Literacy at Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1

c. Guided reading

Activity i

The aims for this session are for student teachers to:

• learn the sequence of a guided session,
• become aware of the possibilities of guided work,
• consider classroom organization.

We use the following resources:

• OHTs from the NLS on guided reading,
• copies of Burglar Bill (Ahlberg 1989),
• NLS. Early Literacy Support – Training materials.Video. Year 1 Session on Frog and Toad All Year.( Lobel 1977),
• Boys, R. (2003) ‘PGCE.Professional Workbook.Primary English.’ Exeter: Learning Matters.Ch. 5.pp 51 and 54.

Then we:

• ask student teachers for their experiences of guided reading in school;
• use overheads from the NLS, to show definitions of guided reading;
• go through the sequence for guided reading;

• read Frog and Toad All Year;
• watch a video of a guided reading session, noting the sequence of work;
• ask student teachers to read Burglar Bill in groups;
• ask student teachers to plan a guided reading session using Burglar Bill;
• ask them to make presentations of their planned sessions.

We ask student teachers to plan this Burglar Bill guided session based on reading up to the line before the discovery of the baby. This gives an opportunity for whole text issues to arise at the beginning of the book and for prediction. There are also opportunities for interesting word and sentence level work about the text’s departures from Standard English and the reasons for these.

The NLS video Guided Reading: Supporting transition from KS1 to KS2 can be a helpful addition to this work. The first section on Year 2, Jean Ure’s Puppy Present, which provides a demanding extended reading experience for children in accessible language, is explained and taught very clearly by the teacher.

If you are unable to get hold of any of the resources referred to above you can still ask student teachers about their experience of guided reading in school and get them to draw up a list of principles which they could apply in a workshop activity using Burglar Bill.

Connections to Standards and the National Curriculum

Standards 2 . More specifically 2.1.a & b.
National Curriculum En1, En 2.

Connections to Standards
Q 12, 14, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29.

See also 3e. Reading for pleasure.