Guided Reading at Home

I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed the comments on the How Do I Teach My Child To Read post. So many teachers {classroom and homeschool} joined in with experiences and advice. So many new homeschoolers asked great questions. I was even reminded of things I forgot to include in the original post!

One things I forgot to mention is the actual method I was trained in while teaching school, Guided Reading. I didn’t even think to mention it as it comes so naturally for me now, I honestly forgot there was a book that I used when I was trained!!! It was required reading {as well as many workshops and training seminars} back in the day and I am glad it was!

Guided Reading is a classroom method that can easily be adapted to homeschool. The book is full of amazing information about teaching your child to read. It is geared toward classroom teachers, but you can just ignore those chapters! The book is expensive at retail price on Amazon, but I bet you could borrow it from a teacher friend or keep your eyes open at used book sales, or even on eBay, or here it is on Half.com.

One of the awesome things about this program was the method they taught for decoding unfamiliar words. I recall having a hand print up in my classroom that the children referred to, with each strategy on one finger to remind the kids. They also had their own printable bookmark with the strategies on it.

Of course I had to make my own for us and for you! Here is the poster I made which can be hung up in your homeschool, or just used for you to refer to.