Very quick question, honest, about guided reading books (yawn)

[lovecheese]

Are they supposed to be at a lower/same/higher level than the books sent home?

Thanks.

[caffeinated]

I think it depends on each school at my kids school their guided reading book is also their personal reading book. Not that they do individual reading. Guided reading is all they do so the guided reading book is the exact book that is sent home.

[lovecheese]

Thanks caffeinated

[meditrina]

IIRC, at our school the guided reading books were often slightly harder than those for individual reading. The reason was explained to me that individual books were meant to be fun and readily readable (to boost confidence and enjoyment).

[scarlet80]

Should be slightly higher than the level the child reads independently...

Familiar, easier books for independent reading promote confidence and chn can practice reading with expression and fluency. Guided reading is the opportunity to teach reading, so needs to be more of a challenge to enable them to try out different decoding strategies.

[lovecheese]

DD's home books are at a slightly higher level than her guided reading books (currently) but I'm not going to say anything or question it, as the discrepany is slight.

Thanks for replies.

[bigbadwolf]

DS's guided reading books are way below the level of his individual reading books. He brings home ORT level 8 for his own reading, but guided reading books are at level one or two. Seems a bit pointless to me.

[curtaincall]

thanks for asking this question lovecheese. never thought about it but looked up his guided reading book on Google and it seems to be quite a bit harder than his take home books as they don't have a level attached to them. Now I have a whole new set of parameters to worry about

[lovecheese]

No problem, curtaincall .

Would never have occurred to me to ask with the PFB; I suppose I do keep more of a beady eye on DD2 and what she is up to.

I'm going to be fucking paranoid with DD3!!!

[loulou4]

I think it can vary - children are put into guided reading groups based on their ability - but within each group the reading levels can vary - teachers will select something that suits all - if your child is bottom of the guided reading group then he/she will have a challenge - but if he/she is top of the group then it might all be a bit too easy!

[nickelbabe]

I know some schools whose guided reading books are easier than the child's normal books, because they do readign comprehension out of it too, so the words need to be easier so they can more tiem discussing what the book is about.

[singersgirl]

At my sons' primary the levels of guided reading books were always easier than the books they could read themselves, though they've always been in a group of fluent readers - so the guided reading was not about teaching 'decoding', as they could all do that from Y1, but about comprehension, textual analysis (in as much as 6 and 7 year olds analyse text ie punctuation, sentence length, italics)...