Teaching an Effective Guided Reading Lesson: Scaffold The Reading

Following the picture walk portion of a guided reading lesson, the teacher passes each student a copy of the guided reading book and invites students to point at each word as he/she reads the story. During this initial reading, the teacher models good reading behaviors such as tracking print, phrasing, inflection, etc. as students follow or read along.

Next, the group turns back to the cover and reads together as a group (choral reading). During this reading, the teacher guides, observes and supports the students. Following this reading, the students re-read independently as the teacher focuses on one student at a time. Next, the students should re-read the book at least one more time. One way to accomplish this is to have a basket of book-buddies (stuffed animal pets) available for the students to read the story to in the classroom library, at another table, or other location in the room, and then return back to the reading table when that task is completed. This will allow the teacher to keep one or two students at the table that may need additional scaffolding.

Check out these adorable space-themed guided readers. 

Contents Include

The Stars -- Level D
My Rocketship -- Level C
Space Explorer -- Level B
Rockets -- Level C
The Aliens -- Level B