Guided Reading for Parents

Hey friends! I am really excited to share with how I communicate with parents about guided reading!

First, I keep everything organized in a binder. It contains all the letters that I send home to parents at back to school night, during conferences and throughout the year. The key to guided reading success at home is COMMUNICATION! 

At back to school night I give my parents some information.

I give them the form on the left that explains what guided reading is. 

Let's face it, most of us didn't know much about guided reading until college or until we did it - hands on! So why do we expect parents to understand guided reading?!

In my school we use DRA, but here is why I give my parents both DRA and GRL levels. 

when parents go to look for books through scholastic, sometimes they only give one or the other. A parent may pass by a great book series because they think it isn't ok for their kid! 

My parents become fluent with both DRA and GRL. 

I send home scholastic notes that give hints and helpful series for each level. 

One thing I stress to parents is that there is no LOW reader at the start of the year. I let them know that they are ENTRY level readers. I don't want parents worrying from day one thinking their child is a low reader when they are right where they are supposed to be! 

I also only give them a correlation chart up to level 28/M

I don't want the pressure given to parents that they think their child has to get further than that in a year. If a student comes in higher - great. I don't mention it. 

As my littles make it through the different levels, I send home a certificate for them! I let them know how proud I am of them and from what level to what level they went from. 

Throughout the year, I send home letters with the students. I take mini running records with students weekly (or I try to make it weekly)

I fill out this sharing success form. It lets parents know how they are doing in specific aspects of reading. I let them know that they are working on it, right on track or have something mastered. I let them know about reading instructionally with me or independent on their own. 

I also give them the same few pages at conference time, and I also give the full page sheets to parents at conferences as well. I want them to have the information. 

This is the form I use with my students that start with written responses. 

This is the form I use with my students that are at a level 3- until the reach written responses. 

I want parents to know what their child is successful at, AND what they can use help with. 

I leave a spot for notes so that I can put information that I noticed during that running record. 

If a child is NOT reading at their benchmark level, I send home their certificate to praise that child for trying so hard AND then I send home the WHAT LEVEL XX MEANS.

Parents often think that a certificate means they are on track. Many parents think that their child is a gifted reader. We all do that, but let's be honest, parents don't always understand that their child may not be reading at the level they should be. They don't know how to help or what they are supposed to be reading. 

I send home the larger sheet and write at the top, this is what our current benchmark is and we are working to get so and so there. I want them to see what their child SHOULD be reading, but still celebrate their child's current success. 

I even do the sharing success sheets after doing the DRA tests. It is a perfect way to be sure I get them done while I am testing since we know we don't do groups during testing time! 

Seriously, look at his face when he got to grade level!!!! I don't know that his smile could be any bigger!

This is what my award usually looks like when I send it home. My kids LOVE when I have out my sharing success page because they get a certificate. 

If this is something that you think you would be interested in, please check out my pack. I have the separated by level 3/4 or level C up through a level 14 / H

Pack 2 is levels I/16 up through a level 28 M. 

This is my bundle. It has all the levels from 3/4 - C/D up through a 28/m

If you would like to see my periscope about this, check out my you tube video below. I mention where to get your freebies and peoples packs that I use for intervention with guided reading.

I will be giving away a copy of my bundle pack. Leave a comment below with your name, email and about how you communicate about guided reading to your parents. I will pick one winner on Friday morning at 8 am! 

Congrats to Erica from I Teach Elementary! I will be emailing you today! :)

Have a great night!