Diane M. Huot
Guided reading gives students the opportunity to read at the right instructional level. I've selected books with Latino themes based on students' reading abilities. These books have been chosen because I feel my students will enjoy them, find them interesting, and be able to relate to them.
When choosing these books I simultaneously considered my students' present strategies and their interests and background knowledge as well as the text complexity in relation to readers' skill to readers experience and the content of the text in relation to readers' background knowledge. I've analyzed the learning opportunities inherent in the texts and their match to instructional goals in addition to the quality of the text: language, illustrations, layout, and writing style.
To help students become successful readers, they need to be matched with the right books. New Haven Public Schools uses the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) to guide reading. The following is a correlation of grade level to reading level.
Grade 2: DRA Levels 18-28
Grade 3: DRA Levels 30-38
Grade 4: DRA Levels 40-44