Guided Reading

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[edit] Description & Definition

According to Fountas and Pinnell, guided reading is an instructional setting that enables you (the teacher) to work with a small group of students to help them learn effective strategies for processing text with understanding. The purpose of guided reading is to meet the varying instructional needs of all the students in your class, enabling them to greatly expand their reading powers (p.189 - 191).
Guided reading is a teaching approach that is designed to help individual students learn how to process a variety of increasingly challenging texts with understanding and fluency. Guided reading occurs in a small-group setting because the small group allows for interactions among readers that benefit them all. The teacher selects and introduces texts to readers, sometimes supports them while reading the text, engages the readers in discussion, and performs a mini-lesson after the reading. Sometimes after reading a text, the teacher extends the meaning of the text through writing, text analysis, or another learning activity. The lesson may also include work with words based on the specific needs of the small group (p.193).

This image is of a teacher with a guided reading group from Cabot Public Schools in Cabot, Arkansas.

Image:guidedreading.jpg

[edit] Application in classrooms and similar settings

Guided reading is only one part of the literacy program. The entire program includes language/word study, writing workshop, and guided reading. Guided reading gives students the opportunity to read at their just right level, which means that the books provide them with a moderate challenge. They are grouped with students who are similar in ability, needs, and strengths. Instruction is then finely tuned to the needs of those particular students. Without teaching at the point of need, many students will not progress. By providing small group instruction that allows children to discover how to think about a text, they will be able to use their strategies in other classroom reading throughout the curriculum. A guided reading lesson is also your opportunity to talk about story elements such as character, setting, plot, metaphors, point of view, and vocabulary, etc. It is also a great time to talk about effective decoding strategies. The purpose of guided reading is to teach individuals to read increasingly difficult texts with understanding and fluency.
Suggested Mini-Lessons for Guided Reading Groups
  • Story Elements
  • Vocabulary
  • Sequencing
  • Character Development
  • Predicting
  • Fluency
  • Decoding Strategies
  • Making Connections (personal, to another text, to the world)
  • Inferring
  • Summarizing
  • Analyzing
  • Critiquing
  • Skimming and Scanning
  • Retelling
  • Word Meanings
To determine who to put in what group, the teacher should use some type of assessment. The students should sparatically be retested to determine if they should stay in the same group or change groups. Some assessments that can be used are:
  • ISEL
  • IRI
  • MAP
  • Curriculum Based Measurements/Assessment (i.e., DIBELS, Aimsweb, etc.)
  • running records
While some students are meeting in a guided reading group, the teacher needs to develop meaningful literacy tasks and activities for the rest of the class to participate in. Some teachers give the same kind of seatwork to the rest of the class to keep them occupied while she teaches the guided reading lesson. However, other teachers believe in sending students to "Centers." Centers are usually specially designed tasks that take place in certain parts of the classroom for students can complete on their own or with a partner. The challenge for the teacher is updating the content in the Centers and managing the classroom during this time while trying to teach a small group lesson. Teachers might use wheels or posters to put students in groups and then assign the groups to a specific Center for the day. Another option would be to use a pocket chart where students can choose which Center they want to attend for the day. Once the pockets in the row are filled up, no more students can go to that Center for the day.
Suggested Centers
  • library (book check-out, reading location)
  • computers (work on typing skills, research, type reading letter)
  • poetry (copy poem into book and read it aloud in whisper phones or to friend to practice fluency and expression)
  • magazine (read the current Weekly Reader or Time For Kids magazine and complete corresponding worksheet)
  • listening (listen to books on tape)
  • spelling (practice spelling words using magnetic letters, tray of sand)
  • writing (free creative writing)
  • buddy reading
  • word (activities such as making words)
  • overhead (create words on the overhead or find rhyming words in poems)
  • big book (find word wall words)
  • letter stamp (stamp out this weeks word wall words)
  • read the room (some students can find simple words while others are looking for multi-syllabic words)

[edit] Evidence of effectiveness

Visit Scholastic for research done by Gay Pinnell to prove the effectiveness of guided reading. This site gives facts from research about how students learn to read, and then it shows how teachers using guided reading implement this into their instruction. You will need to have Adobe Acrobat to read this file.
Visit Partners in School Innovation for evidence of the effectiveness of teaching literacy through guided reading.
Click on Guided Reading Experiment to read about my experience implementing guided reading into my third grade classroom.

[edit] Critics and their rationale

In Guided Reading the Four Blocks Way, they have modified the guided reading program presented by Fountas and Pinnell. Their book suggests that the guided reading program presented by Fountas and Pinnell is too time consuming. It suggests that it not only takes up too much time during the day, but also takes up too much planning time. They also suggest that a lot of time is wasted with seatwork, worksheets, or center activities in which the main function is to keep children busy and quiet. They have modified the program to make it easier for teachers to implement, but I am under the impression that all of the students are reading the same text.
Visit Teachers.net for Cheryl Sigmon's view of Fountas and Pinnell's method of teaching guided reading.

