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CHAPTER 1

Guided Reading

Essentials

his chapter explains the essential elements of guided reading and how guided

reading complements yet diers from other approaches to reading instruction. You

will also ﬁnd steps and guidelines for fostering independence and establishing literacy

routines for reading workshop so you can teach guided reading without interruptions.

A DEFINITION

Guided readingis small-group dierentiated instruction that supports students

in developingreadingproﬁciency. It acknowledges that children bring dierent

backgrounds and instructional experiences to the reading process and therefore move

forward at dierent rates. The small-group model allows teachers to target speciﬁc

learning needs, provide appropriate scaolding, and gradually reduce support to

promote independence. Guided reading essentials include small groups, instructional-

leveled texts, and targeted teaching.

Small-Group Instruction

The teacher conducts guided reading in small groups (four to six students), based

on each student’s individual needs. Groups are ﬂexible. Conﬁgurations change as

students progress and as the teacher identiﬁes new learning goals. These small

groups allow children to feel supported as they take risks to problem-solve texts and

construct meaning.

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Slightly Challenging Text

Texts are chosen at the group members’ instructional reading level, not at their

independent level. In other words, the text should be a tad too hard. As students read,

they should encounter challenges that require them to problem-solve and practice

strategies that help them comprehend and discuss the passage. Celebrate errors as

opportunities for teaching and learning.

Targeted Teaching

Assessments are critical to guided reading lessons. Use assessments to group students

and pinpoint speciﬁc skills and strategies students need to learn next. As students

read, you will observe, listen, question, prompt, and coach. The interactions between

students and the teacher help students internalize the strategy focus so they can

apply the skill independently. Teacher involvement is key to acceleration.

BALANCING THE READING PROGRAM

Guided reading does not stand alone. Each guided reading lesson should build on

the lessons you teach the whole class. During whole-class instruction use read-aloud

and shared reading experiences to teach state standards. Then, while you teach a

guided lesson, other students can practice the state standard and other strategies

on texts at their independent level. Guided reading is the scaold between modeling

and independence.

Read-Aloud

Reading aloud to students is an important component of a reading program at

any grade level. It provides opportunities to foster interest and motivation, model

ﬂuent reading, engage students in discussing and analyzing a text, and demonstrate

comprehension strategies. An interactive read-aloud (Fountas & Pinnell, 2001; Hoyt,

Whole-Class

Instruction

(read-aloud and

shared reading)

Guided

Reading

Independent

Practice

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2009) is a slightly dierent approach. Its purpose is to encourage reﬂective thinking

and enhance comprehension by guiding students in discussing the text. During an

interactive read-aloud, you read a text to students and stop two or three times during

the reading to pose questions that encourage deeper thinking. As students turn to

a neighbor to talk about the book, they share their thinking and listen to and value

the opinions of their classmates. Employ a variety of genres, including nonﬁction and

poetry, so children can apply comprehension strategies and standards to dierent

kinds of texts.

Shared Reading

Shared reading, conducted with the whole class, is oen used for focus lessons (also

called mini-lessons). Select a grade-level text that supports a speciﬁc instructional

focus or reading standard. Primary-grade teachers commonly use big books, charts, or a

text displayed on an interactive whiteboard. With intermediate students, shared reading

can be done with poetry charts, content area textbooks, novels, anthologies, or short

passages. Give students a copy of the text or display it on an interactive whiteboard so

they can follow along. As with read-alouds, you should use a variety of genres.

The purposes of shared reading is to teach skills and strategies, increase reading

ﬂuency, and support developing readers. The challenge of shared reading is keeping

students engaged and focused. To help them stay on task, I suggest limiting shared

reading to 10–15 minutes.

Independent, Self-Selected Reading

Create a love for reading by knowing your students’ reading interests. Students should

have an opportunity each day to read books they select themselves. Allowing them to

choose the books they read boosts their reading motivation, but you should monitor

the texts to ensure they are not too dicult. I have found that some intermediate

students will select texts that are too challenging because they see someone else

reading them. The problem is, students will lose interest if they encounter too many

unknown words. Teach students how to choose books they will like and are able

to read. Independent reading improves automaticity with sight words, increases

ﬂuency, and gives students an opportunity to practice the strategies you have taught.

