Guided Reading:
Steps to Establishing Small-Group Reading
Instruction
By Bridget Wortman
North Topsail Elementary School, Hampstead, North Carolina
Small-group reading instruction can improve students’ reading levels and
comprehension. Here are some guidelines for establishing and maintaining such
groups. This is just one way to create and follow through with small-group
reading instruction. You may use these guidelines as they are, or modify them to
suit the needs of your students.
Beginning of the Year
1) Diagnosis and Assessment
Every child should be evaluated to find their individual instructional
level. This can be done through a variety of assessments. If you
are unsure of how to find or administer these assessments, contact
your school’s Reading Specialist or Curriculum Coordinator for
assistance. Keep in mind that the groups will change as your
students continue to grow. Continuous assessment throughout the
year should determine the focus and membership of each group.
2) Establishing Groups
Once you have established your students’ reading levels, then you
can assign them to groups with four or five students in each. You
may find, however, that you need to have smaller groups for lowerlevel readers that need more remediation in their developmental
level. Groups should be flexible, and you may want to allow
students to name their own groups or number the groups randomly
so the students will not connect growth or skill level with the
number assigned to their group.
3) Establishing a Schedule
Your schedule will depend on the amount of time allotted for your
reading groups, as well as the number of groups that you have.
Many teachers find that 15-20 minutes per group is often a
substantial amount of time accomplish reasonable goals on a daily
basis. Be sure to consider transition time when making your
schedule.
4) Establishing a Routine
Once the groups are constructed, establish a routine for movement
from the guided reading group to other activities. Many teachers
assign groups to various learning centers with different activities
(see section below) while they work with each guided reading
group.
5) Literature-Guided Reading Books/Leveled Books
Once the students are grouped, you will need to select one set of
books per group depending on the instructional level of the group.
These will be the books they will work on for the entire week.
Getting Started
Here is an example of how you might use small-group reading instruction over
the course of a week. The readiness of the group will determine where you will
start in the process listed below. You may find that your students are beyond the
initial level depending on the group and the experiences that they have had in
previous years. The groups are broken down into activities that they may
participate in a weekly schedule.
Monday- Introduce the book by having the group look at the cover and find any
picture or word clues that will help them determine what the book is about. At
this point, your focus is NOT on reading any text, but familiarizing the group with
the story by using visual clues. Discuss any clues they find and go on to the title
page. Lead the group in a picture walk through the book where they discuss
each picture and predict what they think each is about. Upon completing the
picture walk, the group discusses the story. Ask
• What do you think the book is about?
• What do you think will happen in the end?
• Who are the characters?
• What is the setting?
Tuesday- Discuss the predictions about the text from the previous day, then read
the text together while the children follow along, tracking print and reading at their
readiness level. Your focus will be on tracking print and basic word recognition
with or without attack skills. After reading the story, compare predictions from the
day before to the actual storyline. Discuss who the characters are, what the
main idea is, and what the setting is.
Wednesday- Read the story again, this time taking turns reading aloud and
focusing on decoding skills. Have students follow along tracking print while one
student reads the text. Discuss the text and focus on a form of word work
determined by the needs of the group and individual students (some students
may need to focus on short vowels, digraphs, blends, or decoding).
Thursday- Now it is time to focus on comprehension. Read the story once more,
with students taking turns reading aloud. Together, create a graphic organizer
using a selected comprehension skill. For example, to comprehend the basics of
a story, do a circle map on the entire story. To focus on the storyline and
sequencing events, do a flow map together. An excellent resource for graphic
organizers and/or thinking maps, go to the web site:
http://www.thinkingmaps.com/htthinkmap.php3.
Friday- Read the story again together as a group, then assign a creative project
to culminate the week’s work. For example, if they have read a book that is
based upon a pet shop, have the students create a flyer or newspaper
advertisement for a pet shop they would like to open.
As the students progress, you may shorten the amount of time doing picture
walks and lengthen the amount of time that you are focusing on word work and
comprehension. Pay attention to pacing and curriculum guides to determine
where your students need to be by the end of the school year.
Managing Your Groups With Learning Centers
When scheduling your groups, you may want to consider incorporating learning
centers with the guided reading time. The centers run consecutively while you
work with individual groups. At the beginning of the year, keep the centers clear
and simple. Establish one center for each group for every day. So, if you have
five reading groups, you will need to create four other centers, as well as the
guided reading center, for every day of the week. Although it may seem
overwhelming, you can create centers that can be easily pulled together and
repeated throughout the year. Share ideas and materials for centers with other
teachers in your grade level. As your children become more independent and
you have the opportunity to develop a learner-style profile for your students,
differentiate the centers to meet a wider range of readiness levels.
Here are some ideas for learning centers:
Language Arts
-Making words
-Completing word searches
-Highlighting known words
-Placing words in alphabetical order
-Sorting nouns and verbs
-Sorting telling sentences and asking sentences
-Listening centers
Writing
-Handwriting skills
-Creating a story with pictures
-Illustrating a previously written story
-Creating graphic organizers
-Cutting out pictures from magazines or using stickers to create a story
-Writing letters to other students in the class
Math
-Building
-Playing money games
-Using pattern blocks to create and identify shapes
-Practicing addition and subtraction skills
-Telling time
-Sorting, classifying and patterns
Science
-Flow mapping the processes of a growing plant
-Finding whether items sink or float
-Classifying solids and liquids
-Exploring balance and motion
Social Studies
-Identifying community helpers
-Researching holidays
-Making maps
-Earning and spending money
Arts
-Cutting and pasting activities
-Using clay products
-Creating collages
-Drawing and painting (related to a text or free choice)