Guided Reading
Planning for Student Success
What is Guided Reading?
Teaching reading is rocket science. Seriously! It involves many complex brain processes that we can not observe and can not fully explain. Therefore, for even the most experienced teacher, teaching guided reading can be a challenge. Despite your best planning and grouping of all the students at "the same level", their strengths, needs and rate of progress will vary. The delicate and unscientific process of providing the right amount of support takes experience, observation, knowledge, skill, preparation, and instantaneous decision-making. Guided Reading is - planned,- intentional,- focused instruction but there are many misconceptions about how to implement guided reading. For example,
- Simply targeting a specific "reading level" -is not enough to ensure independent reading proficiency.
- Establishing clear and consistent procedures and routines for guided reading aids in planning and establishes routines that provide a predictable and safe learning environment for your students, but -is not enough to ensure independent reading proficiency.
- Reading challenging texts in order to become better readers is not going to move students towards independent reading proficiency. If the text is too difficult , students can not read it smoothly with fluency and comprehension.
- If guided reading is the only explicit reading instruction during the day, students will not achieve independent reading proficiency. Read alouds, shared reading, guided reading and independent reading practice across all content areas are connected and equally important in supporting students as they establish a reading process that focuses on meaning making and developing independent reading proficiency.
What does guided reading look like?
Google Slide Show: What does guided reading look like in the classroom?
After looking at the slides, discuss with a team member what behaviors you observe in both students and teachers.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wIchw7feeSFDEKyoPnF8bjjRBdQSeDuUlym_mOOOO28/edit#slide=id.p
How long should each session last?
Guided Reading Is...Is Not...
- Teaching students reading strategies to apply when reading many books
- Supporting Students to read an entire text -almost on their own
- Facilitating conversations about texts that develop a "thinking about reading" attitude
- Providing a safe way for students to practice and explore the reading strategies and skills they have been learning
- Every student reading the WHOLE text
Guided Reading IS NOT...
- Teacher driven
- Teaching students to "sound out" every word
- Round robin reading
- About teaching "the book"
- Fixing every word in the book
- Seeing how difficult a text you can get a student to finish
- Not about moving up reading levels
Components of a Guided Reading Small Group Session
Preplanning before small group meets:
- Students have been assessed and teacher has determined a reading level or range, but most importantly has determined needed skills and formed groups based on both needs
1. select an appropriate level text
2. determine the teaching point or strategy
3. preview the story for high frequency words/vocabulary, sentence structures
that can be focus for instruction
4. gather materials needed
5. have a plan in place for the rest of the class
Small group:
1. Introduce the story
2. Picture walk/vocabulary talk
3. Word work
4. Shared reading: teacher states the teaching point; read text with students
5. After the shared reading/discuss
6. Independent reading; repeat the teaching point, listen to students read quietly to themselves, while recording monitoring notes
7. Partner read or partner retell
Next meeting, begin with rereading the story and then introduce a new book
Part 1 of 3 Guided Reading Info Flyers
Email: vlowe@aisd.net
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/aisd.net/coach-s-corner/
Location: Remynse Elementary School, Fall Drive, Grand Prairie, TX, United States
Phone: 682-867-0500
Twitter: @LoweVLowe