Teacher Decision Making in Guided-Reading

Abstract

Guided reading provides teachers the opportunity to support students in literacy learning. When planning for and implementing this instructional approach, teachers are required to make various in-advance and in-the-moment decisions that involve responding to students’ instructional needs through adaptive teaching. Grounded in sociocultural and social constructivist theories, this study was designed to understand teacher decision-making within the context of guided reading instruction. This research was a collective case study aimed at providing a better understanding of the various decisions teachers make when teaching in a guided reading context. Findings pertaining to in-advanced decisions that emerged from the data can be categorized into three overarching themes: teachers used assessment data to group students, teachers utilized a program-influenced structural framework to make decisions about planning for guided reading instruction and lastly, teachers made instructional connections between whole group instruction and guided reading, and between students and their interests. Implications of this study include more focus on supporting teachers’ instructional planning, a refinement of teachers’ skills in helping them understand how to best scaffold instruction, and raising awareness to educators, administrators, and stakeholders on how guided reading can provide supportive instruction to meet students’ individualized needs