Moving Up in Guided Reading Jan Richardson
Levels A-I – Behaviors, Strategies, and Skills
Students should use meaning and structure to predict and self -monitor at every level. Attention to visual information should increase and change over time as students develop visual analysis skills, and fluency should gradually improve as students develop automaticity with sight vocabulary and decoding skills. The following is a partial listing of common behaviors, strategies and skills for each level. It should not be used as a checklist for students but as a guide to help teachers plan appropriate word work activities. In addition to accuracy, consider independence, fluency, language proficiency, and comprehension when making acceleration decisions.
Level A – The focus is on attending to print, 1:1 matching, building a visual memory and hearing initial consonants.
Before they move to level B, students should be able to:
• Maintain 1:1 matching on 1 line of print.
• Use meaning (pictures) to predict, monitor and self-correct.
• Read about ten high frequency words in text (the, my, to, go, see, can, is, me, am, etc.).
• Hear and use initial consonant sounds.
• Orally generate rhyming strings (e.g. fat, hat, pat).
Word Work Activities:
• Practice and secure alphabetic knowledge.
• Build a visual memory by using magnetic letters to teach simple high-frequency words. Focus on words with two or three letters that are very common in the level A books
• Do sound sorts with consonants.
• Have students exchange initial letters during making words (go, so, no / cat, fat, mat, etc.). Don’t forget to teach them to say the word slowly and check it with their finger.
Level B – The focus is on 1:1 matching with 2 lines of print, increasing the bank of known words, hearing and using initial and final consonant sounds, cross-checking with meaning and first letter cues.
Before they move to level C students should be able to:
• Maintain 1:1 matching on 2 lines of print.
• Use meaning and known words to predict, monitor and self-correct.
• Read and write about 15-20 high frequency words.
• Segment and discriminate initial and final consonants in CVC words.
Word Work Activities:
• Use magnetic letters to expand sight word vocabulary. Add words with three and four letters that are common in level B books (here, said, come, look).
• Exchange final letters with magnetic letters (am, at, as; cat, cap, can, etc.).
• Use Elkonin boxes to help students write phonetic words with two phonemes (me, go, so, am, at).
Level C – The focus is on cross-checking the picture with initial letters, increasing sight vocabulary, segmenting and discriminating CVC sounds in sequence, and reading in short phrases.
Before they move to level C students should be able to:
• Use meaning, known words and initial consonants to predict, monitor and self-correct.
• Readand write about 30 high-frequency words.
• Segment and discriminate CVC sounds in sequence.
• Get their mouth ready for the first sound in a word without prompting.
• Cross-check meaning (pictures) and the first letter to problem-solve unknown words.
Word Work Activities:
• Continue to expand sight vocabulary using magnetic letters.
• Use magnetic letters to exchange both initial and final letters (cat, cap, map, lap, lat, etc.).
• Use 3 boxes to write phonetically regular CVC words – short a and o vowels.
Level D – The focus is on using known parts to problem-solve new words, attending to the endings in words (-ed,-s, -ing), maintaining meaning while problem-solving, learning the other short vowel sounds (e, i, u) and digraphs (sh, th, ch). Students should stop pointing at this level and use their eyes to track print.
Word Work Activities:
• Make CVC words by exchanging all three phonemes (cat, cap, cop, hop). Include digraphs in the activities.
• Sound sorts with the other vowels (e, i, u) and digraphs.
• Elkonin boxes with digraphs at the beginning and end (ship, chop, hush, etc.).
Level E – The focus is on maintaining meaning while using several strategies to problem-solve new words.
Strategies include:
• Getting the mouth ready for the first two letters.
• Covering the endings.
• Finding a known part in the word.
• Blending the sounds in small words.
• Students should be fluent on familiar books.
Word Work Activities:
• Sound sorts with initial blends.
• Use magnetic letters to add and delete initial blends.
• Use four Elkonin boxes to write words with initial blends.
• Add -s, -ed, and -ing to known words (go-going, look-looked, see-sees)
Level F – The focus continues to be on maintaining meaning while using a variety of strategies to problem-solve new words. In addition to the strategies listed for level E, students should now have enough orthographic knowledge to use onsets and rimes to decode unfamiliar one-syllable words. The onset is the initial consonant element of a one-syllable word – park, chimp, splash – and the rime is the vowel and any consonants that follow it – park, chimp, splash. Onsets and rimes are the easiest units of sound for children to detect in one-syllable words because they are less abstract than are individual phonemes. Be sure students are monitoring by attending to the middle and end of words. Students should be gaining fluency on new books as sight words become more automatic. They should use
punctuation to read with phrasing and expression.
Word Work Activities:
• Sound sorts with final blends.
