Guided Reading for Beginning Readers: Book of the Week GIVEAWAY

Book of the Week GIVEAWAY: Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

Why we love this book:

The sun is shining and it is warming-up quickly in the Texas Hill Country. That means it’s time to get outside and start digging in the garden! Planting a Rainbow is one of our favorite gardening books for children. Of course we love Lois Ehlert’s bold, colorful illustrations. Who wouldn’t be inspired to plant a rainbow!

With our continued focus on The Components of a Balanced Reading Program we equally appreciate Ehlert’s simple, sequential story that teaches readers how to plant a rainbow in their gardens. This book is appropriate for Read Alouds and also Guided Reading for beginning readers. The extra large print on the pages makes this book easy to read.

Guided Reading for Beginning Readers

FREE printable guide reading book: I Like the Wildflowers

Song Adaptation of I Love the Mountains

Step 1: Book Selection

• Carefully select a book that offers a few challenges for the child without breaking down the meaning of the story.
• For beginning readers a book that follows a simple, repetitive pattern is most appropriate.
• We have many FREE printable Guided Books available to you here at waddleeahchaa.com.

Step 2: Book Introduction

• Introduce the basic storyline of the book, “The title of this story is I Like the Wildflowers. It is a story about the different colors of the wildflowers.”
• For emergent readers look through the pages of the book with the child talking about each page.
• For emergent readers introduce the pattern on each page, “I like the red flowers.”
• I know what you are thinking, “What the heck are you doing telling them all of the words in the book!”
• For the beginning reader, you are simply introducing the pattern of the book.
• Miss Enigma, age 5, is not yet reading. Even if I model the pattern for her, she does not necessarily memorize it immediately. As she reads I have her point one to one, matching-up her reading to the text.
• Have the child locate one or two known words, “You know the word like. Can you find the word like for me?”
• Have the child locate a new word, “What letter would you see at the beginning of the word flower? Can you find the word flower for me?”
• Introduce any new tricky vocabulary, “Boom-de-ah-da are the words from a song. Here point to them while I read them.”
• There is no reason for children to stumble over silly or tricky vocabulary.

Step 3: Child Reads the Book

• The child reads the book pointing one to one.
• It is perfectly fine for the child to scan the pictures gathering meaning from the page. As the child progresses in his reading skills he will naturally stop relying on the pictures for clues.

Guided Reading Prompts when the Child Gets Stuck

*When I began teaching reading I printed this list of prompts and kept it by my side as the students read. It helped me prompt them when they were struggling with their reading. (FREE printable at the end of this list.)

From the least to the most help:

1. Are you right? (Ask this sometimes even when the student is correct, teaching the student to cross-check their own reading.)
2. Try that again.
3. I like the way you  ______________, but there was a tricky part, or something not quite right. Can you find it? Try that again.
4. Try that again and think about what makes sense in your story.
5. Try that again and make it: *look right. * sound right. *make sense.
6. Do yo know another word like the tricky word. A word that might help you?
7. Try that again and get your mouth ready for the tricky word.
8. Try that again and I’ll help you start the tricky word.
9. You said ______________. Does that :  *look right? sound right? *make sense? match? (one to one pointing)
10. Could it be _______________ or ______________? (Give the student a correct and an incorrect choice to cross check and select from.)
11. Could it be _______________? (Tell the child the correct word.)

• You check if it looks right.
• You go back and read to check if it sounds right.
• Did You check if it makes sense?

Print this FREE: Guided Reading Prompts

Life with Jeannine

We’re GIVING AWAY one big board book copy of  Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert.

To enter this contest, just answer the following question in the comments section of this post.

Do you garden? What are you planting this spring? (Or just say “Hey.” We’re flexible around here.)

The Rules:

One entry per person, please.

No entries after 8:00 pm Central Time, Thursday, March 8, 2012

The winner must be a resident of The United States.

The winner will be selected at random and announced Friday, March 9, 2012. Check back to claim your prize. It might be you!

Reading Resources:

• Components of a Balanced Reading Program
• Why Read Alouds are a Key Component to a Balanced Reading Program
• Reading Aloud to Older Children
• FREE printable guided reading books
• Reading a to z

Gardening with waddleeahchaa.com:

• Square Foot Gardening with Children
• How to Plant and Grow Seeds: FREE printable Following Directions Guide for Children
• Container Gardening with Children: Square Foot Garden Style
• In My Grandpa’s Garden: FREE printable Song Adaptation
• We Went to the Farmers’ Market: FREE printable book
• Growing Vegetable Soup

Sharing this week at:

ABC and 123 learning

Hip Homeschool Moms

Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns