Teachers use group guided reading to teach their children to become good readers. Group guided reading is a teaching technique that involves a teacher working with a group of children who read at similar levels. Teaching reading could be the most essential skill for a learner to attain. The ability to comprehend, infer and analyse the written word empowers learners to make informed decisions and unlock new opportunities.

ORGANISING YOUR READING AREA

  • In a large class with available space, set up an area with a large carpet or sitting cushions. Learners can sit in a semicircle and the teacher sits on the same level.
  • In smaller classes, they can sit in groups at their tables. The teacher provides occupational work for the other groups whilst reading with the selected group.

PREPARING FOR GROUP GUIDED READING

Be aware of important elements of Group Guided Reading:

  • Time management
  • Preparation of written activities for groups
  • Classroom management during GGR
  • Giving instructions to learners
  • Group leaders/monitors

FIVE COMPONENTS OF TEACHING READING

  • Phonemic awareness
  • Sight words and phonics
  • Comprehension
  • Vocabulary
  • Fluency

WHERE TO START

Assess learners to place them in (2 or 3) ability groups.

  • Select a text on their instructional reading level.
  • Learners should read with ease and decode 90%–95% in a minute.
  • Use a rubric and record the results.
  • Re-group as learners progress.
  • Try and keep the groups to 8–10 learners (depending on the class size).
  • Teach learners that the first letter of the first word of each sentence gets capitalised.
  • Explain to your learners that different punctuation marks mean different things.
  • Teach the class what commas, question marks and exclamation marks mean.
  • Explain to your class that books are written with spaces between the words so readers can recognise each word.

STEPS FOR A GROUP GUIDED READING LESSON

  • Selection of an appropriate text
  • Introduction of text; talk about the topic for 2–3 min
  • Picture talk or browsing – introduce new words
  • First reading – learners read; teacher prompts and praises learners
  • Discussion – include phonics, grammar and comprehension
  • Second and subsequent reading – re-read; vary the manner; provide an opportunity for vocabulary comprehension
  • Prediction – read a sentence from the book out loud.
  • Tell the group, “I think will happen next because of what I just read and because of the picture on the page.” You are now inferring what may happen.

THE GROUP LESSON

  • Build decoding skills
  • Practice reading sight words and high-frequency words aloud (word attack skills)
  • Improve reading fluency
  • Build confidence
  • Record progress of learners
  • Move around and sit with each learner, giving small “reminder” clues to any
  • learners who are having trouble reading their texts.
  • Ask the learner to read the text to you. If they get stuck, say, “Does that make sense? Try that sentence one more time. Look at the beginning of the word and sound it out.”