guided reading

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2002 : April : 4

guided reading
By Julianne

The leveled books won't teach the skills. You have choose a book for a group based on what skills they currently need and teach the skill as part of your introduction to the text. A thorough testing of each child prior
to assigning them to groups helps ensure that you know what skills they need. Continued evaluation using running records, teacher observation and other methods makes sure each child is learning the skills. There are plenty of good books that can help you learn this stuff. The "Bible" for this process is called "Guided Reading : Good First Teaching for All Children" by Irene C. Fountas

and Gay Su Pinnell.

In practice guided reading using leveled books works much the same way as a basal series. You can even use the stories in your old basals as part of your leveled book sets. There are several differences, the most notable being that the groups you create are fluid. Children move up, down or sideways in the groups depending on the skills they currently need to learn. For instance, kids that need to learn about quotation marks might be grouped together for a while as they learn this piece of literacy. Other posters will undoubtedly give you good advice on how to make the transition, as well as how to pick books to buy for your classroom.