Guided Reading versus
Differentiated Instruction
Michael C. McKenna
University of Virginia
Sharon Walpole
University of Delaware
Let’s start by reviewing
three approaches to
differentiated reading
instruction.
Approaches to
Differentiation
By instructional level
By fluency level
By assessed needs
• Informal reading inventories
An IRI contains …
 One or more sequences of graded word lists
 One or more sequences of graded passages
 Questions accompanying each passage
A
B
C
PP
P
1st
2
3
4
5
6 •••
Approaches to
Differentiation
By instructional level
By fluency level
By assessed needs
• Informal reading inventories
• Traditional basal instruction
• Groups move at same pace
• Groups are all but permanent
• Differentiation is in all areas
• Parallel skill “strands” used
Approaches to
Differentiation
By instructional level
By fluency level
By assessed needs
• Differentiation by leveled books
• Decoding skills not a target
• Fountas & Pinnell
Approaches to
Differentiation
By instructional level
By fluency level
By assessed needs
 Assess for differentiation
 Screening + diagnostic
 Groups are temporary
 Groups are flexible
 Target areas of greatest need
 Goal is “upward mobility”
To us, differentiation is …
“instruction that helps [children] accomplish
challenging tasks that are just out of their reach”
“instruction that targets a particular group of
children’s needs directly and temporarily”
“instruction that applies a developmental model”
Walpole, S., & McKenna, M. C. (2007).
Differentiated reading instruction:
Strategies for the primary grades. New
York: Guilford Press.
Our Approach and Guided Reading:
What’s the Difference?
For a small group that is
best served by a focus on
fluency and comprehension,
our approach looks very
much like Guided Reading.
And yet there are important
differences. We will begin
by making those differences
clear.
Determining Group
Membership
Overall leveled placement
Screening and diagnostic
assessment, such as the DRA assessments in phonological
awareness, phonics, sight
This process ignores the
words, and/or oral reading
specific skill deficits in the
fluency.
areas of phonological
awareness and word
recognition
Diagnostic
Assessment
Running records are used to
analyze oral reading errors
(miscues), a practice that has
been called into question in
light of current views of the
reading process.
The cognitive model of
reading assessment is used to
systematically determine skill
needs on the basis of
developmental stage theories
of reading acquisition.
Stage models of reading
Oral Language
Fluency
Alphabetic
Principle
Phonemic
Awareness
When children are
acquiring literacy –
developing the skills
necessary for reading
comprehension – they
tend to move through
stages in which their
focus is very different.
All along, during each
stage, they are
developing oral language
skills.
Three Cuing Systems
Decoding
Semantic
Context
Syntactic
Context
A key distinction between our approach and
Guided Reading is how teachers approach
the use of context in recognizing words.
What is this word?
What information did you use to identify it?
read
What does this word mean?
What part of speech is it?
How do you pronounce it?
Now try again.
What new information did you use?
That novel was a good read.
In actual reading, information within the
word and information in context are
available simultaneously.
That novel was a good read.
Proficient readers use all three cuing
systems, to be sure, but they use context
to decide among multiple meanings and
multiple pronunciations. This occurs after
decoding has allowed them to locate the
word in memory.
So what should a teacher do when a child
reads this sentence and hesitates before
the last word?
That novel was a good read.
1.Ask the child to predict the word based on
the previous context. or
2.Ask the child to use decoding skills to
determine the word’s pronunciation.
We want to move children to the
point where they decode first and
then use context to select the
intended meaning of a word.
We do not want to encourage
them to predict the word from
context and only “sample” its
letters to the extent needed to
confirm this prediction.
Three Cuing Systems
Decoding
Semantic
Context
Syntactic
Context
The three systems are not equally important.
Context should become a child’s last resort
– not the first!
Instructional
Focus
Fluency is always the primary
focus.
Fluency is the focus
1. only for grade 1 and
above
2. only if decoding skills are
strong.
In guided reading, the teacher
coordinates reading
In differentiated instruction,
components (comprehension, the teacher isolates reading
word recognition, fluency).
components to address
deficits.
Fluency
Instruction
Fluency techniques do not
proceed from most to least
supportive.
Fluency techniques progress
from most to least
supportive:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Echo reading
Choral reading
Partner reading
Whisper reading
Text Types
Predictable books are
preferred for beginning
readers in order to promote
fluency. Such books provide
little basis for decoding
instruction.
Decodable books are
preferred for beginning
readers in order to promote
decoding in context. Such
books provide little basis for
comprehension instruction–so
there is none.
Comprehension
Instruction
Comprehension instruction is
based on texts at fluency
level.
This means that the easiest
texts provide very little basis
for asking reasonable
questions or modeling
strategies, but this practice is
still encouraged.
In the primary grades,
comprehension instruction is
based on small-group readalouds for children who are at
benchmark in word
recognition.
Comprehension instruction is
linked with fluency or
vocabulary but not with word
recognition instruction.
Word Recognition
Instruction
Word recognition needs are
not systematically addressed
during guided reading.
Rather, they are addressed on
an as-needed basis.
Word recognition needs are
identified through the cognitive
model of assessment and are
addressed on this basis.
Measuring
Progress
Running records are used to
determine readiness for the
next text level.
Three-week post-assessment
focuses on areas targeted by
instruction.
The assessment question is
whether a child should move
to a more advanced focus,
remain at current focus, or
move to a more basic focus.
Measuring
Progress
A Stairway to Proficiency
Vocabulary & Comprehension
Fluency and Comprehension
Word Recognition and Fluency
PA and Word Recognition