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Guided Reading is the most successful tool in increasing a student's reading level, confidence in reading, and future abilities in the classroom. Every educator Pre-K through 8 should be engaging in guided reading on a daily basis. How to do this?

How do I get started with Guided Reading?

Guided reading is a a time when students are grouped based on reading level. These groups should be small- 2-5 students is ideal. If possible, students should also be grouped based on skills that they need help with. Tests such as the DRA2 should be able to help you group students, but if you do not have access to an assessment tool, take anecdotal records based on classroom performance to get a sense of what each student needs help with. Once you have assesed, you should begin the grouping process. You will get the greatest levels of success if you group students into the smallest and most specific groups possible. Perhaps you have two small groups of students reading on grade level- but half of the students struggle making connections between texts and themselves, and the others seem to struggle more with fluency- you should split the group into two subgroups to provide the most pointed instruction . Once you have your groups decided, provide students with a book on their

instructional reading level. Finally, figure out a focus for each group. You may want to work on fluency, reading rate, making comparisons, or summarizing. Ideas for reading focuses can be found here. Now you're ready to get started.

What is the Guided Reading Procedure?

1. Once you have the students in an area set apart within the classroom, begin previewing the materials. You will want to introduce any tricky vocabulary first. You may also want to take a moment to make predictions about what will happen and to make any connections to other books you have read.

2. Introduce the focus. Give it a name, provide an example, and then give a sentence starter that you will expect students to use when working on the focus. For example, if your focus is making predicions, you will want to explain what this strategy is, why students should use it, model using it, and then explain that when each student makes a prediction, you expect it to sound like "I think that _____________________ will happen next because _____________________". Give students something to look out for in the text or a specific task: "Now, I want you to stop on page 38 and ask yourself......"

3. Read! Have students read silently to themselves, whisper read to you (while you record their reading rate, perhaps), partner read, or read out loud in a circle.

4. Provide specific feedback, and practice, practice, practice together. Ask each student specific questions targetting their weaknesses. The success of Guided Reading is based around the intimacy of a group setting, the comfort most students will feel in participating in a small atmosphere, and the ability of the teacher to finally provide pointed instruction related to very specific skills to students who need it most.

What do other students do during Guided Reading?

Clearly, while you do small group work, the other students need to be engaged in some activity. For older students, I suggest having them independently read on their reading level and write journal responses to what they've read. For younger students, Centers work can be very successful- have students in small groups performing tasks they can comfortably do independently, like listening to books on tape, reading poems, performing word sorts, and going on word hunts in pieces of literature. For more centers ideas, please visit this great resource.

Anything else I should know about Guided Reading?

Yes! One of the most important parts of Guided Reading is that the groups remain focused around students' particular strengths, weaknesses, and reading levels. Because Guided Reading groups elevate students' reading levels so much so quickly, the groups need to be changed and adjusted at least monthly. So, be sure to constantly monitor student progress and to move students as you see fit. If you follow these guidelines, you will see an unprecedented level of growth in your students' reading levels.

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