Does your child’s school use guided reading? 🙁

This page will explain the 1st-grade guided reading expectations. Guided reading is NOT a good way to learn to read, however. Parents, if your school uses guided reading, please refer to my grade 1 science of reading page to help your child develop foundational skills.

Guided reading falls under the Fountas and Pinnell cueing system method, which is now frowned upon. Students do NOT sound out words when they are stuck; instead, as students read, you ask them to figure out unknown words by looking at the picture, looking at the beginning letter sound, thinking about what would look right/sound right/make sense or skipping the tricky word/reading on/going back. This makes reading a guessing game. 1st Grade Guided Reading Expectations

To Meet the “Guided Reading” Benchmark, 1st-grade students should be instructional at Level G (independent F) by January and Level J (independent I) by June.

Therefore, a child on grade level, Meeting the Benchmark, may be at the following levels in the following months. Again, reading is developmental, and these are APPROXIMATE:

September ~ C October ~ D November ~ E December ~ F

January ~ G February ~ G/H March ~ H/I April ~ I

May ~ I/J June ~ J

Get Level C-J books on Amazon or at the public library. Here is a book list! Again, I do not recommend these. Decodable books for beginning readers are best, NOT these predictable books!

AT LEVELS C – J, A CHILD’S READING LEVEL IS DETERMINED BY THE FOLLOWING:

These bullet points are based on the DRA2 assessment.

• Is the child reading with acceptable accuracy? No more than 10 errors/100 words.

• Starting at Level I, the child is timed. At least 40 Words Per Minute Meets the Benchmark for Level I and 45 WPM for Level J.

• Is the child figuring out unknown words by looking at the picture, looking at the beginning letter sound, thinking about what would look right/sound right/make sense, or skipping the tricky word/reading on/going back? (PLEASE use the “sounding out” method only. We want children to read the words, not guess.)

• Does the child recognize errors as they read and fix them?

• Does the child read in longer phrases?1st Grade Guided Reading Expectations

• Before the child reads, the child does a “picture walk,” which means that the child looks at each picture before reading. Are they orally connecting with at least 3-4 critical events without prompting?

• After reading and with the book closed, the child retells. Are they referring to the characters by name and including all the essential details from the beginning, middle, and end in sequence?

• Does the child use the critical language and vocabulary from the text in the retelling?

• Can the child retell the story independently without prompts or questions?

• Can the child describe a favorite part and why? We are looking for a response that requires higher-level thinking, such as inferring the author’s message in the story or stating an action in the text with a personal connection.

• Can the child make a connection with this text? Does it remind the child of another text, a movie, a TV show, or something in their life? We are looking for connections that show a deeper understanding of the story. For example, in a fictional story about reusing objects, a connection could be made to the importance of recycling.

• If nonfiction, can the child quickly locate and use the nonfiction text features to answer questions? (timelines, maps, table of contents, glossary, captions, charts, etc.)1st Grade Guided Reading Expectations

Edited on 10/20/2024

References

I did not write those wonderful blurbs of what advanced students look like at each grade level. They came from an unknown source.

DRA2 Teacher Manual from Pearson Publishing, 2006.

Does your child’s school use guided reading? 🙁

AT LEVELS C – J, A CHILD’S READING LEVEL IS DETERMINED BY THE FOLLOWING:

Reading Survey