[MOSAIC] Guided Reading

[RR1981 at aol.com]

I have never been trained in Guided Reading and having been reading up on  
it.  My question is this-Do the students need to be reading a text that  they 
can read independently?  I teach third grade and am "required" to use  the 
leveled readers that come with out basal series.  Only problem is that  for about 
half my class the lowest level leveled reader is too difficult.   I have one 
child who is capable of reading 44 kindergarten sight words and that  is about 
it!
 
Rosie