Guided Reading

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Guided Reading
By Taita

As with anything, they key to success is balance. No, when I started teaching 4 years ago I knew nothing of guided reading. Does it work, YES! You just can't meet the individual needs of students with whole group reading.
At the beginning of the week, I meet whole group and cover a story from the basal series. Tuesday through Friday I meet with my guided reading groups and assign the other groups work related to the basal story. I don't believe one could properly analyze a student's challenges in the whole group setting, especially if the student isn't functioning on the same level as the text you're

using for whole group. What about ESE, ESOL, and kids with specific needs. Guided reading provides an outlet to reach all readers needs. You also have to be flexible, I also work on reading skills needed in the content areas (SS and Science) during Guided Reading groups. to me, it just makes sense. I work in state with heavy testing mandates (Reading, Writing, math, and Science for my grade level) . Guided reading is not an easy task, but I've seen so much (more) growth within my students over the past 2 years than with any of the other methods around. Hope this helps ;0)