Guided Reading (Focusing on Early

Reading)

Lancashire Primary Strategy: Literacy

Presented by Lancashire’s Leading Literacy Teachers

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Guided Reading

“If children leave my school and can’t paint that’s a pity but if they leave and can’t read that’s a disaster.”

Head teacher quoted in Rose (2008, p42)

Aims of the session• Clarify the structure and organisation of a

guided reading session• To identify how children learn to read in

the early stages• To exemplify reading strategies which

teachers can use• To establish that guided reading is the

vehicle to teach reading

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What is Guided Reading?

“Children put into practice their developing expertise at an appropriate level in a structured situation. The teacher differentiates the instructional reading programme and guides groups of children who have reached a similar level of skill to develop independent reading strategies on new and increasingly challenging texts.”

p.2 Book Bands for Guided Reading

Guided Reading • It is a carefully structured session with a clear learning objective

involving the application of new skills in context.

• Uses a partnership approach that includes direct teaching and istailored to specific needs of individuals or groups.

• The text used increases the reading challenge of the individuals and requires the teacher to guide pupils through the text.

• The teacher re-focuses on the text, re-models the questions asked, increases and decreases the pace as appropriate.

The teaching sequence for guided reading

• Book introduction• Teaching focus and Strategy check• Independent reading• Return and respond to the text

Independent follow up tasks can come at a different point.

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Book Introduction

“ This is a story about….”or

“ In this story…..”

A brief overview of the story is CRUCIAL.

Book introduction:“This is a story about a caterpillar who rescues his friends from a wicked spider”

Have you ever seen a spider?

How do you think he will rescue his friends?

Focus for the session

Share this with children!

Model what you want them to do.

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Example Reading Strategies

When we get to a tricky word we can look at the initial phoneme, cross check the picture and think what word would fit there and make sense?

orI want you to blend the phonemes in order, so that you can read the word yourself. Check with the picture

Strategy Check

This is the section where the children can demonstrate strategies which they already know and are beginning to use independently.

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Reading strategies• Search for something you know e.g. igh,

ay• Looking for similarities• using the first phoneme and cross

checking with the picture• read to the end and think what fits• rereading the sentence• reading with fluency

More Reading Strategies

• Identifying phonemes and then blend• chunking• analogy• find words within words

Independent Reading

The children read the book to themselves in the silent or private voice.

Teacher selects children to listen to and guides them through as they need it.

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Returning to the text

• Return to some examples of ‘good reading’ which you have seen/heard within the group

• Reinforce the teaching points• Possibly re-model any reading strategies• Work on fluency-read ‘in role’ as the

characters

Follow Up

There are many activities which you can do:• Freeze frame in role as one of the

characters which the spider wants to eat• Hot seat Spider• Re-read in role, 1 child be the narrator• Short writing opportunities

Guidance

• 2 x 10 mins session for early readers using the same book with 2 different foci per week

• 1 x 20 mins for developing readers• EAL readers and struggling readers may

need more session and individual reading sessions

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What is reading?What do good readers do?

Good readers…

• Problem solve• Think about and use what they know already• Cross check • Monitor their own reading• Detect errors and self correct• Predict

Good Readers

• Re-read if necessary• Search for more information• Read between the lines• Make inferences and deductions about

what they read• Decode automatically

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How do children learn

to read?

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Language comprehension

processes

Language comprehension

processes

Good

Poor

Poor Good Wordrecognition

skills

Wordrecognition

skills

Good comprehension; good word recognition

Good comprehension; poor word recognition

Poor word recognition; poor comprehension

Good word recognition; poor comprehension

The simple view of reading

Princess and the Pea.

• Work in small groups to ‘read’ the story.• Think about what skills and information

you are using to ‘read’.

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How did you make sense of the story?

• Using prior knowledge and experiences• Word recognition and decoding• Comprehension/meaning• Predicting• Reading on...what fits?• Grammar • Searching

Good readers use 3 sources of information when reading

Meaning MDoes it make

sense?

Visual VDoes it look right?

Structure SDoes it sound right?Can you say it like that in English?

Knowledge of the world and use of the text

Grammatical knowledge

Phonics

Word recognition

Graphic knowledge

Using information in textMeaning, Structure

My nana is frightened of spiders.

She _____ when they are around.

But I am not _____ of spiders.

Do you like this one here on the ___?

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My nana is frightened of spiders.

She y____ when they are around.

But I am not sc____d of spiders.

Do you like this one here on the c___ing?

Using information in textMeaning, Structure, Visual information

Using information in textMeaning, Structure, Visual information

My nana __ frightened of spiders.

She screams when they are around.

But I’m not ____ of spiders.

Do you like this one here on the g____?

Reading strategies• We need to teach children to integrate all 3

sources of information MSV independently.

• We need to teach useful reading and comprehension strategies that provide children with a ‘tool kit’ to draw upon independently.

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Putting it into context

Guided reading

....is the vehicle to teach reading

Planning

• First decide what it is that you want to teach during the guided reading session.

• Each session should have a specific focus and this will vary depending on where the children are along the reading journey.

Planning

• Use Book bands for Guided Reading• Primary Framework• Synthetic phonics programme, such as

Letters and Sounds

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Next Twilight

The focus will be on:• explicitly teaching comprehension

strategies• responding to text• reading workshop activities for the class

Guided Reading Generic Plan

Generic Sequence Teaching Points

1. Book introduction & ‘Walkthrough’

• Give the title. • Give a brief overview of the story e.g. "This is a story

about…" • Allow the children to talk about prior experience and

link this to what the children think the book is about. • Flick through the book and look at the pictures –allow

‘thinking time’ and an opportunity to respond. • Keep this part brief!

2. Teaching section and strategy check

• Decide which strategy/strategies to teach e.g. when we get to a tricky word we can look at the initial phoneme, cross check the picture and think what word would fit there and make sense? Or remember to blend the phonemes in order through the word to read it.

• Model the strategies selected • Remind the children to use the strategies when

reading independently. • Set a purpose for reading – I want you to find…

3. Independent reading

• The children read to themselves, at their own pace,

using a quiet or private voice. • Provide some or all of the children with focused

attention to monitor accuracy of reading. • Observe reading behaviours and use of the

strategies taught within the session.

4. Returning and responding to the text the text - discussion

• Return to the original focus e.g. reading strategy and

purpose • Give specific praise and feedback for good use of

strategy e.g. revise the skill of blending through a word. Write a word on a white board and create a rhyming string.

• Discuss reading purpose and ensure understanding of story

• Ensure that the children feel positive about themselves as readers.

5. Follow up This could be done as an independent activity outside of guided reading

• Provide opportunities for children to re-read or carry

out planned activities based upon the text e.g. role-play with puppets in the literacy area.

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search for something you know e.g. igh, ay

looking for similarities

using the first phoneme and cross checking with the picture

read to the end and think what fits

rereading the sentence

identifying phonemes and then blend

chunking

analogy

find words within words