[edit] Signed life experiences, testimonies and stories

I used Guided Reading in my classroom this year and it worked great. One thing I wish I would have figured out sooner though, is how well Guided Reading can work with nonfiction texts. I used to think we had to focus on the traditional story type texts and do science and social studies at a different time. One busy week forced we into doing a science unit at Guided Reading time and I couldn't believe how well it worked! The students were more interested in reading because they enjoy learning science and about how the world works. I still use fiction texts in Guided Reading but I now supplement it with a lot of nonfiction too! -Annie Craig, 2nd Grade Teacher

I think guided reading is one of the greatest ways to teach reading in the classroom, but it shouldn't be the only thing used. It does lead to ability grouping, but it allows the teacher to work more one on one and see where students are having problems.

I have used guided reading in my reading program. I think it is a great way to teach reading skills but as was noted in the explanation it is one part of a whole reading program. I have also used literature circles or Book Clubs and have found that these structures motivate students to read and make reading more meaningful. E. Elrick, preschool/elementary teacher for 7 years.

Guided Reading is a good way for a teacher to zero in on the reading fluency and development of the students in their reading classroom and plan instruction that will benefit the students. Small group settings allow the teacher to look closely at what is happening when their students read. When used with reading strategies such as Book Clubs, Literature Circles, Sustained Reading, Guided Reading gives the teacher more information about the students in her classroom which helps her to make more informed decisions about the reading instruction. - E. Remington

I think that guided reading is a great way to teach reading, but it needs to be incorporated with other methods of reading as well. This way, the children aren't forced into just ability groups. K. Flaherty

I agree that guided reading is a great way to teach reading and really adheres to individual needs. My concerns are how productive is the time for the other students who are working independently. Do they stay on task? Are they learning? How are these procedures established at the beginning? J. Cappa

Guided reading has its benefits; it allows for reading instruction to be tailored to the individual needs of students and is a great way to manage this instruction in small, intimate groups, where the teacher and students can build on a relationship based on trust, understanding, and respect for different views and opinions. However, with guided reading come many challenges as well. Time management is a key factor in a successful guided reading program. How many groups can I meet with per day? For how long? Will that be long enough? Will instruction still be meaningful if only for 20 minutes? These are all questions I ask myself at the beginning of the school year, and often revisit each and every day...yet, much of the time, go unanswered. I do the best I can, with the time I am given, and hope for the best. Also, is the challenge of managing work stations/centers while you are reading with a small group of students. Centers are another great resource for hands-on, engaged learning, yet are often difficult to manage, especially if behavior problems are frequent to your classroom. Timers work well, as does assigning center "experts" as the "go-to" person for questions. However, in teaching the primary grades, it is still quite hard to run these centers. I think the key to a smooth guided reading experience is to teach children the expectations for these activities from Day 1 and to revisit these expectations on a daily basis. -D. Jacob (June 2006)

I have used the Fountas and Pinnell Guided Reading model for three years now. I love that the children are placed in groups that meet their individual needs. I understand the concern that some people have with "ability grouping," but if the method is used appropriately, students move fluidly in and out of groups. It is not necessary for students to be placed in a group with students at their reading level. Groups can be based on strategy instruction, not just reading level. A teacher might form a group to practice self monitoring with a group of students. This might be a skill that is needed for students who are fluent readers, as well as students who are reading below grade level. I also understand the concern with centers and seatwork. I agree that centers are difficult to keep running and seatwork can sometimes just be busy work. As always, it is up to the teacher to implement the program in a manner that is engaging and will allow for all students to be successful. The most difficult part of guided reading for me is to find books at an appropriate level that can be used to teach specific strategies. I believe that as the program continues to be used by teachers, there will be more materials available for teacher and student use. I know that a new Pearson program called Good Habits, Great Readers has a component that is designed for use during guided reading time. This might be the type of program that will lessen teacher preparation time. Overall, I have not found another reading program that allows more individual instruction. -- Amanda P.

I am now using the Good Habits, Great Readers to teach Reading in third grade. I really like the program and appreciate how the have the lessons set up with guided reading already built into it. You activate prior knowlege, introduce a strategy, read a text to the whole class, allow them to discuss with partners, do an individual assignment in some lessons and then it is time for guided reading groups. They also provide lessons leveled books and lessons to use with each. It really helps cut down planning time. ~S. Ward

I am a special education teacher who works in a school that employs the Guided Reading structure in all K-5 classrooms. I love the idea because my students and I are a big part of the reading instruction time. I have been able to teach my groups within the classroom, so I don't have to take my special education students out of the classroom for instruction. This also allows me to work with other kids who don't qualify for special education programs so they get more help than they would if guided reading weren't implemented. This also allows special needs kids not to be humiliated because they're reading instruction doesn't look that much different from the others in the class. Gay Cabutti

I have been using the Guided Reading structure in my classroom, and I have found it to be a great way to group students and support them at their level while moving them ahead in their reading. I aslo like the independent work ideas. In my school we do lack a sufficient amount of books for the students to read with, so that has been a challenge. E. Kilroy

[edit] References and other links of interest

Retrieved from "http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Guided_Reading"
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