Guided Reading for Special Education/Language Learners


Shared and guided reading are great ways to build language skills and build engagement.  Building interactions around books also can encourage children to want to read more, to learn to read, to find enjoyment in reading.  

Shared reading has been demonstrated to be one of the best influences on later vocabulary and reading skills.  Having interactive conversations with kids around the book being read generates vocabulary knowledge, inferencing and predicting skills, and develops higher order thinking when the right types of questions are asked.  While reading, the teacher (or parent) pauses for predictions, to ask questions, make explanations. 




The reading is interactive.  One purpose is to expose students to stories they may not be able to read themselves; providing experience with richer vocabulary and syntax.  Another purpose is to provide those structured interactive experiences with specific questions and prompts that enable the students to build language - and reading - skills.






In special education classes with students with more complex communication needs the focus is frequently on a combination of reading strategies and listening comprehension strategies, rather than always on specific reading strategies.  
Students may have specific comprehension “props” to hold and manipulate. They may be told to listen for specific information, and can hold up these props when they hear what they are listening for.

There is a purpose for reading established before the book is read, and comprehension activities afterwards.  Ideally there is a pre-reading activity that matches the purpose for reading and the post-reading comprehension activity. 
A good quality reading session allows opportunities for students to participate.  



Ask open-ended questions.  Pause for students to fill in predictable words.  Elaborate on students’ responses.  Point out new or interesting vocabulary.  Move from asking questions whose answers are easily visible on the page - particularly in illustrations - to questions that compare, contrast, infer, predict.  If you need to help the student with a response,  re-read the part of the text that has the answer before providing a model.
Above all - keep reading and keep talking!




2 comments

  1. This is a wonderful post. I enjoyed the information lot. I will bookmark this page. Thanks for sharing this information.

    School of Special Education

    ReplyDelete