“Because we want our students to be readers for life and not just readers in school, our expectations must be high. They must also be clear and rigorous. After all, we’re aiming to affect lives and thinking habits, not just test scores and state rankings.” ~Kathy Collins, Growing Readers

Guided Reading….. Guided reading is an instructional teaching approach for small groups of students who have similar learning needs and who are in similar developmental stages of reading. The ultimate goal is to help children learn how to use independent strategies successfully. Provides a time for a small amount of new learning. Students have similar reading processes and are able to read similar levels of text with support. Teacher supports each reader’s development of effective strategies for processing novel text at increasingly challenging levels of difficulty.

Important understandings! Beginning activity: As a group, lets create a K-W-L Chart based upon our prior knowledge of guided reading groups in our classrooms.

What is Guided Reading? Students learn and practice effective strategies Instructional teaching strategy for small groups (4-6 students) Students are grouped by need or similar instructional reading level Students read from individual copies of the same text Text is at student’s instructional level (90%-94%) Groups are flexible and change frequently Instruction lasts between 10 and 20 minutes

How often should we change our guided reading groups? How do we form groups? Assessment instruments to measure student progress *DRA’s Teacher observations Running Records Benchmarks How often should we change our guided reading groups? Refer back to the center chart and those groups that help create that chart. Those are the groups that change. CT…remember…..primary and intermediate do things differently.

Essential Elements Set a focus for the group Select a text and preview it Introduce the text* Students read the text Discuss and revisit the text Respond to the text

Teacher opportunities with guided reading: Assure that students are matched to the right level and challenge of text Observe the reading strategies that students are using Demonstrate reading strategies and language conventions in context Develop higher-level thinking skills Make connections between text and students’ experiences, reading and work knowledge Notice the craft of the author and the illustrator Learn more about reading by reading

Guided Reading Video As you watch the video, observe the following: What are the teacher’s behaviors? What are the student’s behaviors? What instruction is occurring? Do you think this is an effective guided reading lesson? Show chapter 4 and 6 (20 minutes) prep before showing chapter 4 because it relies heavily on center rotations.