guided reading

A guided reading programme

Teacher and students read together

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

In guided reading sessions, the teacher works with one reading group at a time and all students must have their own text. A guided reading programme is usually an hour long and happens every day (Monday - Friday). With younger readers, a new text may be read 3 or 4 times a week; with fluent readers, one text may take 3-6 sessions (over several weeks).

Rotations are an effective way of managing guided reading groups (as well as the other students that are not with the teacher). For more information on this see here.

KEY ELEMENTS OF A GUIDED READING PROGRAMME

A guided reading lesson

Introducing the text

Keep the introduction brief.
Make connections with background knowledge and experience.
Discuss text features.
Discuss unfamiliar vocabulary or language use.
Share the purpose for reading this text.
Set the reading task.
Provide for faster readers.

Reading the text

Hand over responsibility: students take responsibility for reading the text themselves individually.
Observe and monitor the students as they read.
Record observations.
Intervene only if necessary.

Discussing and responding to the text

Maintain the focus.
Encourage genuine conversation and responses.
Develop readers' comprehension strategies and critical awareness.
Explore text challenges and features.
Make links with related activities.

REading strategies

Reading strategies include:

After the LESSON

Teacher jots down observations (in Modelling Book/Next Steps in iUgo planning) and teaching points for the future.
Students often move from the guided reading lesson to independent reading activities.

Many times after the guided reading lesson it is appropriate to provide purposeful follow-up activities. These activities should reinforce or extend what they have learned from the reading.

Round Robin Reading

It is generally expected that Year 5-8 students should read silently during guided reading lessons. Round robin reading, where every student takes a turn at reading aloud, is never appropriate in guided reading. It prevents each student from processing the text and constructing meaning independently, distracts and bores children, and obscures meaning.

Teacher Support Materials

Teacher Support Materials accompany many texts from the Ready to Reads, Junior Journals, School Journals, Story Library books, and Connected books. These Teacher Support Materials include overviews, details of vocabulary and text challenges, possible Curriculum contexts and reading purposes, and lesson plans for Reading and Writing.

These can be found on Literacy Online (Instructional Series).

Resources

All these resources can be found in the Teacher Resource area (or linked to Google Drive).

Journal Surf is a great tool for finding texts around a particular topic.

Username: sacs

Password: journal

*All written information connected to the Guided Reading section of this website is sourced directly from Effective Literacy Practice (Years 1-4; Years 5-8) and Guided Reading Years 1-4 and Guided Reading Years 5-8.