The Role of Guided Reading on the Literacy Development of Young Children

Abstract

Guided reading is an opportunity for students to receive more individualized reading instruction from educators in a small group setting. Instruction is tailored to fit the needs and abilities of each student by creating a variety of small reading groups which focus on different skills and needs of that particular group. The goal of this project was to better understand the process that takes place during guided reading instruction and the impact that it has on the literacy development of young children. The project explored how a guided reading lesson was designed at the Kindergarten level. The project examined the activities that took place in a lesson as they relate to balanced literacy, how differentiated instruction was incorporated into each group, and how students demonstrated proficiency of skills and strategies taught. The study took place in a general education Kindergarten classroom with four students as well as a K-Lab reading intervention setting with two students. Students were chosen based on reading ability and recommendations made by the classroom and reading teachers. Over the course of five weeks, I taught guided reading lessons two days a week for twenty five minutes in each setting. Data were collected in the form of observational field notes, anecdotal records and running reading records. Overall findings reveal that there was a strong focus on word solving strategies, phonics skills, monitoring and self correcting, and comprehension skills in a guided reading lesson. In addition, differentiation in group size, text complexity and focus skills allowed for adequate progress to be made in reading, writing and comprehension among students.