Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Be a Guided Reading Master!

Hi everyone! We've officially been on break for a week, and it. Is. Glorious. I've had the opportunity to spend tons of time with my own kiddos at the Field Museum and the zoo, READ for myself (currently The Goldfinch... I'm liking it, but I quickly realized why it was taking FOREVER to move along on my Kindle... The book is nearly 800 pages!), and to fall asleep while putting my kids to sleep - and not feel guilty.

One thing I do want to make a concerted effort to do is to prep for next year way in advance so my to do list at the end of August isn't a mile long. Well, it probably will be anyways, but I'll make a dent while I'm much less stressed!

Anyways, one thing that was on my to do list ALL YEAR that is DONE is my leveled guided reading lesson plans!

Guided reading is hands-down my favorite part of the day. FAVORITE. It's such a great way to really interact with each student, to help them in a very specific way, and to see results from all our hard work.

One thing that kinda revolutionized my prep for guided reading was preparing lessons for each book, rather than for the group of students. It sounds kind of odd. We teach students, not the book, right? But in my personal and school library of guided reading books, I can think of very specific skills that align perfectly with certain books. For example, when my beginning of the year firsties need to work on predictions supported with information from the text, I pull out "Where's the Baby?" (in the AlphaKids series by Sundance... The best guided reading book ever. And it's a level D people!) When I know the book well, and have planned for that book well, I'm better at making quick instructional decisions with the students in front of me.

I feel like, especially as my students reach more challenging reading levels, I'm not always sure what skills are level-appropriate for my students. I want to make sure I'm using challenging teaching and questioning skills to really build up my students' abilities as readers and thinkers.

So, that's where these lesson plans come into play.


I've broken down skills in the following areas for each guided reading level from A through M:
  • Word work - I do this right before the lesson, and link it to words they'll find in the text
  • Vocab preview
  • Before reading - Activating prior knowledge, noticing text features, etc.
  • During reading - These are especially focused on accuracy, fluency, and self-monitoring for comprehension
  • After reading - With questions/skills that are more literal as well as higher-level
For an early kindergartener...



And for an early second grader...




Just add guided reading books and you'll be ready to go!

This pack can be found {HERE}, but I'll also give away a free copy to the first person to comment with their email address.

Have a great day!

10 comments:

  1. Your packet looks amazing! Almost makes me look forward to starting school!
    kcahcrim@comcast.net

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  2. Love this! What a fantastic idea... it would be so helpful to have lesson plans already made for the books I have. Going on the wish list NOW! :)

    Kelly
    First Grade Fairytales

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  3. Looks great!!! I would love to have this!
    elisabethdelk80@gmail.com

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  4. You are so organized with your lesson plans! I love these! They would be very helpful in my classroom next year! katienussbaum87@gmail.com

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  5. I was not the first but I am going to go and check it out anyway!!!

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  6. I just started teaching and I would love to have this, unfortunately I was nowhere near first. I'll get it sooner or later. But i will leave my email address if you want to share anything else :0)
    teachertaz1@gmail.com

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  7. I would love to use this packet with my students in teach in the middle east. dkota23@yahoo.com

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  8. Katy2100@gmail.com
    This looks amazing!!!!

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  9. toddc@sedalia200.org
    I was wanting to get a copy of the early second grader paper! Thank you for the tips!

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  10. Looks great! Do you have a bundle for the higher reading levels such as N-Z? I would like to buy both if you have?
    melaustin@shaw.ca

    ReplyDelete

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