Useful articles
Useful Articles
Books for Guided Reading
Understanding the unique features of each guided reading books and how these can alternately support and challenge childeren's independent reading is crucial for matching books with children at their instructional level.
If a book is too difficult, it will frustrate children; too easy and they will be bored and unmotivated.
Supportive text:
- illustrations
- familiar topics
- familiar genre
- short sentences
- high-frequency vocabulary words
Challenging text:
- harder vocabulary
- fewer illustrations
- longer sentences
- new genres
- unfamiliar topics
The guided reading books in Rigby Literacy are written with features that are appropriate for emergent, early and fluency readers within each grade.
During your planning for guided reading, it is important that you know the features of the books that present possible supports and challenges for your children.
A helpful tip is to write these features on self-stick notes and place them inside the front cover of a copy of each little book. Then when you use the book in guided reading, you can add other supports and challenges that were discovered while children were reading.
The Rigby Literacy guided reading books also expose children to many kinds of narrative and informational books. This enables children to discover their reading preferences and learn how to approach books that are not their favorites.
Article adapted from Rigby Literacy Teacher's Guide (2000)