Guided+Reading

Guided reading is a strategy that helps students become good readers. The teacher provides support for small groups of readers as they learn to use various reading strategies (context clues, letter and sound relationships, word structure, and so forth). Although guided reading has been traditionally associated with primary grades it can be modified and used successfully in all grade levels. For example, older students may need to learn new strategies to understand how to read an information book in a way that is going to give them access to the information they are seeking.

[|Guided Reading Planning]


 * **Guided Reading is ….** || **Guided Reading is not …** ||
 * …using leveled reading materials to support the reader at each level. || …consistently using the basal with some or all students. The basal does not provide leveled text support for the reader. ||
 * …working with students with a common need. A good assessment will give the teacher this data. || …working with a group of students who appear to be on the same level because of a test score. ||
 * …developing independent readers by helping them to internalize their strategies and having them reread the same text several times to gain fluency. || …encouraging students to read text once or using round robin reading with the teacher providing the corrections. The skill instruction is isolated from the text. ||
 * …modeling what good readers do: predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing. || …asking the student to read without establishing a purpose to read and without making connections to the reader’s experience. ||
 * …word study to understand how words work. || … asking the readers to write vocabulary definitions without making connections back to the text. ||
 * …writing to make meaning of the text. || …writing to fill in blanks or copy the text. ||
 * …changing group membership every 6 weeks by re-assessing the strategies and comprehension of the students. || …leaving the group membership the same for long periods of time or all year. ||

Ideas for Stations for Kids to Visit During Guided Reading Time:

Word Wall- Students have a clipboard or sit at a desk closer to the word wall and write sentences or draw sketches of words on the word wall

Work Work- Students use magnetic letters, dry erase boards, or other materials (games, etc) to practice spelling words with certain patterns or practice handwriting

Independent Reading- students read independently and respond to their book in some way in their RRJ

Poetry- poems are written on chart paper and students practice reading poems aloud

Reader's Theater- in small groups, students practice reading through a reader's theater script

Writing- students can free write, journal-write, or write on a topic at their desk or in a station. 

Here are some Taks like questions I created to go with our guided reading books. Most of these questions focus on characterization, sequence, inferencing and main idea. Right now there are just two. I hope to put up more as I make them!  