As students hone their reading skills, they must possess the appropriate skills to draw information and make connections to various texts. Researchers believe that if students do not acquire the necessary reading skills by third grade, including the skills of reading comprehension, they will fall so far behind in reading that it will be almost impossible for them to catch up (Prado & Plourde, 2013). This information brings a sense of urgency to primary teachers in the importance of explicitly teaching students the reading skills necessary during guided reading instruction.  Reading comprehension is not a skill students independently acquire as they read (Prado & Plourde, 2013); therefore, teachers must differentiate instruction. 

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While there is value in explicit comprehension instruction during whole group reading, there is also value in explicit, differentiated guided reading instruction in reading comprehension. Students must show continued proficiency in decoding, fluency, and reading comprehension (Fountas & Pinnell, 2012). Students simply cannot grow as a reader unless they are learning the specific comprehension skills to understand what they are reading in a text. Fisher (2008) notes three different types of comprehension skills students must apply to understand a text: surface, interpretive, and evaluative. Surface comprehension leads to a formation of an opinion, interpretive comprehension involves inferences to be drawn about the text, and lastly, evaluative comprehension requires a personal response from the reader to the text. These three types are crucial to academic success as Fisher (2008) indicates, “…literal comprehension is quite inadequate in today’s world” (pg. 8). Schools are continually asked to rise to higher standards with each passing school year. With the use of differentiated guided reading instruction, students will be able to develop their comprehension skills and find success with these skills throughout the rest of their educational journey.

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