Hameray Classroom Literacy Blog

Guided Reading: Building Strategies Through Scaffolding
This is a guest post by Kathy Crane, one of our regular guest bloggers. If you like what you see here, check back frequently for more posts from her and  click here to read her blog .

After building the background and preparing the students to read, it is time to introduce the book. It is most  advantageous to take a “Picture Walk.” The   picture walk   is a time for students to discuss pictures, make predictions, front-load vocabulary, and fill conceptual gaps. 

To begin the picture walk, the teacher holds one copy for students to view. 
As she turns the pages one-by-one, she asks questions such as “What is this a picture of?” “What is happening in this picture?” “What clues about the story do you think this picture is giving us?” “What word(s) can you use to describe this picture?” “What picture do you think will be on the next page?”

During the picture walk the teacher should implant vocabulary that is found in the book . For example, if a page contains the word  brown , the teacher might say on that particular page, “Yes. It is a bear. He looks like a brown bear to me.” If the word  snout  is found on the page, the teacher might say, “I think the bear on this page has a huge snout!” “Do you know what a snout is?”

Following the picture walk, the teacher passes each student a copy of the guided reading book and invites students to point at each word as she reads the story
. During this reading, the teacher models good reading behaviors such as  tracking print phrasing inflection , etc. as students follow or read along.

Next, the group turns back to the cover and reads together as a group (choral reading).  During this time, the teacher guides, observes and supports the students. Following this reading, the students re-read independently as the teacher focuses on one student at a time. Next, the students should re-read the book at least one more time. One way to accomplish this is to have a basket of book-buddies (stuffed animal pets) available for the students to read the story to in the classroom library, at another table, or other location in the room, and then return back to the reading table when that task is completed. This will allow the teacher to keep one or two students at the table that may need additional scaffolding.

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Kathy Crane holds a M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction: Reading, is a published author of thirteen books, a freelance author and developer of teaching curriculum, has been a teacher of kindergarten for twenty-two years, and publishes the blog  Kindergarten Kiosk
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For more information on the the previous post about Introducing Guided Reading by Kathy Crane, click   here .

For additional information on the Zoozoo Animal World series that includes the book shown in this lesson, click  here  to visit our website, or click the image to the left below to download a series highlights sheet with key features. 
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