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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

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