Hameray Classroom Literacy Blog

Guided Reading As a Bridge Between Shared and Independent Reading—with FREE Download!

This is a guest post by Kathy Crane, who will be contributing a series of posts over the next few months. If you like what you see here, check back frequently for more posts from here and  click here to read her blog,   Kindergarten Kiosk .

Guided reading is the bridge between shared reading and independent reading.   It is an instructional strategy that helps students become better readers. It can be used in many different grades, but it is most common in kindergarten, first, and second.

Guided reading provides the opportunity to apply reading strategies in a supportive environment.   With the teacher’s guidance, students can better use new skills such as recognizing sight words, decoding words, using context clues, looking at word structure, and deciding if a word or sentence makes sense. During these times guided of reading, the teacher is able to scaffold students to a higher level of performance in a risk-free setting.

Among the books that I love to read with my students at the guided reading table are any of the Hairy Bear  books from   the Joy Cowley Collection .   At this time of the year in kindergarten, I am very concerned that students learn to track print. It is my utmost objective during each lesson. I call this strategy “point at the word your voice is saying.”

After reading the “real” books, I like to use
 “paper” books to provide a take-home hands-on opportunity with text.   The book “The Family” is a great example of a paper book that awards opportunity to provide strategic practice with text. To make this book, download the strategic practice packet at the bottom of this page, then simply copy pages 1/2 and 3/4 on the back of each other, cut in half, and collate. Copy page 8 and cut in half to make the last page of the book and a blank outside cover.

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For more information about Joy Cowley's books,  click here to visit our website  or click the image below to download an information sheet with series highlights. Click the image to the right to download the strategic practice packet with "The Family."