Our school district encourages the use of varied approaches for reading instruction. In addition to whole group instruction with our reading series, Harcourt Trophies, I also teach Guided Reading Groups, based on the philosophies of Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinell.



The following reading strategies are the basis of Guided Reading. Parents and teachers may utilize them when reading with children.

	Tell the child to look at the picture. You may tell the child the word is something that can be seen in the picture, if that is the case.
	Tell the child to look for chunks in the word, such as it in sit, at in mat, or and and ing in standing.
	Ask the child to get his/her mouth ready to say the word by shaping the mouth for the beginning letter.
	Ask the child if the word looks like another word s/he knows. Does bed look like red?, for example.
	Ask the child to go on and read to the end of the sentence. Often by reading the other words in context, the child can figure out the unknown word.
	If the child says the wrong word while reading, ask questions like: Does it make sense? Does it sound right? Does it look right?

I have created two documents which may assist parents, teachers, and students in implementing these strategies while reading. They both review the guided reading strategies. One is in list format and one is in the shape of a star. Adobe Acrobat Reader (a free download) is required in order to view and print these documents.

List
I send this list home for parents to use as a reference when reading with their child.

Star
I photocopy this on yellow paper, cut out, and laminate. Each student in my class keeps one in their desk for reference, and I use it during our Guided Reading groups.

While I instruct a small group of students, the rest of the class participates in literacy centers. These centers are also commonly referred to as learning centers or stations. The three rules for the literacy centers are: