Mrs. Trz TeacherWeb Guided Reading

Guided reading is a major part of a balanced literacy program in our classroom. During guided reading, students read as the teacher guides them through the story. I pause to ask questions and prompt readers to use multiple reading strategies to decode words and comprehend the text. Great discussions arise from our guided reading sessions as students learn to make connections to the text, predict what will happen and ask questions as they read, visualize events happening in the story, make inferences, and respond to stories in their reading response journals. It is also a time for the teacher to observe whether or not students are using the reading strategies taught during shared reading and teacher read-alouds.

Our diagnostic reading assessments have begun, and hopefully by next week our Guided Reading groups will begin when we have a better sense of each student's instructional reading level. In the meantime, we are spending time learning how to choose books that are "just right." When your child reads with you at home, make sure it is an enjoyable experience and the books he/she is choosing are on an enjoyable level, rather than instructional.

How do you know if a book is "Just Right?"

EASY

* you can read the words fluently (smooth and with an interesting voice)

*there often are not a lot of words on a page

*you know how to say all the words

*there are not a lot of pages in the book

*you have a lot of schema for the subject

*sometimes the book has a larger font

*you totally understand the story

*your reading rate may be quicker

*your thinking comes easy as you read the words

CHALLENGING

*many of the words are too hard to decode (failed a five finger test)

*you don't know what the tricky words MEAN

*your reading becomes choppy more than it is fluent

*you don't have any prior knowledge the subject

*there are often a lot of words on the page

*often the font is small

*you lose focus as you are reading

*you are not enjoying the book because you have to do too much word work

*your thinking is confused

*your reading rate slows way down

JUST RIGHT

*you can read most of the words

*you can understand what you are reading

*you enjoy the book

*you may have some schema for the subject

*you can read the book with smooth fluency but there are some choppy places

*your reading rate is just right- not too slow and not too fast

*you can figure out the tricky words and still get the meaning of the story

Mrs. Trz

Guided Reading

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