A GUIDED READING LESSON PLAN

A Guided Reading Lesson Plan

Guided reading refers to an instructional method where the educator divides the class into
small groups depending on reading levels and abilities; each group comprises of learners who
demonstrate the same level reading proficiencies and can read texts that are of the same level.
The educator selects a text that is easy enough for all the students in a particular group to read
with scaffolding or customized support. Most importantly, the selected text provides
opportunities and challenges to students that enable them to solve problems but is still easy
enough for them to read with a certain level of fluency (Rasinski & Padak, 2013). An educator
selects a text that is appropriate for students’ level and helps them expand their strategies. For
this assignment, the anchor standard that I chose is C CSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.1 : Ask and answer
questions to demonstrate an understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis
for the answers (College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading, 2020). I will be
preparing a guided reading lesson for students in the third grade. My selected text is Bony-Legs
by Cole, J.
Guided reading is essential as it gives learners the opportunity to acquire and develop
techniques that they are already aware of in reading a new text. The role of the teacher is to
provide the necessary support as they help the students master independent reading (Morris,
2019). for my guided reading lesson, I will have four guided reading groups of students. These
will be; below grade-level reading expectations, at grade level reading expectations, above-
grade-level reading expectations, or far above grade-level reading expectations. I will give
different groups names of cities because this naming method will not appear to divide students. I
will refrain from using alphabets because students in Group D might feel that those in Group A
are better, and this could make them feel inferior. The template below gives an outline of my

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guided reading lesson plan specifically for students in the “below grade-level reading
expectations” group as I will be working with only one group at a time.
A Guided Lesson Plan for Third Grade Students

Your Example

Group Level: Below Grade Level Reading Expectations.

Text: Bony Legs by Cole, Joanna. And the pictures are by Dirk Zimmer.

Text Description:

Bony legs by Joanna Cole is about a small girl named Sasha and an old
woman who has bony legs. Sasha goes to the old woman’s house to
borrow a needle and thread. However, the old woman appears to have
other plans for Sasha. The terrible old witch wants to eat Sasha for super.
During Sasha’s stay at the witch’s house, she interacts with her dog and
cat. The animals give her a mirror and a comb. When Sasha realizes that
her life could be in danger, she uses the mirror and comb given to her by
the animals to escape.

The selected text supports the anchor standard, which states, “Ask and
answer questions to demonstrate an understanding of a text, referring
explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.” Students will be guided
on reading the text until they understand and are in a position to respond
 

Some of the words
used in the text
include; witch, bony
legs, mirror, and
comb. These words
are appropriate for
learners in third
grade; most of them
can pronounce the
comfortably, and
those with difficulties
can be assisted
through support from
the teacher.

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to questions related to the text. The selected text supports purposeful
reading. First, it is suitable for students in third grade. The vocabulary
used and wording is challenging enough and allow students to be in a
position to read fluently with skillful guidance from the teacher.

Objectives:

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

(a). Answer questions about Bony Legs and refer to the text for answers

(b). Apply context to self-correct

During this guided reading lesson:

I want readers to engage in active reading and learn to gain control of the
reading process. I want them to learn how to decode a text and construct
meaning. Thus, the focus will be on context clues. Students will learn how
to use context clues to decode meaning and understand the text.

I also want students to practice reading without pointing. I am dealing
with students whose reading level is below third-grade expectations.
These have certain challenges with fluency, and some can only read while
pointing. I want to help them master reading fluency without pointing at
the words that they will be reading. Lastly, I want students to use word
 

Some of the questions
that will help in the
achievement of the
identified objectives
include:

Does Sasha look
scared from the
pictures on the cover
of the book? Why or
why not.

What do you think
the book is about?

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cues to deconstruct the text.

Phonics Skills and/or Word Study:

I will guide students on how to use magnetic letters and boards to practice
the sight words identified when reading the text. Learners will form words
that were used in the story using magnetic letters and sticking the, on the
board. I will provide them with a list of sight words, and instruct them to
create the words by correctly sticking the magnetic letters on the board.
The list will contain five words, and students will have three minutes to
form the words on the board. The activity will be aimed at enhancing their
phonemic awareness.

 Students will be
identifying words
such as mirror, witch,
comb, needle, thread,
borrow, and afraid.

Pre-Reading:

I will look at the cover of the page, and introduce the book to the learners.
I will ask them to read the title of the book as well as the author. I will
then ask them to say what the book will be about. Predicting is a great
way of activating background knowledge (Donnelly, 2019). Students use
the title of the page, and pictures to say what they think the author is
talking about in the story. I will use the cover of the page and pictures on
it to guide the learners into connecting the pictures with their real
experiences and other books read in the past.

some of the responses
that students might
give include;

The book is about a
person with bony
legs.

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I will conduct a picture walk during which I will guide the students
through the text. I will give them an opportunity to discuss what they can
see in the pictures. Some of the things evident from the cover page include
a scary old woman and a young girl. I will ask students to explain how
they know that the woman is old and what shows that girl is young. I will
also ask them to give reasons why the woman is scary.

I will ask the students to make predictions of how the story will end. I
will then tell them that we will know whether their responses were correct
during reading. We will then start reading the text from the first page.

The old woman looks
scary because she has
a very big and sharp
nose.

The old woman will
arm the young girl.

New Vocabulary:

I will introduce key vocabulary before we start reading so that students do
not get discouraged by unknown words as they read the text.

Vocabulary List

 Stamped
 Witch
 Rowed
 Grinned (Cole, 1983).

