may over-simplify the principles, but will hopefully point out similarities and differences succinctly. Surprisingly, the one thing that the two frameworks have in common is that we can pretty much agree upon the simple definition of guided reading. In Fountas and Pinnell's book, they define guided reading as;

On this we can agree! Yet, we do have different ways of putting this into practice in the classroom. Neither way is wrong---just different. Pick one.

Note: There are some new ideas posted at my website www.cherylsigmon.com. Hope you'll visit me there for good ideas and handouts for your use (some for primary and upper grades teachers, and this month for kindergarten teachers, too!).

If you're writing a grant at this time, I'll be happy to write a letter of support for your grant to promise good training, either by me or by one of the wonderful folks who works along with me through ERG. Email me directly at cmsigmon@aol.com or call 803-799-8024.

Training Opportunities:

Below are seminars that I have coming up in the future. Please know that I have a small group of really excellent folks who work along with me, too. We do site-based work in schools and districts at your request. They did not come from a train-the-trainer program. Their expertise with 4-Blocks evolved over many years of training, teaching and support. For their services, you can simply call 843-539-1213, fax 843-539-1214 or visit ERG's website at www.ergsc.com. We offer various types of staff development: classroom demonstrations, on-site presentations, classroom observations and feedback, and exploring 4-Blocks in more depth, among other offerings.

My seminar presentations:

For ERG workshops on 4-Blocks and Building Blocks, call 843-539-1213 or go to www.ergsc.com. For SDR workshops, call 800-678-8908 or go to www.SDResources.org or www.ceea.org (CA seminars).

Hope to see you at a seminar soon!