GUIDING READING

Take the individual words in this strategy. Guided indicates someone is leading and
explaining. Reading is the issue, the idea, or the matter that is being guided. Logically,
then, there are at least two people quite actively involved. One is reading, and the other
is leading and explaining the reading. The assumption is that the one who is reading
needs guidance for some reason.

Teachers must ask themselves if their students need guidance in their reading or not.
Those who teach beginning readers may easily answer in the affirmative since the task
seems obvious. But, what about students who seem to have passed the stage of a
beginning reader?

What other students need guiding? Return to the assumption: The one who is reading
needs guidance for some reason. Guidance may be needed when:
• the learner is an emergent reader,
• the learner is an English Language Learner who needs guidance reading English,
• the learner has encountered difficult text such as science, history, math, poetry,
some literature as Shakespeare, etc.,
• the learner has encountered text for which s/he has little prior knowledge such as
chemistry, business, specific cultural texts, etc.,
 GUIDING READING

Responses & Questions that Support the Development & Use

of Strategies DURING Reading

Sample responses and questions that teachers can use to highlight strategies that use
information from each cueing system follow. Responses and questions that encourage
cross-checking and self-correcting strategies are also included. Examples are organized
by category. These are suggestions, and teachers are encouraged to develop and use their
own styles of responses and questions.

Use of Information from Multiple Cueing Systems

DURING READING, the teacher provides responses and asks questions that encourage
students to use information simultaneously from multiple cueing systems: (1) meaning
(semantic), (2) language structure and order or grammar (syntax), and (3) letter-sound
correspondences (graphophonic). The three central questions that students need
constantly to ask themselves about a predicted response are as follows:
1. Does the word make sense?
(semantic)
2. Does the word sound right there?
(syntactic)
3. Are these the letters that represent the sounds in the word I predicted?
(graphophonic)

LINGUISTIC COMPONENTS
Science Expression

Semantics Meaning
Components of
Oral Language Language Components
Syntax
Structure of
Written
Language
Phonology Sounds

Written
Orthography
Symbols
Combine orthography & phonology to get
graphophonic cues.
 Semantic (Meaning)
1. I noticed that you were thinking about the story as you were reading. Good thinking!
2. I noticed that you were looking at the pictures to help you read that word. Good
detective work!
3. Does that (the word) make sense?
4. Hmmm…Could that happen?
5. Is there such a word as _____? It sounded a little funny to me.
6. You read “_____.” Is that right?
7. Think about the story. What would make sense? Or What might happen next/ Or
What do you think could happen?
8. Take a look at the picture. Or What is he doing in the pictures? Or What is that a
picture of?
9. He’s writing a letter. What word usually begins letters? (Dear…)

Syntactic (Language Structure and Order or Grammar)

1. I noticed that you were listening to yourself read to decide if it sounded right. Great!
2. Does that (the word) sound right?
3. Would that word fit there?
4. Do we say that (talk) that way?
5. Does that sound like talking? Does that sound like talking in books?
6. Reread from the beginning to check.
7. Sample the sounds and keep reading.
8. Try reading ahead for more clues.
9. Let’s read it again (reread it) together.
10. Hmmm…Do people talk like that?

Graphophonic (Letter-Sound Correspondences)

1. You are looking carefully at the words while you are pointing to make sure your
voice matches. Great reading!
2. Do you think the word looks like _____?
3. What letters do you think you would see in _____? (beginning, middle, end)
4. You read _____. How does _____ begin (end)? How does the word in the book begin
(end)?
5. Are these the letters you thought you would see? Are these the sounds in the word
you predicted?
6. It ends with ay as in “day” (or rhymes with “day”).
7. Let’s sound that one together.
8. I see a silent e at the end, so the a is (_____).
9. It could be _____, but look at the letters.
10. What does it begin with? Could it be _____?
 Cross-Checking and Self-Correcting Strategies

1. How did you know it was that word? How else?

2. Are you right? Check to see.
3. You stopped for a moment (or looked like you were thinking about that part) just
before you fixed that. What were you thinking? What did you notice? What did you
use?
4. What did you use to figure that out? What were you thinking that helped you?
5. Is there any other way you could know?
6. Were you thinking about the story while you looked at that word?
7. Can you find two ways to check that word?
8. Tell me two ways that you knew it was that word. Any other way?
9. I noticed that you looked at the picture and used the first sound to read that word.
Did you do anything else?
10. What else could you use/ask to find out if it’s the right word?
11. Is that right? How do you know? Is there another way that helps you know?
12. Try sampling or sounding and read on to see if a word pops into your head.
13. Listen to yourself reading as you look at the word. What sounds right and looks
right?
14. What helped you know that? Anything else?
15. Were you right? How did you know that you were? Any other way?
16. That makes sense and sounds right. Now check the letter. or How does that begin
or end?
17. Try that again. How did you know that word was _____? What did you use?
Anything else?
18. Could you use something else to check/to make sure?
19. It could be _____, but also try _____.
20. What could you do here? What else?
21. What are some of your choices now? Which one, do you think, would work best
here?
22. What could you try? What else?
23. What do you think it could be? How could you tell?
24. What do you know that might help? What else?
25. Check to find out if what you read makes sense, sounds right, and looks right to you.
26. There was something not quite okay on that page. Can you find it? What can you
use to fix it?
27. When that didn’t sound right, you went back to fix it.
28. Why did you stop (or hesitate) there? What did you do to fix that part?
29. I noticed that you fixed that part all by yourself.
30. Did I need to help you with that? No, YOU thought about it and corrected yourself.
31. I noticed that you sampled sounds and read on to figure that out yourself.
32. You decided to reread that part to get a running start to check that word. Did it work?
33. I noticed that you were looking at the illustrations/pictures to help you change the
word that didn’t make sense there.