Guided Reading Southfields KS1

Welcome and Introduction From this session we hope that you will have an understanding of what happens during a Guided reading session.

What is Guided Reading? A way of helping children become independent readers. Children read in small groups. Children learn to use various reading strategies with teacher support and encouragement. Guided reading is used across the school.

Why Guided Reading? Children work with their peers on the same colour band books during these sessions. Children are introduced and reminded to use a variety of strategies to help them read the words. As the children become more confident the focus of reading changes from decoding (being able to read the word) to understanding the text (comprehension) and inference (e.g. why do you think?) During Guided Reading sessions children will read a variety of texts including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, play scripts and instructions.

Working together We are able to encourage a discussion of the books working with children and find this conversation can become rich and exciting with children sharing and debating different predictions of what will happen, which character is best, and their opinion of the story. It is also a great chance to practise listening skills and turn taking.

Guided reading session – how does it start? Children work in small groups (no more than 6 per group) on the same colour book level. Occasionally they may be just above or just below and placed to try to challenge them. Sessions are approximately 20 minutes long. All children are given the same text but they will have their own book. The children will be encouraged to look at the front cover and title and discuss what they think the book will be about. When discussing the front cover the children will hear the terms author, illustrator and blurb (on the back). They will also identify if the book is fiction or non-fiction based on the features shown when flicking through the book.

What does the middle part of the session look like? The teacher will remind the children of the strategies that they need to use e.g. - blending the words using the phonemes using picture cues Children are encouraged to read to the end of the sentence and then, from the context, work out what the word might be. Each child will read the text at their own pace and as they do this the teacher will work their way round to each child and hear them read a section of the book. The teacher may stop at a particular point e.g. if there is a common word that the children are struggling with and discuss as a group. Challenging vocabulary is either pre-taught before the children read the book or noted down and discussed at the end.

What does the end part of the session look like? The teacher will ask the children questions about the book to check for understanding. Listed below are a few examples: Who was the main character in the story? What happened in the story today? Where did the story take place? What was your favourite part of the story and why? What did the story make you think about?

Further discussion As well as exploring their opinions of the book we also encourage the children to read as writers. We will discuss the punctuation used and how this changes our reading. We explore the language used to create atmosphere or describe characters to enable us to use this in our own writing.

Assessment Each teacher creates their own guided reading plan and assessment but we work from set targets to help us work out progress. Often particular questions are written for certain children to check on a skill, or for the whole group to target a key aspect, such as comprehension.

Follow up from a Guided Reading session If the teacher feels that a child is consistently reading the text confidently in a group session, then they will be heard individually to see if they are ready for the next colour book band. The children will often receive a note in their Reading Record book to say that they have read in a group that day (time permitting). The children may have the same guided reading book across a number of weeks.

Reflecting on the text The next day the children will often be given a task reflecting on the book they have read or working on the new vocabulary. New vocabulary can also be taught the session before.

Reading Carousel The rest of the children will be taking part in a reading carousel, exploring other tasks during the time the teacher is busy. This includes pre or post session tasks, reading for pleasure from our book corner, accessing bug club, phonics games, vocabulary, spelling or grammar games and comprehension activities. The additional activities are always focused on reading.

Any Questions? Please feel free to ask if there is more information you would like.