Guided Reading Information

WHAT IS GUIDED READING?

In the Quakertown Community School District, elementary teachers use a Balanced Literacy model of Reading Instruction. Guided Reading is one of the components of a Balanced Reading program.
(Be sure to visit the Guided Reading Expectation Section as well.)

Guided Reading is any instruction in which the teacher guides one or more students through any aspect of the reading process. In Guided Reading, the teacher builds on what students know, provides reinforcement as well as challenge, and supports and demonstrates strategies to help the reader move forward.

At the primary level, Guided Reading refers to small group reading with teacher scaffolding (prompting) at the student's instructional level. An instructional reading level represents the level students read material that is not too easy, but not too hard. While reading a book at the appropriate instructional level, students will need assistance, but not too much. At the upper levels, this small group instruction can provide the necessary instruction for comprehension such as the model delineated in Guided Comprehension, by McLaughlin and Allen.

The aim of Guided Reading is to develop independent readers who question, consider alternatives, and make informed choices as they seek meaning. It is during guided reading that the learner is shown how, why, and which strategies to select to ensure meaning is gained. (Margaret Mooney)

"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."
- Fountas and Pinnell

Guided Reading is... Guided Reading is not...
...using leveled reading materials to support the reader at each level. ...consistently using the basal with some or all students. The basal does not provide leveled text support for the reader.
...working with students with a common need. A good assessment will give the teacher this data. ...working with a group of students who appear to be on the same level because of a test score.
...developing independent readers by helping them to internalize their strategies and having them reread the same text several times to gain fluency. ...encouraging students to read text once or using round robin reading with the teacher providing the corrections. The skill instruction is isolated from the text.
...modeling what good readers do: predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing. ...asking the student to read without establishing a purpose to read and without making connections to the reader's experience.
...word study to understand how words work. ...asking the readers to write vocabulary definitions without making connections back to the text.
...writing to make meaning of the text. ...writing to fill in blanks or copy the text.
...changing group membership every 6 weeks by re-assessing the strategies and comprehension of the students. ...leaving the group membership the same for long periods of time or all year.
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