Students name & ID: Zainab Ahmad H00272705

Section: 12B4EPR01

Coursework Essay (Guided

reading)
EPR 2603

Description:
Guided reading is an instructional approach that happens when the
teacher work with small group of students who have similar abilities in
readings. The teachers role is to support the students while reading
and improve their reading skills (Burkins, n.d.).
I observed in EFL
classroom that the teacher used this approach mostly during library
periods and each period with different group. She choose texts that are
a little bit higher than their level to make the reading more
challenging.

Strategies that teacher used:

Model Reading the story for the students

Let each one of the students have turn to read aloud one or two
sentences.
Students predict what the sentences mean or what he/she
understand from this sentence or paragraph. teacher support
and
Ask each student an open ended question then discuss the
answer with all students in the group.
Use pictures that help them to understand what they are reading
Assess the students by Using checklist and notes
Giving feedback and correct their error verbally by showing the
right way to read.

Activities that I observed:

Most of the activities and gamed include Writing that expand students
comprehension of the text.

Retell the story (make story map)

Write a summary of the story
Write the details
write the synonyms of following words

The materials that the teacher uses for the activity:

Timer: for some of the activities to see their improvement

For each student, small white board to write on it by using
markers.

Analysis:
The teacher used both Top-down and bottom-up processes in guided
reading which an effective way to process the language. I observed in
guided reading that the main focus sometimes was on whole meaning
and pleasure through reading and sometimes was on letters and
words.
Jeremy Harmer describe the difference between top-down process and
bottom-up process in a metaphorical way by saying that this might be
linked differently between looking at something from above (get an
overview) and being in the middle of something and understand all
individual features (Bilokcuoglu). Both of bottom-up and top-down
processes are important in guided reading but in defendant ways.

Top-down process
This process includes strategies to teach the students how to predict
from the whole image, expect what will happen next and use their own
knowledge to understand the text. According to Michael Eysenck, topdown processing affected by expectation and previous knowledge
(Eysenck & Keane, 2015). So, when the students expect what will
happen or use their own knowledge they will achieve the whole image
or meaning.
Richard Gregory who had a theory that rely on top-down process. He
also supported this idea because he believed that understanding is all
about make the best guess or prediction for what we see (McLeod,
2007). This means that if we want to understand something, it better
to predict or guess what it is about. Like what students do during
guided reading.
Before reading, students use what they know to predict the meaning of
language in the text that they are going to read or listen. After reading,
they will show understanding of whole text instead of relying first on
words or sounds.
Top-down process worked well with high-level students. Low-level
students found it hard to know the whole idea from the beginning. The
teacher used bottom-up process with them. Eskey pointed out that topdown model depend on predicting (using context clues) and gathering
2

the clues with previous knowledge which make the process helpful for
well readers not for readers who didn't mastered reading yet
(Bilokcuoglu).

Bottom-up process
Bottom-up processing happens when students try to understand the
language through looking at individual meanings of the grammatical
characteristics from the basic units of a text which are the words. Then
transfer to understand the whole text. (Bottom Up, 2006)
I saw the teacher encourages some students to decode the words into
letters to be easier for them to read by remembering each letters
sound (phonics). That helped them read the words in a sentences. So,
she let them start from the smallest part of the text to bigger part
sequentially. Amos Paran and Alderson said that Bottom-up process
might be a sequential model when the child start from the printed
word, recognize stimuli of graphics, and decode the sounds and the
meaning (Bilokcuoglu). So, what the teacher did was a bottom-up
process because the students decode word and recognize the sounds.
According to Gough, readers begin by decoding parts of written
language (letters) into sounds, then blend the sounds together to form
individual words, then blend the words together to reach the
understanding of whole text. Gough believed that reading is a mental
process that happens in a Sequential manner from bottom to up.
(Reutzel & Cooter, 2013). Is like when the students begin to read
letters then words then sentences to know the whole meaning.

Interactions:
I saw some interactions between teacher and students:
-

During guided reading: the interactions happened when the

teacher ask questions to the students, I saw her asked them
open-ended questions that will lead them to predict such as: why
do you think this happen? What do you think will happen next?
Can you tell me you opinion? Etc.
3

After guided reading: Teacher ask the students some

questions to assess their understanding. Then she gave them
feedback (good job, very good, try one more time, spell it again)

Recommendation:
The observed guided reading has some good areas and some areas
which need to become better.
The teacher was Supporting the students and scaffold them in
reading and writing (see page 1, the activities includes writing) which
was good because when the teacher scaffold or support the students
by collaborating with them helped them to make sense of literature
and engage to participate more. According to Fountas and Pinnell,
during guided reading, the teacher work on prompting students'
reading and writing by giving them sensitive feedback for them and
effort an appropriate guidance and ongoing support (Biddulph, 2002). I
saw the teacher helped student who had difficulty to pronounce a word
by pronouncing the first letter and encourage him/her to complete
reading by nodding.

The interactions: there was interactions between the teacher and

students. She asked them specific questions that lead her to promote
students' understanding of the whole meaning (have a look at the
analysis in page 2, the focus usually was on whole meaning). She gave
positive feedback which is good. But, there were not any discussion
between the teacher and students. The teacher only was asking and
the students were answering. Wiencek and O'Flahavan said that
students might participate more and learn effectively if the discussion
takes the form of real conversation (Biddulph, 2002). So, discuss the
answers with the students through conversation will be better than just
listen to the students' answers without discuss them.

References
Biddulph, J. (2002). The Guided Reading Approach. Retrieved Mar. 21st, 2016,
from learning.gov.wales:
http://learning.gov.wales/docs/learningwales/publications/130718guided-reaching-approach-en.pdf
Bilokcuoglu, H. (n.d.). Significant Considerations in ESL/EFL Literacy. Retrieved
Mar. 20, 2016, from developingteachers.com:
http://www.developingteachers.com/articles_tchtraining/reading2_hasa
n.htm
Bottom Up. (2006, Feb.). Retrieved Mar. 18th, 2016, from
teachingenglish.org.uk:
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/bottom
Burkins, J. M. (n.d.). Using Guided Reading to Develop Student Reading
Independence. Retrieved Mar. 18th, 2016, from readwritethink.org:
http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategyguides/using-guided-reading-develop-30816.html?main-tab=1#maintabs
Eysenck, M. W., & Keane, M. (2015). Cognitive Psychology (7th ed.). New York:
Psychology Press. Retrieved Mar. 22nd, 2016, from
https://books.google.ae/books?
id=ZDehBgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
McLeod, S. (2007). Visual Perception Theory. Retrieved Mar. 18th, 2016, from
simplypsychology.org: http://www.simplypsychology.org/perceptiontheories.html
Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. (2013, Jun. 29th). Bottom-Up Theories of the
Reading Process. Retrieved Mar. 19, 2016, from education.com:

http://www.education.com/reference/article/bottom-up-theoriesreading-process/