Building reading skills together, with the help of a teacher and friends. (Guided Reading)

Dear Diary,

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/340092209332244721/

 According to Mary Kreul, guided reading is a reading component in which "The teacher helps students learn to use reading strategies, such as context clues, letter and sound knowledge, and syntax or word structure, as they read a text or book that is unfamiliar to them" (Scholastic.com). Guided reading is a reading strategy that encourages students to become independent, fluent, and adept readers.
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/guided-reading-primary-classroom

 One of my greatest concerns as a future teacher is time. How will I find enough time to meet the needs of all my students? Guided reading is a wonderful way for teachers to meet the needs of each student since they are placed in groups where all students are generally reading at the same level. Thus, guided reading allows for teachers to be more efficient with their time.  

 One of the biggest challenges of guided reading is choosing the appropriate reading material.
The books that I select for guided reading groups should accomplish the following:
1. Match the students' knowledge.
2. Help the students take the next step in learning to read.
3. The books should be interesting to the students.
4. The books should offer enough challenge to support problem solving while still supporting fluency and meaning.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/guidedreading/pdfs/whatis.pdf

 Scholastic.com provides a wonderful search engine, Book Wizard, which allows teachers and parents to search any book. After the initial search, Book Wizard provides interest level, reading level, genre, theme/subject, and quizes of the searched book. This search engine is a wonderful way to assist in deciding which books you might use in guided reading groups.
http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/340092209332266880/

 A question to think about:
1. Do you think it is beneficial for students to work in groups, individually, or both?

'Readingly' yours,
Juliet