by Phylis Cox

Created on: November 25, 2008   Last Updated: November 28, 2008

As a part of any literacy program, educators set goals that will encourage children to become lifelong readers. This implies that in addition to teaching students to be independent readers with excellent comprehension skills, educators also hope that students will find pleasure in reading books and will become avid readers throughout their lives. Guided reading is a teaching strategy that provides a structure for teachers to help students learn to enjoy the reading process while becoming proficient readers at the same time.

Before guided reading begins, the teacher must set the scene for it to take place. She needs to create a classroom atmosphere that allows for to students to read and discuss what they read. Just as everyone enjoys watching and discussing a movie with friends, students need to experience that kind of sharing with books. By talking with others about books, students begin to understand what to look for in a book and the kinds of books they enjoy.

Also, the teacher needs to expose her students to an abundance of books that cover subjects that are interesting to her students. What's more she needs to understand that students can only improve their comprehension skills and their love of the written word by reading books that are challenging, not frustrating to read. At times the teacher may need to guide students away from books that are either too difficult or too easy, so testing students to find out their individual reading levels is an important part of the guided reading process.

Once the books are selected and the testing for reading levels is complete, the teacher needs to form groups based on reading ability levels and individual needs. Although ability grouping is not a new concept, guided reading grouping is more dynamic than ability grouping has been in the past. With guided reading, the teacher needs to constantly monitor students and regroup them as their levels change. As a student masters skills which cause his reading level to improve, he moves from group to group, always working to master new reading strategies. Guided reading groups are constantly changing.

Once a group is formed, the teacher usually introduces a book. By using prereading techniques, she tries to develop student interest. While doing this, she is also teaching strategies for discovering the content of a book by examining the cover. She and the students explore the content by discussing the pictures as well as what's written on the cover. The students then speculate

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