Guided Reading Questions You Can Ask At Home

Many of us are still homeschooling, whether we opted into that for our children’s education (& our parenting journey!) or not. The UK lockdown has turned parents into teacher and we’re trying to help our kids learn from home, as we work from home. The occasional Zoom call with teachers and communicating via different apps to send work to and fro is a challenge. One of the things you may have been asked to get your children to do and get involved with yourself is guided reading questions. What is guided reading though and how can we promote and encourage this at home?

What Is Guided Reading?

You may have heard of the term guided reading but what actually is it? What are we trying to achieve here? Guided reading is ‘small-group reading instruction designed to provide differentiated teaching that supports students in developing reading proficiency’.

Using small groups helps focus on the specific needs of the children. This will, in turn, help forward their progress. Rather than having one teacher to 30 pupils, guided reading allows teachers to have closer time with students to help them. The teacher responds to each students strengths and weaknesses which is possible in this smaller setting.

Find A Book That Your Kids Enjoy

Firstly, let’s say that you need to find a book that your kids enjoy. You might have been sent home with a book that your child simply has no interest in. It might not end up being traditional guided reading in the small groups, but you can talk to them about it. One of the benefits of homeschooling is that you are likely working with an even smaller group than they are doing within the school setting. Whether it’s one on one tutoring or perhaps two on one, you can tailor what you’re actually reading to their particular interests.

There are lots of books released every year and they all target different interests that kids have. It could be football, dancing or magic. Whatever your child is into, see if you can borrow or buy a book which will interest them. This will make the, sometimes difficult task of encouraging them to pick up a book, that little bit easier. Sometimes its just the book they’re not interested in!

What are the best books for starting school?

Guided Reading Questions You Can Ask

When a chapter has been read, now is the time to start asking some guided reading questions. This is when you can get deeper with the novel, dive into the story a little bit more. It could be to get them to write about what is going on in the book or to have something to say if they are going to chat about what they are reading on Zoom with their teacher and classmates.

Guided reading questions you could ask them include:

• When did the story take place?
• Where does the main character live?
• What are the main themes of the book?
• What words can you use to describe the main character?
• If you made a film of the book, what type of music would you use?

The responses that your child writes down or answers these guided reading questions with will help you and their teacher) gauge their understanding of the story, characters and plot. Above all, this should help boost your child’s passion for reading.