During individual reading conferences, you can discuss book selection, teach needed

skills or strategies, evaluate progress, and identify the next learning goal. To assess

comprehension and monitor accountability, you might want to require a weekly written

response related to the student’s independent reading notebook.

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Summary of Balanced Reading Approaches

Approach Grouping Text Level

How Text

Is Read

Purpose

Guided

reading

Small

group

Student’s

instructional

level

By students

while the

teacher

coaches

Practice reading strategies

with teacher support

Dierentiate instruction

based on need

Read-aloud Whole

class

Above grade

level

By the

teacher

Model fluent eading and

reading strategies

Support comprehension

Expand vocabulary

Motivate students to read

Shared

reading

Whole

class

On grade

level

By students

and the

teacher

Teach strategies

and standards

Support oral language

Independent,

self-selected

reading

Individual Student’s

independent

level (varies

by student)

By the

student

Promote enjoyment,

fluen y, and comprehension

Practice strategies that have

been internalized

Teaching Independence

As you prepare your students for guided reading, you will need to establish ﬁrm

routines for working independently or in small groups. Explicitly teach procedures

for the literacy activities they will be doing while you teach a guided reading

lesson. Students will need to solve problems without asking for your help.

Cathy, a dear friend of mine, attended a guided reading workshop years ago and

went back to her classroom thrilled about what guided reading could do for her

kindergarten students. The next day she taught her class six literacy centers and a

guided reading lesson! What a disaster! She almost quit teaching. When she contacted

me, I gave her tips on how to engage children independently in literacy activities so she

could teach guided reading lessons without interruption. Cathy is now one of the most

polished and eective guided reading teachers I know, but she learned the hard way

that children must be taught independence for guided reading to work.

The following six-week schedule for primary grades gradually releases responsibility

from the teacher to the students and teaches classroom routines and procedures. If

students have worked in stations or centers in previous grades, you may not need the full

six weeks; however, I strongly recommend you follow this plan if you teach kindergarten.

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The First Six Weeks, K–1: Teaching Routines

and Procedures for Reading Workshop

Week 1: Prepare for reading workshop by building community and

collaboration. Have students work in small groups for ten minutes each day

doing activities they can manage with little direction from you. I call these

activities “tub activities” because you can place easy, independent activities in

separate plastic or rubber tubs. For example, you might have tubs of nonfiction

books, puzzles, blank writing journals, Legos

, coloring books, etc. Tub activities

will eventually be replaced by literacy activities as you teach students to be

independent learners.

Week 2: Introduce a literacy activity

to one of the groups each day

while the other groups work on tub

activities. Literacy activities will vary

by grade level, but they should always

be authentic reading and writing

experiences that build on the whole-

class instruction you’ve provided.

Examples include reading books,

listening to recorded books, and

retelling familiar stories.

Week 3: Introduce a second literacy

activity and lengthen the reading

workshop time to 15 minutes.

Week 4: Lengthen the reading

workshop to 20 minutes and

introduce a new literacy activity to one of the groups each day.

Week 5: Introduce another literacy activity while other groups work on

tub activities or on previously introduced literacy activities. By the end of

the fif h week, students should be able to work 30–45 minutes without

direct supervision. Continue to assess students, adjust practices, and clarify

expectations for each independent literacy activity.

Week 6: All students should be working independently with purposeful literacy

experiences. The tubs should no longer be required.

After Week 6, as you gradually lengthen the time for reading workshops, teach

two or three guided reading groups each day. To maximize engagement,

alternate whole-class and small-group instruction. On the next page is a

sample schedule based on a 90–100 minute literacy block. Your schedule will

reflect he requirements from your district and the needs of your students.