• Use magnetic letters to add and delete final blends. Have students break words apart between the onset and rime.
• Use four Elkonin boxes to write words with final blends.
Level G/H – Children continue to build their bank of known sight words and problem-solve new words by using a variety of strategies. Pay attention to fluency and expression on each new book. Comprehension begins to play a more important role as stories become more complex. Students should be able to retell events in sequence and discuss characters.
Word Work Activities for Level G:
• Add –er, -ly to known words (e.g. player, lovely).
• Use magnetic letters to change vowel sounds in simple words by adding the silent “e” (can – cane; shin – shine).
• Use magnetic letters to help students segment and discriminate initial and final blends and all short vowels.
• Use five Elkonin boxes to help students segment, write and then blend words that have initial and final blends (strap, stunt, plant).
Word Work Activities for Level H:
• Use the activities for Level G if students need them.
• Use magnetic letters to form words with common vowel patterns (-ay, -ee, -ow, -oa)
• Use analogy charts to help students discriminate vowel sounds and write unknown words using known rimes.
Level I –Texts will be longer and more complex. Children should be familiar with a large number of words so problem solving will occur less frequently. When students do encounter difficulties, they should flexibly and independently use a variety of strategies while maintaining their focus on meaning. Reading should be phrased and fluent with attention to punctuation and expression.
Word Work Activities:
• Use magnetic letters to form words with other vowel patterns (–ew, -igh, -oy, -aw, etc.)
• Use analogy charts to help students discriminate and use known rimes to write new words.
Level J+ – As you observe students reading, analyze their errors to determine if they need more explicit instruction on skills. If appropriate, plan word work for any skills that are listed at earlier levels but have not been internalized by the students. Students should have a large bank of known words (about 150) and
rapid decoding abilities so that problem-solving occurs automatically with little prompting. Comprehension instruction should go beyond a simple retell and include character analysis, predictions, summarizing, asking questions, etc.
Word Work Activities:
Usually it will not be necessary to plan word work activities apart from your teaching points that focus on decoding unknown words. However, if you notice students having difficulty breaking big words into chunks, you could give them the magnetic letters to make a multisyllabic word. Tell the students the word and have them say it in parts. Then they can make the word out of the letters, break the word into syllables, and remake the word.
Summary of Word Work and Writing Activities for each level A-J
Level Skill focus Magnetic letters Elkonin Boxes Guided Writing
Pre-A Consonants Letter sorts
Make first/last name
none Interactive writing
A Consonants Make sight words
Exchange initial consonants
2 boxes (consonant and long vowel) m-e, g-o, h-e, s-o
Dictated sentence
B Vowels Make sight words
Exchange final consonants
2 boxes (short vowel-consonant) a-t, a-n, i-t, i-n, u-p
Dictated sentence or open-ended
C Vowels Make sight words
Exchange first and last letters
3 boxes (CVC)
Dictated sentence or open-ended
D Digraphs (sh, ch, th)
Exchange first, medial, and final letters Hot-hop-lop-lip
Add and delete endings (s, ed, ing)
3 boxes – include digraphs (ship, chop)
Dictated sentence or open-ended.
Include endings (-ing, -s, -ed)
E Blends Add and delete initial clusters mit-smit-slit-slot-sot
4 boxes – initial blends, short vowels
Dictated sentence or beginning-middle-end
F Blends
Onsets/rimes
Add and delete final clusters Mit-mist-mint-mant
4boxes = final blends, short vowels
Beginning-Middle -End
G Blends Work with the silent ‘e’. Cat-cate-cape-cap
5 boxes – initial and final blends , short vowels
B-M-E
Somebody-wantedbut-so
H Vowel patterns Cow – clown – frown
5 boxes – initial and final blends , short vowels
B-M-E
Somebody-wantedbut-so I
Vowel patterns with magnetic letters and analogy charts.
Elkonin boxes should not be necessary beyond level H.
Somebody-wantedbut-so
J+ Vowel patterns with magnetic letters and analogy charts.
Other endings (er, ly, est, ful, tion, etc.)
Make multisyllabic words and break into syllables Ex. E-nor-mous
Five-finger retell
Other comprehension responses
Options for Word Work Activities during Guided Reading (levels A-K)
Building visual memory – Learning a high-frequency word (Levels A-D)
• What’s missing? - Select one of the high-frequency words from the book. Make the word out of magnetic letters and direct students to study the word, looking at each letter in sequence. Ask the students to close their eyes while you take
away one of the letters. Ask students to open their eyes and tell you which letter is missing. Replace the letter and repeat the game removing other letters.
