Chapter 11: Shared and Guided Reading

Shared reading is an integral part of any curriculum especially for young children such as those who are unable or struggling to read. Shared reading can create fluency amongst these students and help the fluency of already proficient readers. Shared readings can also create a deep love for reading. Shared reading is appropriate for all age groups assuming that the reason you are sharing the text is to study and learn from a text as a class. It also has two main reasons that it has become important within the teaching field and those are that it gives young children an enjoyable literacy experience so that as they grow they come to have a deeper appreciation for reading. Secondly, shared reading lesson plans show students how print functions and aids in their abilities to become self-starting readers and writers. Shared readings also build on the student’s earlier reading experiences especially ones before bed-time. Sadly not all students have this experience due to their situation in life or that of their parents. Sometimes sadly it is because their parents themselves are unable to read or don’t have the time for them. It is up to teachers at this juncture to make sure that while in their hands these children have good reading experiences.

There are a few critical elements of shared reading and those are establishing a comfortable environment, selecting a variety of enlarged, predictable books, ensuring all children have opportunities to reread favorite books, and focusing on the features and reading strategies. Establishing a comfortable environment for reading books is integral because it creates a comfort in reading itself. Environment very much affects the way that students learn and experience reading. Selecting a variety of books that are also in some cases predictable ensures that a majority of your students will participate while reading to them and this will increase their knowledge. Teacher must also be careful in their choices because not all books with great illustrations and large text are appropriate for young children and do not guarantee that they will be well written either. Making sure that all children have a chance to reread their favorite books ensures that they enjoy reading by making what they love available to them. Focusing on features and reading strategies within in a text will prepare these young minds for higher level thinking activities. Also this will prepare them better for middle school and beyond when they begin to analyze texts using higher level thinking.

Guided reading is also discussed in Chapter 11 as another way of teaching the ability to read to young students as well as making them think on a higher level. Guided reading the practice necessary for students to become proficient in using and understanding the text that they have read or are currently reading within the classroom. Guided reading is done in groups with children of the same or similar reading ability to maintain comfort and ease frustration of students who cannot read as well as some of their counterparts. The teacher provides guidance and scaffolds for the group until they strengthen their reading abilities sufficiently to have very little if any support from the teacher. The teacher during this time period makes sure that the students have an understanding of what they covered earlier within the lesson and then provides new ways to look at information. The ultimate goal of this is to have the students reach a point where they can read and write independently with very little assistance from the teacher.

Selecting texts for reading groups in important because they must be at the level of the students but also provide them with some challenges so that they are able to intellectually grow. In order to make informed decisions on these texts the teacher must take the following into consideration: text length, illustrations, size and layout of print, content, text structure and genre, language structure, predictability, vocabulary, and relation to the curriculum.

While teaching it is key that we employ both of these styles of teaching to ensure that our students receive the best reading experience from us as well as preparing them for the future.