Course #PDLI9040 (45 HOURS/3 GRADUATE CREDITS) ON-LINE Instructor:  Rose Marino Foster rosemarino5@gmail.com Course Description: “Guided reading is a teaching approach used with all readers, struggling or independent, that has three fundamental purposes: to meet the varying instructional needs of all the students in the classroom, enabling them to greatly expand their reading powers; to teach students to read increasingly difficult texts with understanding and fluency; to construct meaning while using problem solving strategies to figure out unfamiliar words that deal with complex sentence structures, and understand concepts or ideas not previously encountered. Guided reading is the place where every child, every day, has the opportunity to learn by reading a book that is just right.” – Fountas & Pinnell. This course will provide a detailed explanation of the philosophy of guided reading. Various components of guided reading will be explored including: management, teacher and student roles, assessment, flexible grouping, strategy and skill lessons, etc. Participants in the course will research the history of small group instruction and compare/contrast guided reading with more traditional instructional approaches. In addition, participants will learn the benefits of guided reading and be given the resources and information to implement guided reading within his/her own classroom.  Applicable all Educators and staff K-12.