What is Guided Reading?

Guided Reading is a component of a comprehensive literacy program that is used across various literacy frameworks including basal/commercial programs; reader/writer workshop; The Daily Five (Boushey & Moser, 2014); The Four Blocks (Cunningham,  Hall, & Cunningham, 2008), and especially in Guided Reading (Fountas & Pinnell, 2016).

At the most basic level, guided reading has the following characteristics:

• Small group instruction of 4-6 students
• Use of instructional-level text for the group
• Focus on reading skills and strategies targeted to the group’s needs
• Ongoing assessment through multiple measures
• Flexible groups so children can receive the instruction they need
• Goal is to create independent readers; not just a series of reading activities

This video demonstrates how to use guided reading techniques with early elementary students.

Small groups of children are gathered for skill or strategy instruction while the rest of the class is working on centers, reading activities, or independent reading. Using short mini-lessons, teachers provide targeted instruction to the groups’ needs. Teachers create guided reading groups to address particular learning needs as identified through various assessments.

The groups should not be “ability groups” in the traditional sense that once a child is in a particular group they stay there – often a three-way split of below/on/above grade level. Instead, the groups should be formed based on the needs of the children in the group, not just a reading level. For example, a teacher might form a group to  work on suffixes, another group might work on determining the main idea, and another group might work on reading with expression.  The groups should be flexible so that children move between groups when needed.

The materials used in a guided reading group should be at the group’s instructional level; which will require guidance during reading.

Typically, during a guided reading lesson, the teacher will have children review a familiar text to warm them up. Then the teacher will introduce a new text, take a picture walk through the story, and introduce a skill/strategy for the text. The teacher may choose to teach the lesson at this point or wait until the children have read the story a few times.

The teacher models a fluent, expressive reading of the story while modeling the skill/strategy.  After the teacher’s first reading of the story, children will read the story independently through whisper reading or whisper phones, or as a choral reading. After the second reading, the teacher may have the children discuss the story or teach the skill/strategy lesson. At this point, the teacher may also have children complete some independent practice or follow-up activities.

Many of you may have experienced very traditional reading groups that ensured coverage of the grade level materials (see the table). Guided reading groups are focused on meeting children where they are at and developing independent readers.

Establishing Guided Reading Routines

Guided reading groups can begin as soon as the children show they have basic early literacy skills – book handling, letter/word identification, and knowledge of the alphabet.

Choral reading is a great introduction to guided reading groups with emergent readers. In a small groups, children learn how to handle books, pointing to words to make the one-to-one correspondence to print, and read (or repeat) together the words of a familiar book, poem, or song.

In the above video, two children who are emergent readers choral read a text that uses a pattern sentence and images.

Room Arrangement

The arrangement of the classroom can enhance the use of guided reading groups. Although any small table can work for guided reading groups, teachers find that having the kidney shaped table (looks like a letter C) makes it easier to interact with the children in the group.

Since the rest of the class will be working on other things like centers of independent reading, the teacher should face the room but the children at the small group should have their backs to the rest of the room.

Jen, from 2nd Grade Snickerdoodles blog, discusses her purposeful positioning of children during guided reading.

What are the other children doing?

There are a variety of centers that teachers can set up for children to use independently while the teacher meets with

Some typical centers would include:

• Listening center
• Computer/iPad center
• Writing center
• Spelling activities or word work
• Buddy reading
• Art center
• Independent reading
• Read the room
• Games
• Literature circles

Some teachers provide choices to children during small group time and give them a “menu” of possible activities.

Whether the teacher assigns activities, or children choose, it is important to keep track of the activities and children who completed the activity.

Some teachers use a rotation schedule or ask children to use clips to indicate their choice on a large chart. Children can also mark their choice on the menu.

Importance of Teaching Routines

When introducing small group time, teachers need to teach, model, and practice the routines needed for doing the work in the centers, limit interruptions to the small group teaching, and manage behaviors.

Many teachers also introduce a strategy of “Ask 3, Then Me” to provide options for when children are “stuck” during an activity to reduce interruptions to the small group teaching.

The teacher in the above video discusses the “Ask 3 Before Me” strategy to help her students work independently while she works with small groups.

Before sending children to any center or activities, teachers need to introduce the activity, model the work and show children how to clean up after the activities.   Building in time to have the children practice the center/activities helps them be independent later.

Managing Behaviors – The Rest of the Class

Often children misbehave because they are confused, frustrated, or bored. Much of the off-task behavior can be minimized by building independence in learning by modeling the centers/activities, providing options when a child is stuck, and building positive relationships with children throughout the day. If there seems to be a lot of off-task behaviors, examine the reasons – is there a need to reteach a skill; practice a routine; or reassess a child?

A Guided Reading Lesson

The video above shows the components of a typical guided reading group.

Planning a Guided Reading Lesson

1. Begin with what the children need – identify the skill or strategy the children need to learn.
2. Select the appropriate text and/or materials to teach the identified skill/strategy. The text should be at the group’s instruction level so it provides some challenge, but not frustration. Balance the genres and forms of writing across multiple guided reading lessons so children experience a variety of texts.
3. Plan the lesson with before, during, and after reading components.
4. Plan for the forms of assessment you will use and how you will find evidence of learning.

Before Reading

Thinking about reading BEFORE reading is a critical part of comprehension.  In guided reading groups, teachers can scaffold texts by providing background information and modeling comprehension strategies such as activation of prior knowledge.

