Skip to main content

Literacy Centers & Guided Reading


What is guided reading?
Very simply, guided reading is small group literacy instruction. It's purpose it to provided guided instruction to students at their level with a focus on their specific needs. Like other centers, grouping is done based on an individual students needs at the moment, meaning groupings are fluid and constantly changing. The students I work with in my Blue Group on Fiction may not be in the same group when I switch to Nonfiction.

How do you decide who is it what group?
A variety of strategies can be used to determine who goes in what group. Primarily, I use the F&P levels as determined by the Benchmark Assessment (BAS) to determine my students reading levels. Next I think about other specific strengths and weaknesses: who reads independently, who works well together, what skills do we need to improve, what tools and strategies are missing in their toolboxes. I then use those strengths and weaknesses to build my centers for the week.

What centers? How many? When do they change?
This is the hard part. It takes time to set up and organize outside of the instructional day. Some centers I have used are through programs like System 44 or RAZ Kids. But most of the time these are things I have created or sourced from the Daily 5 or Lucy Calkins' Writers Workshop.

  • Sight Words (for those who don't have them)
  • Spelling Stations (rainbow writing, Alphabetize words, quizzing a friend, 3x each, picture matching/memory)
  • Read to Self (quiet, independent)
  • Read to Someone (friend, stuffed animal, recording device)
  • Journal Prompts
  • Dialogue Journals
  • iPad/Laptop 
  • Listening Stations (song clozes, Youtube read alouds, sound discrimination)
As for how many stations, well that depends on how many students are in the room. Ideally you would have less than 6 doing guided reading with you but other than that those choices are yours. I changed my stations every week to fit with what we were doing in writers workshop, STEM, and Social Studies. I tried to make everything relevant and interwoven. Naturally some weeks went better than others. 

To keep myself sane, organized, and to provide accountability for the learners I used a BINGO chart, which I updated weekly. Successful completion of the chart and a BINGO won students Bonuses from the prize box (extra recess time, lunch in my room, a book, homework passes, extra iPad/computer time).


Reading and Literacy are content that I am very passionate about. So if you would like advice or assistance let me know. I would be happy to help you get set up in your classroom!


Some PD if you want it:
Videos:
How to Run Literacy Centers Part 1--teacher talk
How to Organize and Manage Literacy Rotations- teacher talk
Mrs. Mann 3rd Grade Daily 5 Literacy-- live classroom example
3rd Grade-Reading Stations- Brigotte Cranmer--live classroom example
Third Grade Reading Block--live classroom example
Perfect Literacy Centers --center ideas

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mod 3: An Overabundance of Chalboards: Where are the netizens?

Coming back to teaching in the States has been in some ways very relieving. Youtube isn't blocked. I can access my g-mail. Internet speeds are fast. And I am no longer covered in chalk. If you take a look at the picture you will notice lots of things, but I want to focus on the large green monstrosity in the center of the image. China has one of the largest populations on the planet. It also has some of the most cell phone dependent people I have met in my life. Not a day went by where I didn't witness someone run into something or someone, trip, or fall because of their focus and dedication to whatever was happening on their phone. So how come a country with billions of people and a culture full of dedicated cell phone users has no technology in their classrooms? Now that isn't true of every school or every classroom. The universities I taught in had projectors and occasionally internet access. Training schools are also well equipped. For the most part, however, most o...
8 comments
Read more

Using Blogs in the Classroom to Meet Learning Standards

Mod 2: Joining the Blogosphere It has been more than three years since I taught under the Common Core. Syncing back up has been a concern of mine as I rejoin the NYS K-12 TESOL gig. Not only am I jumping back into the Common Core, I am also jumping into early elementary, something I've not done full time before. Kindergarten and first grade are a bit intimidating but I am looking forward to the challenge. One of the things I have always wanted to do with young learners is to blog and Tweet. Blogging has many benefits. In my opinion, having younger students blog gives them ownership over their learning, something they may not generally have at their level when so much is decided for them. Mrs.Davison is a Kindergarten teacher who is blogging and tweeting with her class. She has some neat ideas about how to use blogs in the classroom. She uses part of her blog to track where visitors are signing on from and has met curriculum goals like geography with her blog. Integrating an...
7 comments
Read more

A Learner is like a Teacher

"Life is like a box of chocolates" and Learners are like Teachers Connectivism in Education What is connectivism? Connectivism is a learning theory that sees knowledge as networked and outside of an individual learner. "Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired. The ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital. The ability to recognize when new information alters the landscape based on decisions made yesterday is also critical." (Siemens)   In traditional educational models teachers filled their students with knowledge, knowledge that didn't change or adapt. Students were empty vessels waiting for knowledge to be dumped in by their teachers. Image Not Mine In today's system, or at least in my classroom, that belief of teachers as gatekeepers and holders of knowledge has changed. Teachers are no lon...
2 comments
Read more