Conducting
a Guided Reading Lesson Allison Demas
The
point of guided reading is to reinforce skills and strategies
previously taught in shared reading lessons, and to assess
how well the students are using them.
Two very
important components of guided reading are the students and
your books. You must know both very well. The books for guided
reading need to match the students’ abilities. They
can be neither too easy nor too hard. They must be “just
right” to present a successful reading experience and
a challenge to use reading strategies.
Before
you even present the book, you should do two things. First,
you need to assess and group your students. The students should
be grouped by common need. Groups should consist of no more
than six children (I personally work with four at the most).
Second,
you should introduce any words in the text which might present
a problem for the students. I write them on a wipe off board.
I also review any spelling patterns which may appear in the
book.
Then
I present the book. As a group we look at the pictures and
discuss what might be occurring in the story. I present necessary
vocabulary through the natural course of the conversation.
Generally, the more detailed the book the less detailed my
introduction.
Before
I ask the students to read I ask them to review a few of the
strategies we’ve learned. (“What can we do
when we come to a word we don’t know?”)
I give
the students a focus depending upon their abilities. For example,
I might ask them to point to each word as they read, to cross
check meaning and visual cues, attend to the punctuation and
make sure they read in a fluent manner.
Then
I ask the students to read the book on their own. I listen
to one child at a time. I make notations of the errors the
students make. I also keep track of the strategies the students
use successfully. If a student is stuck on a word I suggest
strategies that the student can use to help him/her solve
it. (“Do you see any little words in that big word?”)
After
the guided reading lesson, before we meet the rest of the
students for a share session, we have our own small share
session. I point out what I noticed students doing to help
themselves and I have the student explain what they did. The
students would then be invited to share with the whole class.
When
the guided reading lesson is over you need to analyze your
notes. These notes provide information for regrouping students
according to need. In other words, you are reassessing for
future shared reading lessons.
There are several articles on TeachersNetwork.org that
address guided reading. If you go
to our search page and type "guided reading"
you'll find them all.
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