Guided Reading

What is Guided Reading?

Fountas and Pinnell states, “Guided reading is a context in which a teacher supports each reader’s development of effective strategies for processing novel texts at increasingly challenging levels of difficulty.” (p.2)

“The teacher works with a small group of children who use similar reading processes and are able to read similar levels of text with support.”(p.2)

What is the Purpose of Guided Reading?

The purpose of guided reading is to enable students to use and develop strategies so they can understand and enjoy the story.

“The idea is for children to take on novel texts, read them at once with a minimum support and read many of them again and again for independence and fluency.” (p.2)


What is the ultimate goal of guided reading?

For the student:

“The ultimate goal of guided reading is to help children learn how to use independent reading strategies successfully.” (p.2)

For the teacher:

The teacher’s role is to provide the students with the knowledge they need to be successful is utilizing strategies independently. They must use ongoing observations and assessments to inform them of the student’s level and progress.


Helpful Links:

http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/ -Finding a book's level

http://www.cmlibrary.org/bookhive/ -Finding "Just Right Books"

Procedures for Guided Reading

  • The teacher works with a small group of students with similar needs.

  • The teacher provides introductions to the text that support children's later attempts at problem solving.

  • Each student reads the whole text or a unified part of the text.

  • Readers figure out new words while reading for meaning.

  • The teacher prompts, encourages, and confirms students' attempts at problem solving.

  • The teacher and student engage in meaningful conversations about what they are reading.

  • The teacher and student revisit the text to demonstrate and use a range of comprehension strategies.


3 Components of Guided Reading

  • Before Reading - develop motivation, activate prior knowledge, gather and organize ideas, develop questions, determine purpose and strategy, make predictions

  • During Reading- sample the text, visualize text meaning, make connections, confirm/alter predictions, solve problems, keep working

  • After Reading- Reflect and contemplate, reread to refine meaning, retell, question, discuss, apply, read further