The Jan Plan, Part II

I’m back for another post about guided reading using Jan Richardson’s book, The Next Step in Guided Reading. Her format really does help you get the most out of that short chunk of guided reading time. Today, I’m going to show you what an emergent reading lesson looks like. This is the format followed for levels A-C. The instructional focus will change depending on students’ needs, but the overall organization and procedures will be the same.

Part One-Sight word review

We begin the lesson by doing a quick review of three previously taught sight words. Each time the students write a word correctly, I mark it down on a recording sheet. After the student has written the word independently several times, I am confident that it is a known word. You get good at figuring out who knows the word and who is averting their eyes to try to look at someone else’s board. 🙂

Part Two- Book introduction and reading

Next, I introduce the story and any new vocabulary the students will need to know. We may quickly preview the story and make predictions, but we don’t spend a ton of time before we get down to the nitty gritty business of reading. This is where it looks like your usual guided reading lesson. The students quietly read the story while I monitor and support if needed. I usually take a running record on a student at this time.