GUIDED READING

GUIDED READING

What is guided reading?What happens in guided

reading?Monitoring and

assessmentQuestions

“Guided reading is the heart of the reading programme.. It gives a teacher and a group of students the opportunity to talk, read, and think their way purposefully through a particular text.”

The Learner as a Reader

GUIDED READING:  Builds on strategies children already knowEncourages enjoyment of readingHelps children develop critical awarenessEnables children to practice and reinforce

learning

Focused, explicit teaching: Making links between what the reader already knows and what they are learning.

WHAT HAPPENS IN GUIDED READING?:  The teacher and small group of children gather

around table so they can all see each other while reading and discussing.

Teacher introduces text and talks about purpose for session. Discussion establishing prior knowledge.

Children read the book silently or quietly to themselves. Ongoing discussion about what is being read. (Teacher monitoring by listening and observing).

Session ends with a review of learning, reflecting on learning.

As students progress the guided reading sessions will be longer. The challenges of text will increase, discussion will be more thorough.

“For beginning readers the focus is on getting through the reading successfully. As students become more fluent, more time will be spent in discussion and comparatively less in reading.”

Effective Literacy Practice

Your child will bring home texts of varying levels and lengths depending on the purpose of the lesson. A 15 minute session may be focused on a one page poem.

If you would like extra reading material please feel free to take advantage of this opportunity for you to visit the local libraries to follow up on your child’s special interests.

DURATION :  

Duration: 10 – 20 minutes depending on:

The purpose of the session The learning needs of children Length / nature of the text

FREQUENCY :

Frequency:

Beginning readers: 3- 5 times a week*

More fluent readers: 2 – 3 times a week

“It is not necessary – or desirable – to keep a rigid regime of taking every group every day. Two or three well-planned, targeted sessions a week are likely to more effective than five less-focussed sessions.”

Guided Reading (Ministry of Education)

GROUPING:

Based on competencies and learning needs of children.

Ideally about 3 – 6 children in a group and about 5 groups per class.

Flexible: children progress at different rates.

Not every group is seen every dayBased on Ready to Read Colour Wheel

COLOUR WHEEL :

FOCUS ON PROGRESS

As a parent it is important to focus on the reading skills that your child is developing, not the colour or number on the back of the book. It moves from reading for enjoyment and a chance to practise reading skills to a tool for comparing children.

READING AT HOME:

Pause, prompt and praise:A child needs to develop a variety of reading

strategies to work out unknown words in texts. While listening to your young child read, try to encourage them to work out the word independently. Informing your child of the word straight away will not develop their reading skills. Many children can not move to a new level as their undeveloped reading strategies will not support them at a new level

Praise your child for how they read. Emphasise how smooth their voice is or congratulate them on working out an unknown word.

Ask questions while your child is reading to check that they are understanding the story line or facts of the text.

PROGRESS

Teachers need a child to be secure (very competent) at a level before moving on. Being secure means that their reading voice is smooth and fluent, they can read a variety of texts at that level, have a variety of reading strategies they use to work out unknown words independently and they have great comprehension of the text. Children need to be exposed to both fiction and non fiction books at each level. Non fiction books tend to be harder for children as the vocabulary is more demanding. Lots of exposure to non fiction texts will help your child increase their vocabulary.

As your child moves through the Colour Wheel progressing up a colour becomes slower.

COMPREHENSION:

The most important part of reading is to be able to understand what you have read. Many children are able to work out unknown words easily and pronounce all words correctly. However, they are unable to answer questions about what they have read. Moving up levels too quickly may cause more harm than good. Parents & teachers need to ask lots of questions starting with “why” and “how” about the text. Having a discussion about what has come up in the text is invaluable for a student’s comprehension.

MONITORING & ASSESSING :Observing and listening to readingDiscussions and questioning about

strategies for solving problemsDiscussions and questioning to establish

understanding of textRunning Records

RUNNING RECORDS:

Teachers are constantly assessing reading levels of each child in their class. We observe how the child reads and write notes about that child for the next reading session. We conduct “running records” regularly to give the appropriate levelled text. A running record is when a child reads a text at a particular level and the teacher records all the mistakes and self corrections the child makes. Using a few calculations, we will know whether the text is too easy, correct or too hard for the child. We will see what strategies the child is (and isn’t using) when reading.

QUESTIONS?