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Sample Reading Workshop Schedule

Time Instruction

10–15 minutes Whole-Class Focus Lesson—Read-Aloud (comprehension)

20 minutes Guided Reading/Independent Literacy Activities

10–15 minutes

Whole-Class Focus Lesson—Shared Reading

(poetry, informational text, big book)

20 minutes Guided Reading/Independent Literacy Activities

10–15 minutes

Whole-Class Focus Lesson—Word Study, Vocabulary, Phonics

20 minutes Guided Reading/Independent Literacy Activities

Literacy Activities

The most common question I get from teachers who are new to guided reading is, “What

are the other children doing while I’m teaching a small group?” My answer is always,

“Keep it simple. They should be reading, writing, listening, and speaking (soly).”

A ﬁrst-grade teacher in Tampa, Florida, invited me to visit her classroom and oer

advice on her guided reading instruction. The only day I had available was the day aer

winter break, and the only time I had free was the last 30 minutes of the day. (Not the

most ideal time for reading lessons!) When I walked into her classroom, I saw six children

sitting or standing around a table totally engrossed in writing stories. As soon as they

saw me, they asked if they could read their stories to me. (I’ve never had a student ask

to read a worksheet to me!) I also saw three children sitting at computers. They were

wearing headphones and listening to stories. On the ﬂoor were three small circles of four

to six students. In the middle of each circle was a stack of guided reading books. One

student passed out the books and then said, “Let’s read.” All the children in that circle

read the story together. When they ﬁnished the book, the leader passed out another. I

was amazed at how soly they read with everyone on task. Then in the far corner of the

room, I saw the teacher working with a guided reading group. How many “centers” did

she have? Only three: reading, writing, and listening. It was simple and it worked!

Independent literacy activities provide an opportunity for students at every

grade to engage in purposeful practice while you work with individuals or a small

group. When possible, connect the independent activities to the whole-class

lesson. If you did an interactive read-aloud, students can write about the book

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during independent practice. Primary students might draw pictures and write a few

sentences that describe important events that happened in the beginning, middle,

and end of the story. Intermediate students might compare the story elements or

themes of two picture books you read to them. No matter what students are doing

during reading workshop, it is important they understand the procedures and

expectations for each activity.

Gail Boushey and Joan Moser (2014) have developed a simple framework for their

literacy block. Students not meeting with the teacher for reading instruction do one of

the following activities: read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, work on writing,

or do word work. The beauty of this approach is that it is easy to manage. Students

choose three or four of those activities each day.

You can ﬁnd plenty of ideas in books and on the Internet about independent literacy

activities. Find the activities that work for your students and explicitly teach the routines.

Following are some activities I have used. They can be adapted for any grade level.

Book boxes

Students have a personal box or bag that contains a variety of books for independent

reading. Include books students have read during guided reading and other easy

books they can read without support. This activity gives students an opportunity to

develop ﬂuency and practice strategies on easy, familiar texts. At the beginning of

kindergarten, include alphabet books, easy nonﬁction books, and traditional tales.

Although kindergartners will probably not be able to read these books, they can look

at the pictures and practice book-handling skills. When you begin guided reading

sessions, include books they have read with you so they can increase reading ﬂuency

and automaticity with sight words.

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Buddy reading

Students choose a book from their book box to read with another student. The

children oen sit next to each other so they can see the text at the same time. Buddy

reading can be done in several ways: Students can share one book and take turns

reading a page; they can take turns reading an entire book from their box; or they can

share a book and read chorally. Aer students read a book, they should brieﬂy retell

what they read or heard. You must, of course, teach children how to whisper-read.

Writing

Students write individually or with a partner and usually continue the work they

are doing during writing workshop. Motivation increases if children are allowed to

choose their own topics. Some teachers set up a writing corner that includes special

writing tools (colored pens, markers, stamps, stickers, sticky notes, colored paper,

fancy stationery, etc.). You could establish a message board or post oce for students

to leave messages for friends and teachers, and have covers of used greeting cards

available so students can use them for a personal message.

