How to Do Guided Reading with Your Child

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By StacyP
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Guided Reading

Guided reading is a strategy that will increase comprehension skills in several ways. It improves your child’s information recall, thought processes while reading, and organizational skills for new information.

It doesn’t matter whether your child is a kindergartner or a senior in high school, guided reading is a strategy that works to improve comprehension skills. Another bonus is that this strategy works well with both narrative (fiction) and expository (non-fiction) text. Ready to increase your child’s comprehension skills with the guided reading strategy? It’s time for some fun with reading!

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

book
calm environment
a willing child

Step 1

Guided reading book

Choose an age-appropriate book to use for the guided reading strategy. If you need help, ask your child’s teacher for reading book suggestions. (Please do be respectful of the teacher’s schedule, if possible; calling first to set up an appointment about the guided reading strategy is a nice gesture.)
Step 2

Set aside 30 minutes or so to do the guided reading strategy with your child. Make sure the area where the guided reading will take place has minimal distractions. Excess noise and clutter can cause your child to lose focus on the guided reading strategy and lower his or her reading comprehension ability.
Step 3

Start the guiding reading strategy by introducing the book. Looking over the book’s front cover, discuss what is seen (i.e., title, author, illustrator, cover art). Let your child lead the discussion. Ask your child, “What do you think this story will be about?”
Step 4

Taking a “picture walk” is next in this guided reading strategy. A picture walk consists of open the book and discussing the pictures that accompany the text. This is where your child uses the pictures to get clues about the story. For instance, if there’s a picture showing a girl playing baseball and the book’s title is “Sara at Bat,” your child might guess that this girl is Sara. Your child might also make a personal connection with this picture if he or she also plays baseball. (Making connections is another great way to increase reading comprehension skills. See the Resources area for more information.)
Step 5

Read the story to your child. Move your finger along under the words as you read them. This helps your child make connections with your oral reading and the words on the page. This is especially helpful for a child to learn “sight words.” (Sight words are those words that don’t follow the usual grammar rules and are learned by memorization).
Step 6

At this point in the guided reading strategy, it’s time to read the story a second time. The difference is that now both you and your child read the story out loud. Your voice should be softer than your child’s voice. Your purpose for reading along with your child is to be a model reader for when they come across unfamiliar words in the story.
Step 7

Now, have your child read the story to you. Be patient and encouraging when your child gets stuck on an unfamiliar word. Allow time for your child to solve the vocabulary mystery. If your child gets frustrated, offer suggestions on how to figure out the word, such as: looking at a nearby picture for clues, sounding the word out, or figuring out what word would make sense in the sentence. Telling your child the word should be a last resort; save it for when your child has tried several strategies and is becoming frustrated.

Comments

pearlyvictoria said

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on 3/24/2009 These are instructions given to us as reading tutors and I can say that they work and the sessions are very pleasant, non-stressful for the student. Great article on guided reading!