MADISON METROPOliTAN SCHOOl DISTRICT - School Information ...

10. The students engaging in discussions about
vocabulary and the use of language in the text.
11. The students using the text to learn print concepts
and decoding skills.
GUIDED READING: SMALL GROUP INSTRUCTION WITH INSTRUCTIONAL LEVELED TEXT
Guided reading is a strategy designed to meet the instructional needs of all the students by providing
scaffolding through small group instruction. The groups are fluid and allow students reading at
approximately the same level to receive instruction appropriate to their needs. The students have
individual copies of text at their instructional level and independently read (soft or silently, no round
robin) as the teacher observes, coaches, prompts, and assesses their processing system. This allows
students to practice effective reading strategies on texts at their instructional level with guidance of
their teacher. As the children read supportive texts with a minimum of new challenges, the teacher
observes their processing behavior and adjusts her degree of support to accommodate their problemsolving
actions.
The goal is to build each student's ability to process increasingly challenging texts with fluency and
understanding. Guided reading enables children to practice strategies with the teacher's support and
leads to independent silent reading.
The observer will see:
1. The teacher assessing literacy performance in a
variety of ways over time, including running records
of 'seen' and 'unseen' texts 1
anecdotal notes, and
checklist observations of students' performance.
2. A sufficient quantity of different levels of texts that
match students' independent and instructional
reading levels.
3. Teacher working with small groups of students while
the rest of the class is working independently.
Proficiency Levels
Meeting Approaching Below
INDEPENDENT READING
Independent reading is an instructional practice where students have daily opportunities to sustain their
attention when reading 'just right' texts. The goal of independent reading is to provide a context within
which students can see themselves as readers and build habits that can last a lifetime. Daily
independent reading is the instructional setting for students to read many kinds of text fluently, and
with understanding. Choice is an essential characteristic of independent reading. (Fountas & Pinnell,
2006). However, a strong instructional framework to support students to learn how to sustain their
attention while reading 'easy' text is critical in order to teach for independence (Darn & Soffos, 2006).
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