Readers Theater

This is a highly motivating way to get students to reread a text. While you teach guided

reading, students prepare for a Readers Theater performance by reading and rereading

a script. They are not required to memorize or act out the play but are encouraged to

use their voices, facial expressions, and hand gestures to interpret the dialogue. Scripts

for Readers Theater are available in books and on the Internet. Teachers and students

may also adapt favorite stories through collaborative script-writing activities. If you

schedule a performance time every Friday, all you have to do to maintain this activity is

make new scripts available on Monday. You could assign a script to each group or allow

the groups to choose the script they want to perform that week. Obviously, each group

should have a dierent script.

Poems and songs

Poetry books are a favorite for children of all ages. Each week, teach a new poem to the

whole class. Then give each student a copy of the poem to put in their personal poetry

notebook. Primary students can illustrate the poem and reread it to themselves or with

a buddy. Intermediate students can write about the poems (make connections, expand

on the theme, describe ﬁgurative language) or use the weekly poem as a mentor text

to write their own poem.

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Angela Kheradmand from Fairfax

County, Virginia, uses poetry notebooks

to facilitate cross-age tutoring in her

Title I school. Each ﬁrst-grade student

reading below grade level is paired with

a sixth grader who has applied to be

a reading coach. These partnerships

meet every morning during the ﬁrst

20 minutes of the day to reread the

ﬁrst-grade poetry notebooks. The ﬁrst

graders love the personal attention

of the “reading coach,” and the sixth

graders enjoy interacting with and

helping the lower-grade students.

Although any sixth grader can apply to

be a reading coach, Angela was surprised that several struggling readers applied for

the position. The 20 minutes of extra reading increased their ﬂuency, too!

ABCs, word study, and spelling

Kindergartners can match magnetic letters to an alphabet chart, match uppercase

and lowercase letters, make classmates’ names, or practice easy sight words you have

introduced to the class. To practice letter formation, they can trace their names with

colored dry-erase markers. Once you begin word study lessons, students can sort words

or make spelling words out of magnetic letters.

Word wall

If you have a classroom word wall, students can use special materials such as glitter

markers, magnetic letters, or Magna Doodles™ to copy the wall words. Any phonics skill

that has been taught to the whole group can be practiced using the words on the word

wall. Students can ﬁnd words with short or long vowel sounds, silent e, initial or ﬁnal

consonant blends, words within a word, inﬂectional endings, etc.

Listening to recorded stories

Students listen to recorded stories and follow along with copies of the text. Aer the

reading, they can respond to the story by soly retelling it with a partner, drawing

a picture of their favorite part, writing three sentences that retell the beginning,

middle, and end (B-M-E), writing a Five-Finger Retell (second or third grade), or doing

a story map.

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Oral retelling

Every primary classroom should have a retelling corner. Once you read a book to the

class, place it in the retelling corner. Include some retelling props such as three paper

plates that have the words beginning, middle, and end (B-M-E) written on them. Or

you can take a new garden glove and write a story element on each ﬁnger: characters,

setting, problem, events, and solution. This becomes the Five-Finger Retell.

Students can practice the comprehension strategies described in Chapter 7 of this book

with familiar stories. They can ask and answer questions, compare and contrast the

settings or characters from two dierent books, identify the main idea, etc. Whatever

comprehension strategy you have taught during whole-class instruction can be

practiced using familiar stories.

Computer

Use soware that reinforces skills you have already taught the class. Never expect

computers to teach new skills or strategies. Computers cannot take the place of

teachers, but they can be useful in reinforcing learning. Students can sort words by

their spelling features, write stories, or use educational soware that focuses on

phonemic awareness.

Research related to content areas

Students work on projects related to content areas. They can work individually or

in small groups to research a topic and prepare a presentation that summarizes

their learning.

Literacy Activities for the Intermediate Grades

Although many of the activities described above can be adapted for intermediate

students, I prefer that those students read self-selected books and write about them

while the teacher does guided reading.

MOVING FORWARD

The chapters that follow focus on guided reading lessons at a speciﬁc stage of reading

(i.e., pre-A, emergent, early, transitional, and ﬂuent). The procedures are organized

around an Assess-Decide-Guide framework to help you take the next step forward in

guided reading instruction.

