One common hang up in guided reading is what to do with students before they read. How can we get students’ brains ready to read and set the tone for the small group time? Teachers often know the lesson needs to be about 20 minutes, but wonder what to do with students besides read the book. The answer is … pre-reading activities. Guided reading pre-reading activities serve several purposes:
I have several go-to guided reading pre-reading activities that are both effective and engaging. They all are easy to implement, too! Once you gather your supplies, you’ll be set for guided reading pre-reading activities for the year!
While teachers may follow a slightly different format, everyone should have the basics in their guided reading lessons. You can read more about how I structured a guided reading lesson HERE. I walk you through each component of the lesson.
The first activity I usually do is to have students reread the guided reading book from the previous lesson. Besides warming up their brains for reading, this allows me to take a warm running record. I can gather important information about how a student is doing in reading.
For this activity, you’ll just need some fluency phrases printed on strips. Then, put them on a binder ring. Students will flip through the phrases and read them quietly to themselves.
Fluency phrases let readers practice reading sight words and other common words with expression and intonation. Reading with fluency leads to stronger reading comprehension.
One of the key guided reading pre-reading activities is sight word practice. We will review previously taught sight words that might appear in the text and introduce new sight words they will find in the text. There are several great ways to practice sight words that are both teacher-friendly and engaging for kids:
These pre-reading activities are just what they sound like. I went into great detail on my blog post Sight Words in Guided Reading: How to Boost Every Reader. Check it out for the details of these activities!
Especially for those kindergarten readers, frequently reviewing the alphabet chart can be so helpful! This review reminds them of the sounds letters make so they are prepped and ready to use decoding strategies.
To review, we would just work our way through an alphabet chart chanting it. For example, A /a/ /a/ alligator; B /b/ /b/ bee. While this seems super easy (which it is!), it can be powerful for those early readers. Get a FREE Alphabet Chart HERE.
Word work can be a part of guided reading pre-reading activities for all levels. If you have non-readers, you can do some letter-sound practice and work with names. For beginning and more advanced readers, there are a ton of options for word work. The goal of word work is to have students work with words to practice spellings and/or meanings or improve phonemic awareness.
Students could work on segmenting sounds, rhyming words, adding or deleting phonemes, beginning, middle, or ending sounds, or any skill that needs strengthening. Students can also build words with specific digraphs or spelling patterns. Think about one skill that all of the students in that guided reading group can benefit from practicing.
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I’m a K-1 teacher who is passionate about making lessons your students love and that are easy to implement for teachers. Helping teachers like you navigate their way through their literacy block brings me great joy. I am a lifelong learner who loves staying on top of current literacy learning and practices. Here, you’ll find the tools you need to move your K-2 students forward!
