Diamond Mom's Treasury
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Blog
  • Contact Me
  • Featured Resources Of The Month

Welcome To My Blog

header for Diamond Mom's Treasury of Teaching Resources

How To Create Guided Reading Groups That Improve Student Success In Reading

1/22/2023

0 Comments

 
Guided reading is a great way to meet the needs of your students and develop a love for reading, or at least less of a distaste for it. The other good thing about this is it can work in other languages too. 
If you are teaching FSL, or even French Immersion, you can still use guided reading effectively. It may take some adjusting for the language skills that the kids have, but with some creativity and activities that can be done independently, it can be done. Organization and group management will be key for success.
​
Note: I will share more tips for how to make this work with French in a future post.
Guided reading creates student success and readers
When it comes to reading, there can be many different levels and abilities in a classroom. Guided reading allows for small group instruction that focuses on skills and materials that are suitable for the students in each group. It may seem difficult to imagine running several groups in one classroom, but it is possible and it does ensure that kids of similar needs can get the instruction that best suits them. Those needing a challenge or enrichment are also able to do more complex work and not feel like they are being ignored.
Guided reading allows for small group instruction
There are several different components that I include when doing guided reading groups. I feel it is important to include reading, responding to reading, listening, speaking, vocabulary and writing activities as well as followup games and activities to practice skills taught. By incorporating all of these elements through centers and rotations, it is possible to have several groups working at the same time.
Guided reading has many components

Getting started with guided reading

There are a few steps involved in creating and running guided reading groups. 
First, you need to decide on how many will be in each group and do some assessment of the kids. This will help you determine what their needs are, what level materials they need, what skills are missing or weak, what time commitment may be needed and what kinds of rotations may work.
​This may seem daunting, but it can be done. If you have extra support, that will help you determine how to create the groups.
Getting started with guided reading

Determining groups based on assessment 

Assessment is important if you want to provide your students with the best instruction, but it is difficult to do a formal assessment of all your students while teaching your lessons. I found informal assessments worked just as well. They give you a chance to connect individually with each child and they also seem to help the child relax. 

Use a selection of material from a variety of different levels and topics and try out some of them to see what would be a good fit to start with. I usually did this while others were doing some quiet seat work or silent reading. 

Once you finish an informal assessment on the kids, look for similar abilities and make your groups based on this. Sometimes you will have to group a couple of levels together to avoid too many groups, but always made sure that those requiring the most support have no more than 4 or 5 in them. If you have extra support in the classroom, you can adjust the sizes somewhat.

Note: In a second language situation, the groups may be slightly bigger if you are working on language acquisition and vocabulary skills, but it is still important to keep groups small for those who may be struggling.
Determine groups based on assessment

What to do when your groups are formed

Once you have formed some guided reading groups, it's important to figure out what time you have available and how you will create a rotation that will allow for the best use of the time. This may mean that not all groups get individual attention with you each day, but they will all have activities that will support their reading when they are not reading with you.

It's important that those needing the most support get direct instruction during your reading time. Others will get direct instruction on a rotating basis. The number of groups you create will help determine how your rotations work and this will help with organizing them.
What do you do when your groups are formed?
Once you have a plan for your rotations, it's important to make sure that your students understand how the different activities or centers work and what their responsibilities are. While one group is getting direct instruction, it's important that the other groups know what they are to do. This could be reading, responding to reading, language activities, centers, listening activities or other language related activities. This will need to be taught so that everyone understands and you are not putting out fires during your guided reading instruction.
Guided reading groups require planning and organization

Planning and preparing

Once you have your rotations organized, it's important to make sure that you have a plan for how the groups move from one activity to the next. Creating a flow chart or a schedule can help. Practicing the movement is also important.
Materials should be prepared ahead of time so that the flow isn't disrupted by searching for materials or equipment. 
Set up baskets with the materials for each guided reading group to ensure that you aren't hunting for things during the direct instruction. Gather up materials and equipment for each center or activity and have them in place before starting the rotations. This will help make your guided reading sessions flow smoothly and successfully.
How guided reading can help develop successful readers. Preparation is the key for success.
Check out my TPT store for some resources that may help. I have a guided reading category, sight word category, and literacy category with materials that can work for reading groups. I also have several French resources available.
Note: It is not always possible to have several groups happening at the same time. Sometimes you may need to have one or two activities that the others are working on while you work with one group. You need to do what works for you.

I hope these ideas help and that you give guided reading a try.
​Next time I will elaborate more about activities and centers that might work with the different groups.
For free resources, tips, and ideas, sign up for my newsletter. 
Sign up for my newsletter to stay up to date with tips, new products and special happenings
Talk soon. Thanks for stopping by. Charlene

Related Posts

setting up a guided reading program
guided reading tips and tricks
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Diamond Mom headshot and logo

    About Me Charlene Sequeira

    I am a wife, mother of 4, grandmother of 9, and a retired primary and music teacher. I love working with kids and continue to volunteer at school and teach ukulele.

    Diamond Mom's Treasury logo
    Teachers Pay Teachers banner and link
    newsletter signup for Diamond Mom's Treasury

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Acts Of Kindness
    Art Project
    Assessments
    Back To School
    Canadian
    Christmas
    Classroom
    Classroom Management
    Classroom Resources
    Diy
    Family
    Freebies
    French Language
    Literacy
    Math
    Music
    Online Learning
    Reading
    Remembrance Day
    Science
    SEL
    Self Esteem
    Social Studies
    Special Days
    Summer
    Task Cards
    Teaching Tips
    Technology
    Thanksgiving
    Tips
    Veterans Day
    Winter
    Writing

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    September 2019
    June 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Blog
  • Contact Me
  • Featured Resources Of The Month