This paper focuses on eight teachers nominated as effective in teaching reading to 11-13-year-old students. Data consisted of interviews and unstructured and structured observations of the guided reading lessons. The qualitative data and their analysis explored the research participants' views to give more detail and filter the quantitative results. The research found although these schools and teachers had been identified as effective in the delivery of reading instruction, there appeared overall to be a need for further development in allowing more student-led dialogue and less teacher dominated discourse. The number of times the majority of these teachers instigated instructional strategies during a guided reading lesson impacted on power relationships countering dialogic discourse. (Contains 5 tables, 2 figures and 1 note.)