Although there will be variations in how teachers introduce a book in guided reading there are some typical components:

• Introduction – talk about any new words that need to be pre-taught; background information that would be essential
• Cover – read the title and the author and illustrator names; discuss the images (maybe make predictions)
• Summary – provide a 1-2 sentence summary of the text to help children make connections.
• Invite predictions – throughout the introduction based on the images, connections etc.
• Preview the book – using a picture walk of pages
• Set a purpose for reading – model questioning; state the teaching point; or ask children what they might learn

During Reading

There are a variety of ways the text could be read, and the teacher selects the most appropriate method based on the children’s needs and the text.

• First reading – the teacher typically models fluent and expressive reading of the text. Then there are a variety of second reading structures.
• Choral reading – children read the text together; often with the teacher.
• Echo reading – the teacher reads a line of text and the children repeat.
• Whisper reading – children read to themselves in a whisper so the teacher can hear their decoding.
• Buddy reading – two children read aloud while the rest are given a reading task: find a picture you like; talk to your partner about ____; reread the text
• Independent reading – Children read silently.

The above video shows choral reading within a guided reading group.

After Reading

• Response activities –depending on the complexity of the text, children can respond with discussion amongst the group, or activity after group, such as writing a response in their reading journals or using a graphic organizer.  Other extensions could include a reader’s theater script of the story or a retelling of the story from a different perspective.
• Review the reading skill/strategy – restate the skill/strategy. Provide other examples (sometimes using a whiteboard). Reinforce why it is important.
• Highlight the children’s use of the skill/strategy –  specifically name the child and his/her example.

The Teaching Point

The teaching point (the skill or strategy) can be taught at any point in the lesson – it depended on the text.  In some situations, it might be best taught before reading.

For example, for emergent readers, the skill might be the concepts of print of one-to-one correspondence of words and directionality. The teacher can model and remind the children before the first reading and expect the children to point (or use pointers) at each word. This would also be the assessment of the lesson.

For intermediate readers, the strategy might be using picture clues to figure out the meaning of an unknown word.  Then the lesson could be introduced during the teacher’s reading of the text.

There are many forms available to guide planning and organization. Here are two sites with useful resources: 

• Scholastic – Guided Reading Made Easy
• Ms. Houser – Planning for Guided Reading

Assessment in Guided Reading

Assessment is essential to effective guided reading groups.  The groups are built to address the specific needs of the children, not to address the curriculum scope and sequence chart or grade-level expectations. When instruction is too hard for children, they get frustrated. When instruction is too easy for children, they get bored and may misbehave. 

Guided reading provides the opportunity for teachers to provide “just right” instruction for children in the group – but to know what is just right for the children, the teacher needs multiple methods of assessment.

There are a variety of ways teachers can assess children to provide thoughtful groupings.  This would include: observation, running records, and assessment tools, such as early literacy assessments of letter identification and concepts about print, or spelling inventories and reading logs.

Assessment is continuous, not just at designated times, and as an elementary teacher, you will constantly be “kid-watching” (Goodman, 1989) and observing behaviors and attitudes that can inform instruction.

Observation

In the early years of reading, observation and anecdotal notes provide a rich profile of a reader. Over time, the teachers capture not just a record of the child, but they can identify patterns and progress and behaviors and attitudes toward reading.

For observations to be an effective assessment, teachers need to develop a system of scheduling and recording observations, as illustrated by Haley O’Conner’s blog Teaching with Haley. (scroll down to see the anecdotal notes – plus, there are many other ideas for guided reading).  Some teachers use a 3-ring binder with a section for each child.  Notes might be written on the form or on a sticky note and pasted into the form. Some teachers have a class chart for notes, which Jennifer Findley shares on her blog Teaching with Jennifer Findley. There are numerous guided reading binder set-up packets available on Teachers-Pay-Teachers, but make sure to thoroughtly preview them before purchasing to ensure they have the components you need.   

There are also iPad applications that provide structure to the anecdotal notes.  Click here to read about how Mrs. Jordan uses Notability for her student records.

Throughout this text, you have been introduced to a variety of assessments. These same assessments can inform guided reading groups:

• Running Records
• Leveling assessments
• Letter identification
• Book handling
• Concepts of print
• Retelling
• Reading survey – Interest Inventory
• Spelling Inventory
• Reading log
• Writing sample
• Fluency scales – DIBELS; FAST; AIMSWeb

Review and Questions to Ponder

Questions to Ponder

1. Reflect on your experiences in elementary school working in small groups.  What do you remember?  What motivated you to learn?  What didn’t motivate you to learn?
2. Guided reading groups are one way to differentiate literacy instruction and the structure can be used for guided writing groups and guided math groups.  What is it about this structure that makes it so effective for a variety of subjects?

Additional ResourcesReferences

Boushey, G., & Moser, J. (2014). Daily 5: Fostering literacy independence in the elementary grades. Stenhouse Publishers.

Cunningham, P. M., Hall, D. P., & Cunningham, J. W. (2008). Guided reading:The four-blocks way, grades 1-3. Carson-Dellosa Publishing.

Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell, G. S. (2016). Guided reading: Responsive teaching across the grades. Heinnemann.

Goodman, Y. (1989). The whole language evaluation book. Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH.