Guided Reading 1-Pager

What is Guided Reading?

During Guided Reading lessons, the teacher groups students of similar reading proficiency
together in a half-circle, provides them with a novel text to read, and asks them to quietly read
aloud as the teacher circulates the room and provides each student with differentiated support.
Specifically, the teacher helps students tackle tricky sentence structures, use problem-solving
strategies to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words, and grasp important ideas or concepts.
Ultimately, the goal of guided reading is to help children learn how to use independent reading
strategies successfully.

How is Guided Reading different from Read Alouds or Shared Reading?

During Read Alouds, teachers expose students to texts that are beyond their reading level by
reading the books aloud to them and pointing out interesting text features, images, or words. In
Shared Reading, students work together to draw meaning from challenging texts. During
Guided Reading, teachers support students as they read books quietly to themselves. In other
words, Guided Reading requires students to read more independently than during Shared
Reading and Read Aloud activities.

How does one go about facilitating an effective Guided Reading lesson?

• Step 1: Teacher selects a book that will be easy for children to read. This decision is
informed by students’ reading data as well as the teachers’ knowledge of students’
“known” body of words.
• Step 2: Teacher introduces the text to a small group of students at similar reading
levels and then calls on students to notice aspects of the book by pointing out
features of the pictures and print
o Tip for newcomers: During step 2, it’s often helpful to go through each
picture of the story and provide a brief overview of the plot. It’s also
helpful to point out vocabulary in context.
• Step 3: The teacher asks students to read the book quietly as he/she circulates the
room and provides each student with support.
• Step 4: After every student completes the text, the teacher talks about the story that
was just read with students. She also visits certain words/phrases/concepts that
were especially challenging for students and highlights problem-solving strategies
that students can use to address these misunderstandings. She then checks for
student understanding of this problem-solving strategy.
• Step 5: If students like the book, the teacher may place it in the “browsing box” of
previously read books so that students can reread it at a later time.

How do you select books for Guided Reading?

Ask yourself 2 questions
1) Is the text consistently so easy that children have no opportunity to build on their
repertoire of problem-solving strategies?
a. If yes, the text is too easy. A more challenging text that students could also
read with 90% accuracy would suffice.
2) Is the text so difficult to process that it would provide students with no opportunity to
read?
a. If yes, the text is too difficult. A less challenging text that students can read
with 90% accuracy would suffice.