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QUESTIONS TEACHERS ASK ABOUT GUIDED READING

How is guided reading different from literature circles?

In literature circles (also called book clubs), students read the same book and meet in

small groups a few times a week to discuss it. They are taught to express their opinions,

predictions, and questions. Some teachers ask students to take on speciﬁc roles, such

as summarizer, director, and investigator, to provide more structure for the discussion.

As students become more skilled in literature circle conversations, they move beyond

those roles.

Guided reading and literature circles can coexist in the intermediate classroom.

In guided reading, the teacher uses assessment results to form groups and select a

challenging text that meets a speciﬁc comprehension focus. While he or she is working

with the group, other students can be reading their literature circle novel and preparing

for the discussion.

Guided Reading Literature Circles

Groups Needs-based by teacher Student-selected by interest

Text level Students’ instructional level Students’ independent level

Genre Short texts or selected

excerpts: fiction,

informational, poetry

Mostly fiction/n vels

How the text

is read

With teacher prompting

and scaolding

Independently

How the text

is discussed

With teacher scaolding

and guidance

Without teacher support

Primary purpose Improve strategic

processing

Encourage thoughtful

discussion and a love of reading

How do I get everything done in the allotted time?

If you truly want to get everything in, you need to keep to your schedule. Use a timer for

guided reading and whole-class lessons. See the suggested reading workshop schedule

on page 18.

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How do I know students are actually reading their self-selected books?

You can monitor self-selected reading in a variety of ways:

• Reading conference. Schedule a short weekly conference with students who are

not engaged during independent reading. Check the text level. Help them ﬁnd

books they like and can read.

• Written responses. Have students write a one-page response to the book they

are reading, possibly connecting the response to your whole-class instruction.

For example, if your focus lessons have been about making inferences based

on a character’s actions, have students write about three places in their book

where they made that type of inference.

• Reading logs. Ask students to keep a log of the books they have read.

• Impromptu book talks. Each day ask a few students to talk brieﬂy about their

independent reading books.

How can I keep children from interrupting me while I teach guided reading?

• Demonstrate and practice routines so students know exactly what to do

during all parts of reading workshop, including guided reading.

• Do not respond to children who interrupt you during guided reading. If you do,

they will continue interrupting.

• Place a couple of chairs on either side of the guided reading table. If students

become disruptive, ask them to sit in the chairs and read from their book

boxes while you teach your lesson to the other students. When the lesson is

over, you can deal with the problem.

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What should the reading notebook look like for intermediate readers?

A reading notebook is a tool for monitoring and assessing independent reading and

guided reading. Students can take a composition notebook and create dividers for each

section, or you can have your district print notebooks for your students. Here are my

recommendations for sections of the notebook:

Part 1: Independent Reading Record. Reserve the ﬁrst ﬁve pages of the

notebook for students to record the title, author, and genre of books they read.

Part 2: Independent Reading Responses. Each week, have students write

a one-page response to their independent reading

book. If they use both sides of the page, they need

only about 20 pages for this section.

Part 3: Guided Reading Notes. Delegate the next

30 pages for students to use during guided reading.

They can jot down their thinking, record questions,

write summaries, and create graphic organizers that

relate to the comprehension strategy focus. They

can also use this section to write longer responses

during guided writing lessons.

Part 4: New Word List. Save the last seven to ten

pages for students to record vocabulary they learned

during guided reading and whole-class instruction.

Students write the new word in the ﬁrst column and

a synonym for it in the second. Every week or so, test

students on words they learned most recently.

Professional Study Guide

Go to scholastic.com/NSFresources for a

downloadable professional study guide written

just for this book. In it, you’ll ﬁnd questions and

activities about guided reading to use on your own

or with your colleagues in a study group or PLC.

THE NEXT STEP FORWARD IN GUIDED READING

•

scholastic.com/NSFresources

326

APPENDIX L

New Word List Template

New Word Definitio

Appendix L

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