Guided Reading

An Introduction

Every year I choose a few focus areas of my teaching practice I want to improve on, this year one of those areas was guided reading. To start the ball rolling by found myself some CPD in the shape of Stephen Graham and his reading workshop. I enjoyed Stephen's talk, he is a lively speaker who kept us listening eagerly, even if it was to his back as he roamed between tables to the rear of the conference floor! (I always make a beeline for a front-row table, but in this case, it didn't have its usual desired effect). From Stephen's workshop, I walk away with plenty of useful tips, all of which I will share with you in this post.

What is guided reading?

Guided reading is a differentiated approach to reading instruction that offers children an opportunity to practice a range of different reading strategies, all of which I spoke about in my previous blog, The Emergent Reader's Toolkit. An integral part of the guided reading session is the scaffolded support of the teacher with the ultimate goal of removing this scaffolding and delivering confident, fluent readers. 
Here are a few general tips I picked up at the workshop:

• Guided reading sessions are short, structured 20-30 minute reading sessions in small groups of 6-8 (4-6 for infants if possible) where children have opportunities to read and respond to texts.
• Children are assessed and put into ability groups with children of a similar READING age (which is not always reflective of their actually age). These groups may change as some children progress up the levels faster than others.
• The children should be reading readers that suit their ability. Not too difficult, not too easy. Just the right amount of challenge to support the development of their effective reading strategies but easy enough to achieve success, in other words, comprehension as well as enjoyment.
• There are many internationally recognised levelled scheme. Our Folen's representative said the PMs are still the most popular. We have recently purchased some new Cambridge Reading Adventures, which are excellent. I'm also a fan of Big Cats and Bugs. 

• Once the independent reader has taken shape, the scaffolding is removed as the reader becomes well practised reading a wide range of reading genre independently.
• Finish each session with peered reading. Even if you only covered 4/5 pages have the children read them back.
• The material they read should include a wide variety of genre.
• The goal of guided reading is to guide children towards becoming independent readers by developing a balanced toolkit of reading strategies which they can ultimately choose from depending on their unique learning needs. ​

Organising readers in your school

In my school, we have an extensive collection of readers by various publishers. Almost all branded with a colour code to represent their level of difficulty. One suggestion Stephen made was to combine all the readers, regardless of the brand, to use in a whole-school approach. Using this colour scheme guide, most of the different brands can come together into universal levelled categories. Once you have all your books categorised, save the newest/best readers for a guided reading session, they should not be sent home. Make another collection suitable for homework readers.

Once children pass the lime level, they become independent readers.​ After that, each band from brown to black is a guide to the band for each year group.

This system shows readers that have grouped according to level. Title and genre are noted on the bag with stickers. These books are used for guided reading sessions.

These readers are grouped according to level and used to take home for homework. The teacher can check them in and out as they need.

Genre in Reading!

Does your school have a wide range of different genres? 93% of secondary school reading is factual, so we must prepare children with the competency to work with multiple types of text. Consider doing an audit of your school's collection of readers and take note if any of the genre mentioned in the picture to the left is lacking. If so, perhaps consider this  when ordering new books. However, take into consideration that narrative plays a highly influential role in primary and early childhood education. So again, it's about finding the balance appropriate to their age and development. ​

Assessment for Grouping

​Remember that suggested reading age and corresponding level is not an accurate way to measure a child's reading level. Folens offer a Bench Marking system for assessing a child's reading level. 
Below are a few pointers when assessing children:

• Start by completing an assessment of their HFW. Have the child read the word list below. Use their HFW knowledge to gauge which level to assess them. E.g if they can read up to the blue set test them at this level. 
• Each student has a copy of a text at an instructional level (one that can read with 90–94% accuracy.
  
• Use a factual piece of writing as the children can be too familiar with the narrative resulting in an unbalanced reading assessment.
• Max 180 words for reading assessment.
• Give the child the title of the text.
• Give them any proper nouns as these are generally too irregular for the child to decode.
• Only count errors on proper nouns once.
• When bringing children together to form a group, group in the middle of three levels. e.g. have the children who tested level 5,6 & 7 come together and start sessions with level 6 readers.
• There is a reading age of 6mts between each level.
• Complete two running records a month. The teacher can do these during a guided reading session in the class. (I would probally struggle to do this unless I had support) 
• Consider grouping children across year levels. Learning to read is not negotiable. Self-esteem is an issue parents have. It becomes a child's issue when they're 15, and they can't read! (I really agree with this one)

Click here to download this list. Stephen told us that each level has a corresponding list of sight words. He did promise that he would email the list, but I have not yet received it. So I made up the above list which may be of some use when assessing. ​

Teach the level and not the book!

"When we are reading this book today..." ​

Good reading schemes follow an overall criterion that reflects educational research on how children learn to read. For this reason, Stephen recommends that novels and other popular reading material are not suitable for guided reading sessions. When working with levelled readers, it is essential to teach the level, not the book. All levelled readers follow set progression criteria relating to decoding, fluency, phrasing and comprehension and the readers develop and build on these as children progress through the levels (you can get these fro the same people who you buy your readers from). When starting a new book, make sure to start with some 'book talk' that explains how genre or narrative works. Set them up by letting them know what they are going to be learning. 

Readers for Homework

 "Don't send home your guided reading books!" says Stephen. You've invested too much money into them to risk damage or loss. Instead, group your readers into new and old and send the old ones home. Take home readers should be two to three levels below the instructional reading level in the classroom (especially for early emergent readers). Take home readers may never be listened too by the class teacher. Another option would be to have a kind parent come in to listen to homework readers.

To Conclude

I left Stephen's workshop with a clearer picture of how guided reading works. But like many professional development workshops and seminars I have attended, the focus was on working with children from 1st class up. At the end of the workshop, I did my best to catch him and fire some questions that address issues more specific to emergent readers.

Q: How do you work with children who can't even blend yet? Let alone recall words by sight?
Stephen: Focus on spending your guided reading sessions, exploring the concepts of print! (cue my last post on components of emergent reading)
Q: If children should be taking home readers 2 to three levels below their instructional level, what readers do emergent (pink and red level) children take home?
Stephen: Wordless readers were the focus in on language, conventions of print and enjoyment of shared reading.

I can see how guided reading works well for children who can already read. My concerns are for children who struggle to grasp necessary emergent reading skills. Guided reading for these children can impede reading development by teaching children to become better guessers who don't actually read words! So for my next post, I will take you on the journey into The Reading Wars. Stay posted! 

---

​Follow me on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter where I like to share lots of fun and playful teaching ideas daily 🤗. Or visit me on Vimeo to watch loads of super teaching videos!

---

I would like to thank the children who kindly consented to having their work samples and/or photographs used on this website. Infant Education was granted parental permission for the participation of their children on this website. ​​​​​​​

​© InfantEducation.ie 2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to InfantEducation.ie with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.