• Mix it and Fix it - Give students the letters to make the word. Have them slide their finger under the letters and say the word slowly so they can check to make sure they are correct. Then ask students to mix up the letters and make the
word again.
• Writing activities - Give students white boards and ask them to write the word several times without looking at the model. Also ask them to use their finger to write the word on the table and on their other hand.
Hearing sounds and linking sounds with letters – Picture Sorts (Levels A- H)
Prepare for this activity by labeling 26 envelopes with the letters of the alphabet. Collect pictures that begin with each letter and put them in the envelopes.
• Beginning sounds - Select two envelopes. Give each student two or three pictures that begin with the letters you have selected. As you distribute the letters, tell the student the name of the object. Students take turns saying the object in
the picture, saying the beginning sound, saying the letter of that sound.
• Medial vowel sounds - Select pictures that have the corresponding vowel sound in the middle of the word, not at the beginning. The students take turns doing to following procedure:
• Blends – Repeat the above activity using pictures that begin with a blend. Have students sort pictures that begin with the same letter (e.g. bl & br; gl & gr; sl & st).
o Say the object in the picture (“mop”)
o Say the word slowly, stretching the vowel sound to emphasize it (mmmoooooo-). This helps students hear it.
o Say the letter name that makes that sound -O
o Put the picture under the O
Working with words – Magnetic letters (Levels B-J)
• Select a sequence of five or six words that are appropriate for the students to make.
• Distribute magnetic letters or letter cards to each student.
• Tell the students to make each word.
o Making rhyming words: at, cat, mat, hat
o Change first and last letters: at, am, ham, hat, mat, map
o Add blends: cat, cast, mast, math; wet, went, sent, spent; see, seed, speed, seep, sweep
o Change vowels: hat, hit, hot, hut; pat, pet, pot, pit; pan, pin, pun, pen
o Word with vowel patterns: cow, clown, frown, grown
Hearing sounds in sequence - Elkonin boxes (Levels C – H)
• Make cards that have 2 boxes on one side and 3 boxes on the other (easier level).
• Make cards that have 4 boxes on one side and 5 boxes on the other (harder level).
• Begin with two boxes and select several words that have two sounds in them.
• Distribute the 2 box cards and dry erase markers.
• Say a word that has two sounds in it (at, am, me, up, on, etc.).
• Ask the students to say the word slowly as they write it in the box.
• Once students are proficient with 2 boxes, use the cards with more boxes and give students words with three, four and five phonemes.
Using analogies - Two Columns (Levels G-K)
• Select two words from the story. Tell the students to fold their paper in half and write one of the words on each side of the fold.
• Say a word that rhymes with one of the words in the story. Ask the students to write the new word under the word that rhymes with it. Have them underline the part in the new word that is the same as the guide word
and
sand
day
saw
out
may (change onset)
jaw
pout
stand
play (use a blend)
straw
about (within syllables)
standing
stayed (add an ending) drawl
surround (imbedded)
Prompting for Strategies During Guided Reading
Helping students self-monitor:
• Are you right? (Ask this question even when the student is correct.)
• Does that make sense? If the student says, “Yes,” reread the sentence the way the student read it and ask again, “Does that make sense?” Try that again and see if you can fix it to make sense.
• Does it look right? Check it with your finger.
Helping students decode unknown words:
• What can you do to help yourself?
• Cover the ending.
• What do you know in that word that can help you?
• Can you break it into parts? (Chunk it.)
• Do you know another word that looks like this one?
Helping students read with fluency and phrasing:
• Try reading it without your finger.
• How would the character say that? Can you read it like you’re talking?
• Teacher uses her finger to frame 2-3 words at a time, helping the student read in phrases.
• The teacher slides her finger over the words to push the student’s eye forward.
• The teacher reads with the student to model fluent reading.
Helping students understand the meaning of words (vocabulary ):
• Is there a word you don’t understand?
• Do you know what that word means? (Teacher points to the new word.)
• Have you heard that word before? Teacher uses the word in a sentence.
• Are there any clues in the sentence or picture to help you?
• Do you know a word that is similar? (ex. erosion - eroding)
Helping students comprehend the text:
• What have you read? (retell)
• Is there a confusing part? What don’t you understand? (clarify)
• What is the most important idea or event? (determining what is important)
• Can you summarize what you read in one sentence? (summarize)
• Can you ask a question about what you read? (question, clarify)
• What do you think might happen next? What makes you say that? (predict)
• What are you thinking? (think aloud)
• What are you thinking about the character? What might the character be thinking? (inference)
• Why do you think the character did that? (inference, cause-effect)
• How do you think the character feels now? (inference)
• Why do you think the character said that? (inference, cause-effect)
• What was the effect of . . .? What do you think caused that to happen? (cause-effect)
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