Understanding Your Child's Guided Reading Levels
Understanding Your Child's Guided Reading Levels
Guided reading levels are what your child's teachers use to help your child build his or her reading skills. Each level of guided reading has its own set of books that are geared to teach different reading skills depending on the child's age. Your child's teacher will have a list of these books available for you if you'd like to get a head start on each year.
Each year's guided reading levels are slightly more advanced than the year before. When a child graduates from sixth grade, they will have all of the reading comprehension skills they need to succeed in the higher grades. Take a look below at what just a few of your child's guided reading levels will include.
Kindergarten
The kindergarten guided reading levels contain all of the basic information your child needs to start building his or her reading skills. These books most generally consist of those great two and three word sentences, comprised of only two or three letters apiece, that we can all well remember from our own childhoods. "See Spot Run" is still a popular favorite in the list of kindergarten guided reading levels books.
These books focus mainly on teaching your children the different letter sounds, both of consonants as well as vowel sounds; and help your child understand the way that letters sound when they are strung together. The beginning guided reading levels focus mainly on building children's basic reading building blocks.
First Grade
Coming into first grade, the guided reading levels are a bit more advanced. Beginning with the differences between nouns and verbs, this reading level builds upon the basic skills learned in kindergarten. First grader guided reading books are more advanced stories, as well. Children begin to understand that books contain plots in which the characters all interact with one another.
Second Grade
Second grade guided reading levels are even more advanced than their predecessors. A child will begin to answer questions regarding the antagonist and protagonist of the stories they read. By second grade, reading comprehension has started to advance, and children are often much more readily able to answer questions about the books they read in school, once they arrive home.
The guided reading levels are typically geared toward a specific age group, but this can also be deviated from if your child has a lower comprehension level - without the fear of feeling inadequate. To help children with learning disabilities, there are also guided reading levels that have advanced stories, while still sticking to the basic building block format.
Understanding your child's reading levels will allow you to play a much larger role in their education. Read your child's guided reading books with him or her, and you will also build a bond that will never fade.