I Love to Learn : Guided Reading

Goal Setting! It's a powerful, ongoing process for teachers and students alike.

12 Guided Reading Templates and Student Goal Cards

All of my reading groups or individual conferences begin with the same questions:
1. What is your goal?
2. How do you think you're doing with that goal?
Each student has their individual laminated goal card to keep in their book boxes. I remind them to look at it and work purposefully toward their goal each time they read.

Front of Student Goal Cards

One day I approached one of my lowest readers (level F in 4th grade) and showed him his progress on a graph where we'd been tracking his reading since first grade. It was an eye-opening experience for both of us. He saw how his reading had gone up and down over the years with very little real growth considering how he would slip back over the summer. Finally - he was motivated. "I was a K in 2nd grade? How come no one ever told me I was a K?" Of course, I'm sure his previous teachers had told him his level but for some reason he became very focused on the levels.

Guided Reading Level Tracking Graph

He started setting goals as he looked at the chart and asked questions about where his peers were reading. We set a goal for a level K and he wrote it down on his goal card. He started moving up levels within a few weeks. He would constantly ask me if he could read again for me and move up another level. After a few months I called him up for an informal running record. He was at a level J and was working towards a level K. Before he started reading, he asked if he could go get his goal card. I had totally forgotten that he had written down "K" as his goal....but he had not forgotten. This was so powerful ~ he did it and moved up to a J. When he finished the year he had gone from a level F to a level N. He had never had that kind of growth before with this student. That's when I decided we needed both short term and long term goals.

Back of Student Goal Card

Click HERE to get a copy of my Guided Reading Level Graph and Informal Running Record Template from my Teacher's Pay Teachers store.

Informal Running Record Template

Another issue is that I'm always short on time. It's all I can do to get each of my guided reading groups in each day along with individually conferring with my below grade level readers. I needed to simplify! I just included all of the specific standards for fiction and non-fiction books ~ all I need to do is circle the skills we need to touch on.

Guided Reading Lesson Plan Template for Fiction

I've been using a template for my guided reading groups for the past year and I've tweaked it a bit to encourage myself to be more purposeful in my instruction. I want to make sure that during my guided reading groups I'm touching on the specific standards that we're working on in our focus lessons. I customized it for fiction and non-fiction books since the focus can be very different. I'm looking forward to this new format next year. Please share your ideas and successes by adding a comment!