The Basic Guided Reading Lesson

Guided Reading is an opportunity for the teacher to support the reader’s tentative efforts to use reading strategies on a “novel” text that has been chosen to be in the easy or instructional range. Guided Reading is most effective in small groups of 6 – 8 students.

Orientation to the selection before reading: Look at the cover or the title. Talk about it together. Make predictions as to the

genre, the writer’s purpose, use appropriate graphic organizers based on the genre or text structure to guide thoughts, etc. May use anticipation guides, etc.

Look through the selection for diagrams, pictures or other visuals and discuss the synopsis or organization of the selection, guiding students’ attention to important ideas.

Questioning the text Give opportunities for children to hear the language pattern and new words that they

might not naturally use. May use vocabulary strategies such as knowledge rating, vocab-o-gram, predict-o-gram, or other vocabulary activities to connect words to text meaning.

The students should understand what the story is about before they read it!“80% of comprehension in a reading selection is determined

by what takes place in the prereading stage.” P. David Pearson

First reading of the selection with help: Have students read quietly. The teacher watches for non-verbal clues, listens to individuals, and provides support

by prompting and confirming appropriate responses.

Teaching after the first reading: Discuss the story with open-ended questions that may have several different answers

or interpretations so that several students may answer the same question.. Discuss strategies used for “tricky” parts. Perhaps a student did some remarkable

solving, or overlooked some useful information. Use such examples to highlight new ways for everyone to approach similar problems.

Optional – read orally together.

Follow-up with: Guided writing or other writing activity to extend and apply the strategy. Partner reading Other creative responses, such as drams, art, or Readers Theater

Have students read the selection from the perspective of the writer. (what, why, how of the selection)

“Only a generation of readers will spawn a generation of writers.” Steven Spielberg, acceptingIrving Thalberg Award, Academy Awards, March 10, 1987

“Nobody but a reader ever became a writer.” Richard Speck“The writing classroom is based on a foundation of literature.” Ralph Fletcher

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