I will then prepare a set of sentences – one for each of the words above.
The sentences will be as follows

I will give examples
of how to give
meanings of the new
words based on the
sentences given. For
instance, I will tell
the students that she
was shaking off the
snow on her boots by
hitting her legs
against the ground.
Students will then

A GUIDED READING LESSON PLAN 7

1. She (stamped) the snow from her boots.
2. One bad (witch) stole him and hid him from his friends.
3. The boat was (rowed) up to the shore.
4. He (grinned) pretending all the books belonged to him.

I will then read the sentences to the students, each at a time, without
mentioning the words in the brackets. I will ask students to make
informed guesses of words they think might fit in the sentences. Then, I
will introduce new words and ask them to predict what their meanings
could be. I will then tell the learners to use the words to fill in the gaps in
the sentences that I had earlier introduced to them. I will then guide
students in discussing the new words using context clues. The students
will then add new words to their vocabulary journals.

give their examples.

During Reading:

I will model reading the text first as students follow along using their
pointers. As I read, I will ask students questions to keep them engaged and
enhance their understanding of the text. I will ask them to give words
similar to some words in the text. For instance, after coming across the
words, borrow, tub, mewing, and rubbed. I will ask students to name other
words similar to these and demonstrate how they are used.

I will then allow the students to read at their own pace. They will be using
 

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whisper phones so that they can listen to themselves as they read. I will
then circulate through the group and listen to each one of them as they
read. I will ask students who will be silent reading to whisper read when it
is their turn so that I can hear how they are reading. Although all of them
will be in one group, they will require different strategies and types of
support. For instance, there are those who might require supporting
reading first letter cues, and there are those who will need support in
comprehension. As I go around the group, I will provide customized
support depending on the individual needs of each learner. Depending on
my observations, I will make notes on areas that each student needs help
and refer to them in future lessons so that I can monitor the progress being
made by each student.

Also, I will have students practice reading by listening to themselves
reading using the whisper phones as I work with other students in the
groups. This will help in class management and ensuring that all students
remain active during the entire lesson.

As I listen to
students read, I will
ask them questions
like,

Which parts are
confusing?

What does this word
mean here?

Also, I will guide
them on how
punctuation changes
how a sentence or
word is read.

After Reading:

I will ask the following questions to assess the learners’ understanding:

i. Who do you think is the main character?
ii. Give three words that describe the main character. Why did you
 

I will use words like
brave, smart, kind,
and young to describe

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choose these words?
iii. What clues in the picture show how the story ends?
iv. Point to a clue in the picture that helps you understand where the
story is taking place.
v. Name the occurrences of this story in the order in which they take
place.
vi. What is the most memorable lesson you have learned from this
story? Give examples from the story.
vii. What do you think the author wanted you to know from the story?

I will engage the students in responding t the above questions. I will insist
that each response must be supported with evidence from the text. The
aim will be to ensure that students have understood the text, and they can
be able to engage in purposeful reading where they read to understand
(Lipp & Helfrich, 2016).

the main character in
the story. These
examples will give
students an idea of
the traits possessed
by the main character.

Writing Connection:

Although I will be doing a guided reading lesson, I will incorporate a
writing component in it. I will do this by having students engage in
different writing activities;

I will have students write down the following sight words; row, glint,
 

examples of
sentences that
students will write
include;

1. She was

A GUIDED READING LESSON PLAN 10
scary, wood, and hinges.

We will then practice these words. And I will dictate to them sentences
that contain the above sight words. They will be writing the sentences in
their notebooks. After they have written them down, I will write the
sentences on the whiteboard and ask students to confirm whether they got
the correct spelling of all the words. In case they failed to get it right, I
will instruct them to rewrite the sentences again, this time ensuring that
they get the correct spellings of all the words.

hiding in the
woods.

2. The gate had
   rusted hinges.
3. Her big and
   sharp nose
   makes her
   scary.
4. Do you know
   how to row a
   boat?

Conclusion
Overall, preparation for guided reading starts by selecting an appropriate text for the
students. The aim is to select a text that is not too hard for the students, but also one that is
slightly above their reading level. Since it is guided reading, students should need the help of the
teacher. The teacher then prepares sight words, a list of vocabularies, dictation sentences, and
examples to aid in comprehension. Guided reading then takes place in three stages, as can be
seen in the lesson plan above. There is the pre-reading stage, during the reading stage, and lastly,
the after reading stage. Each stage is important in enhancing learners’ text comprehension. There
are specific activities at each of these stages that help the teacher provide the necessary guidance
for learners to master the anchor standard being taught. The complexity of the activities depends

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on the grade and the group level that the teacher is handling at any given time. Evidently, guided
reading is vital when teaching reading.

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References

Cole, J. (1983). Bony-legs. Four Winds Press.
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading. (2020). English Language Arts
Standards » Reading: Informational Text » Grade 3 | Common Core State Standards
Initiative. Retrieved 8 April 2020, from http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-
Literacy/RI/3/
Donnelly, P. (2019). A new guide for guided reading: More guided, more reading. Practical
Literacy: The Early and Primary Years, 24(1), 9.
Lipp, J. R., & Helfrich, S. R. (2016). Key reading recovery strategies to support classroom
guided reading instruction. The Reading Teacher, 69(6), 639-646.
Morris, J. (2019). The Effectiveness of Guided Reading Instruction and Students Reading
Comprehension.
Rasinski, T. & Padak, N.D. (2013). From phonics to fluency: Effective teaching of decoding and
reading fluency in the elementary school. NJ: Pearson.