Creating a Generation of Readers, PYP Guided Reading Workshop

What is Guided Reading?

Guided Reading is an instructional approach to teach individual children to becoming proficient in reading and comprehension skills such as inference and deduction. It involves the teacher working with small groups set according to their ability. Although, the librarian and the Teacher assistants can teach the guided reading session, it remains principally the Homeroom teacher’s responsibility to plan and evaluate all the children’s reading. The small group model enables children to be taught in a way that is intended to be more focused on their specific needs, thus accelerating their progress in Literacy.

In the Primary Years Programme, the teaching of Guided Reading is supported by the Oxford Tree Reading scheme and the Collins Big Cat Reading series. However, this does not preclude teachers from planning Guided Reading sessions around their own choice of texts, such as in context with their currents Unit of Inquiry, provided the texts chosen are matched to the reading levels of the children. In addition, a best practice model for Guided Reading would be one in which teachers choose to focus upon texts that match the genre being followed in the Literacy Unit or the Programme of Inquiry.

Guided reading forms a key component in the implementation of Literacy at ARIS. Its significance is evident in other aspects of learning in Literacy, such as speaking and listening, comprehension, writing and other areas of reading such as shared reading and reading at home.