Guided Reading:
Readers, Texts and Teaching
October 19, 2012
Kerry Crosby, Consultant
kerrylcrosby@gmail.com
Goals for Training
Readers
• Expand our understanding of the reading process.
• Hone our ability to observe and analyze reading behaviors.
• Understand how to teach for the reading process whenever students read.
Texts
• Understand texts and what they demand of our readers.
• Think about how we select texts for guided reading
Teaching
• Explore how to use guided reading to teach readers to effectively process
increasingly challenging texts over time.
• Share best practices for guided reading logistics: record-keeping, staying
organized, scheduling /meeting groups, keeping groups dynamic, etc.
Our ultimate goal as teachers is to help
each student in our schools become a reader
who loves books and all they have to offer.
Reading is more than basic decoding
competency. It has the potential to nourish
the intellect, the emotions and the spirit. It
feeds and replenishes the art and skill of
writing. A child who lives a literate life in
school and has pleasurable experiences
with written language will make a place for
reading and writing throughout life.
Page 3, Fountas and Pinnell, Teaching for
Comprehending and Fluency
Thinking Within, Beyond and About Text
“A literary processing system is an integrated set
of strategic actions by which readers extract and
construct meaning from written language.”
--Fountas and Pinnell (2006) p. 13
An Integrated System
“It is important to emphasize again that the complex
actions readers take while reading are going on all at once
and with great speed…
Strategies are not discrete; they don’t happen one at a
time and you cannot teach them one at a time. You
employ these interelated and complex strategies in a fluid
way, your attention most of the time is focused on your
search for meaning… --page 53, Genre Study, Fountas and Pinnell
Guided Reading
Guided reading is a teaching approach designed
to help individual students learn how to process a
variety of increasingly challenging texts with
understanding and fluency.
Guided Reading—
Small Group Instruction
There are three important
elements of strong guided
reading implementation.
They are:
– Knowing your readers strengths and needs.
– Understanding the supports and demands of text.
– Teaching that promotes active strategic
processing.
Knowing our Readers:
Assessment and the Reading Process
“If you value readers’ development of a complex
literacy processing system, then you will want to
assess all aspects of the processing system.
Weakness in any one aspect can diminish the
reader’s full understanding of a text. Your goal is
not comprehension and fluency alone but the
reader’s ability to engage all the systems of
effective processing.”
page 88, TCF
What do we want to assess?
–
–
–
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Accuracy
Self-Correction
Sources of Information Used and Neglected
Reading Behaviors: Use of Problem-Solving
Actions (systems of strategic actions)
– Fluency and Phrasing
– Comprehension
Figure 8-12, page 102
Coding Reading Behaviors
Accurate reading
Substitution/incorrect response
Omission
Insertion
Repetition
Told (child does not attempt)
Self-correction
You try it
Appeal
Benchmark Handout, TCF fig. 8-8, p. 99
Analyzing Reading Behaviors
Sources of information
• Readers use 3 sources of information to
process written text:
– Meaning--Ask yourself does it make sense?
– Structure—Ask yourself does it sound right?
– Visual—Ask yourself does it look right?
Self-Corrections
• What probably sent the reader back to make
this correction? What is the most likely reason?
Reading Workshop—page 270
45-60 minutes
PreK-Grade 2
Grade 3-Grade 6
Modeled/Shared Reading
Book Talk and Minilesson
Independent Reading/ Reading
Conferences (independent texts)
Independent Literacy Work
Guided Reading (instructional level
texts)
Independent Reading/Reading
Conferences (independent texts)
Literature Study/Book Club
Guided Reading(instructional level
texts)
Group Share
Group Share
Rationale for Guided Reading
• To help students adjust their processing as they
read for different purposes and encounter new
genres.
• To meet the varying instructional needs of all
students.
• To help students make challenges manageable
without “taking away the privilege of setting up
their own dialogue with the author on the first
reading of the text.” Mooney, 1990, p. 45
Role of guided reading
within the reading workshop
 Gives students the opportunity to read at an
appropriate instructional level.
 Introduces students to new books that offer a
moderate challenge with scaffolding.
 Helps students learn more about the reading
process.
 Provides the teacher with the opportunity to
focus on a small group to hone their
observations of the students’ reading behavior
to better inform instruction.
Guided reading instruction:
• Is specific and focused
• Finely tuned to the needs and challenges
of the particular group of students
• Provides specific support for readers as
they delve into texts
A Framework for
Guided Reading Lessons
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Selecting the text
Introducing the text
Reading the text
Discussing and Revisiting the Text
Teaching for Processing
Extending the meaning of the Text (optional)
Word Work (optional)
--page 374-375, TCF
The Learning Zone
“In the Vygotskian sense, guided reading
makes it possible to teach at the cutting
edge of students’ understanding. Your
support is light. You do not take the
problem-solving away from the student;
instead, your teaching helps students read
more productively and more intensively.”.
--p. 192, Guiding Readers and Writers
Before guided reading
 Think about previous work with this group
 Select text that will build on the readers’
processing strengths, engage them, and meet
their needs
 Read the book with your readers in mind
 Plan the introduction, making notes—will you have
a “light” overlay?
 Have record keeping system ready and materials
organized
After the lesson
• Think about whether the grouping was
appropriate
• Consider what you learned from your
observations
• Make quick notes about what students may need
to do next
• Reflect on your teaching
– What did these readers learn about reading that will
help them read their next book?
• Organize materials for the next time
What is the rest of the class doing?
• Establishing routines prior to starting guided reading
is important for classroom management.
*********
Students are:
• Reading texts independently/literacy centers
• Writing about their reading
• Reading texts for literature study
• Completing tasks related to guided reading
Materials
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Small table: kidney shaped or round
White board, dry erase markers
Easel
Multiple copies of text
Record-keeping materials/forms
Magnetic letters (optional)
Lesson Frequency
• Lower achieving students meet more
frequently
• Higher achieving students meet less
frequently
• Work with one group for several
consecutive days when using longer texts
• Create a schedule, weekly or monthly
Living a Literate Life
“ A child who lives a literate life in
school and has pleasurable
experiences with written language will
make a place for reading and writing
throughout life.”
--Fountas and Pinnell