Guided Reading Resources

One of my most favorite things in the world is teaching reading…I know, I am a nerd but it really gives me goosebumps! There are few things that touch my heart like a child learning to read and getting the opportunity to be an integral part of that process! I have had the AMAZING opportunity to attend several guided reading workshops, my favorite being based upon Jan Richardson’s The Next Steps in Guided Reading. She’s AMAZING! If you haven’t read her book, you should check it out! More to come on my obsession with Jan Richardson at a later date… but here is how I structure my daily guided reading groups for my first and second graders!

My Guided Reading Groups last approximately 20 minutes. I base the groups off Running Reading Records that we do in the classroom on a regular basis. My groups are flexible and fluid… they are constantly changing.

        *Sight Word Review (2 minutes)

        *Picture Walk and Vocabulary Preview (2-3 minutes)

        *Task at Hand- today we are going to be making connections  (2 minutes)

        *Students read quietly to themselves and teacher goes around the table listening to each child read, students use sticky notes to respond to questions (10-12 minutes)

        *Word Work  (2-3 minutes)

Prepping for guided reading can be a daunting process, when you think about planning each of these steps for four different groups EVERY DAY! I also strive to find HIGH INTEREST texts for my students... in order to do this I decided to create Nonfiction Animals Reading Comprehension Passages, that were leveled Guided Reading Level C-J (Fountas & Pinnell).                                                                     

Each passage has a set of questions that stimulate higher level thinking, require students to search for text based evidence and other skills the common core addresses. Sight words and word work patterns are also readily available in each passage to pull and use! The kids LOVE the passages and learning about different animals. I am able to print out multiple copies of each passage and it saves me the time of seeking out multiple copies of books for each of my groups. Note: I do not recommend ALWAYS using passages for guided reading, authentic learning from books is ABSOLUTELY necessary but once and a while, I think it’s good to mix things up!

If this sounds appealing to you… feel free to check out this freebie Nonfiction Animals Reading Comprehension Passages for Guided Reading Level J. I hope this resource can be a useful tool for you in your classrooms! Thanks for stopping by!