Guided reading is a small group reading instruction approach where the teacher works with students who read similar levels. It helps students develop reading strategies, enjoyment of reading, and critical thinking. During guided reading, the teacher introduces a text, students read silently, and the group discusses what they read. The teacher monitors students and the session ends with a review. Guided reading sessions are short, usually 10-20 minutes, a few times per week depending on reading level. Students are grouped based on their reading competencies and needs. The teacher assesses students through observations, discussions, and running records to determine reading levels.

1. GUIDED
READING

2. GUIDED READING
What is guided reading?
What happens in guided
reading?
Monitoring and
assessment
Questions

3. “Guided reading is the heart of the
reading programme.. It gives a
teacher and a group of students the
opportunity to talk, read, and think
their way purposefully through a
particular text.”
The Learner as a Reader

4. GUIDED
READING:
Builds on strategies children already know
Encourages enjoyment of reading
Helps children develop critical awareness
Enables children to practice and reinforce
learning
Focused, explicit teaching: Making links
between what the reader already knows
and what they are learning.

5. WHAT HAPPENS
IN GUIDED
READING?:
The teacher and small group of children gather
around table so they can all see each other
while reading and discussing.
Teacher introduces text and talks about purpose
for session. Discussion establishing prior
knowledge.
Children read the book silently or quietly to
themselves. Ongoing discussion about what is
being read. (Teacher monitoring by listening and
observing).
Session ends with a review of learning,
reflecting on learning.

6. As students progress the guided reading
sessions will be longer. The challenges of
text will increase, discussion will be more
thorough.
“For beginning readers the focus is on
getting through the reading successfully.
As students become more fluent, more
time will be spent in discussion and
comparatively less in reading.”
Effective Literacy Practice

7. Your child will bring home texts of varying
levels and lengths depending on the
purpose of the lesson. A 15 minute
session may be focused on a one page
poem.
If you would like extra reading material
please feel free to take advantage of this
opportunity for you to visit the local
libraries to follow up on your child’s special
interests.

8. DURATION :
 Duration: 10 – 20 minutes depending
on:
 The purpose of the session
 The learning needs of children
 Length / nature of the text

9. FREQUENCY :
Frequency:
Beginning readers: 3- 5 times a week*
More fluent readers: 2 – 3 times a week
“It is not necessary – or desirable – to keep a rigid regime
of taking every group every day. Two or three well-
planned, targeted sessions a week are likely to more
effective than five less-focussed sessions.”
Guided Reading (Ministry of Education)

10. GROUPING:
Based on competencies and learning
needs of children.
Ideally about 3 – 6 children in a group and
about 5 groups per class.
Flexible: children progress at different
rates.
Not every group is seen every day
Based on Ready to Read Colour Wheel

11. COLOUR
WHEEL :

12. FOCUS ON PROGRESS
 As a parent it is important to focus
on the reading skills that your child is
developing, not the colour or number
on the back of the book. It moves
from reading for enjoyment and a
chance to practise reading skills to a
tool for comparing children.

13. READING AT HOME:
Pause, prompt and praise:
A child needs to develop a variety of reading
strategies to work out unknown words in texts.
While listening to your young child read, try to
encourage them to work out the word
independently. Informing your child of the word
straight away will not develop their reading skills.
Many children can not move to a new level as
their undeveloped reading strategies will not
support them at a new level

14. Praise your child for how they read.
Emphasise how smooth their voice is or
congratulate them on working out an
unknown word.
Ask questions while your child is reading
to check that they are understanding the
story line or facts of the text.

15. PROGRESS
Teachers need a child to be secure (very competent) at
a level before moving on. Being secure means that their
reading voice is smooth and fluent, they can read a
variety of texts at that level, have a variety of reading
strategies they use to work out unknown words
independently and they have great comprehension of the
text. Children need to be exposed to both fiction and non
fiction books at each level. Non fiction books tend to be
harder for children as the vocabulary is more
demanding. Lots of exposure to non fiction texts will help
your child increase their vocabulary.
As your child moves through the Colour Wheel
progressing up a colour becomes slower.

16. COMPREHENSION:
The most important part of reading is to be able
to understand what you have read. Many
children are able to work out unknown words
easily and pronounce all words correctly.
However, they are unable to answer questions
about what they have read. Moving up levels too
quickly may cause more harm than good.
Parents & teachers need to ask lots of questions
starting with “why” and “how” about the text.
Having a discussion about what has come up in
the text is invaluable for a student’s
comprehension.

17. MONITORING &
ASSESSING :
Observing and listening to reading
Discussions and questioning about
strategies for solving problems
Discussions and questioning to establish
understanding of text
Running Records

18. RUNNING RECORDS:
Teachers are constantly assessing reading
levels of each child in their class. We observe
how the child reads and write notes about that
child for the next reading session. We conduct
“running records” regularly to give the
appropriate levelled text. A running record is
when a child reads a text at a particular level
and the teacher records all the mistakes and self
corrections the child makes. Using a few
calculations, we will know whether the text is too
easy, correct or too hard for the child. We will
see what strategies the child is (and isn’t using)

19. QUESTIONS?