Guided Reading Routines

Hi, Friends! How are ya? Ready for the weekend? Me? Oh, yeaauuuuh! It’s been a doozy of a week! The highlight? I finally got to do my favorite thing on the planet! ….work with my kids on reading! TO TEACH! The beginning of the year comes with so many “must do’s” it’s almost as if the actual teaching gets put on the back burner. Welllll, being the type of gal that prefers teaching over assessing any day…..actually getting seated at the guided reading table with a group of kids was an absolute blast!

After introducing our last area for Daily 5, it was time to dig in to the meat of why we spent the 1st 20 days building stamina to work independently.

Last week, I promised to share a little more about our guided reading routines.  As we’re starting to build them….here’s a little peek into our 1st week!

Our guided reading block is a solid 2 hours. Every precious minute of it is jammed packed with mini-lessons and small group activities. The wonderful thing about our schedule is having extended instructional blocks. Our daily literacy block basically flows like this……Guided Reading, then Mini-Lesson, Guided Reading, then Mini-Lesson and Guided Reading, then mini-lesson followed by independent work (if time allows). In the past I had begun with a mini-lesson…..

I chose to start with small group instead of a mini-lesson because our literacy block falls just after intervention. By doing this, I make sure not to do any new teaching of concepts before my littles who may have been pulled out return to the classroom.

Each round begins with students “checking in”. This year, I added “teacher table” clipart to the check-in for the group that is rotating to the table to check in first.

The first thing we do is review sight words.

Students practice writing on a laminated sheet of paper. A whiteboard could be easily used instead. I chose to go this route because taking whiteboards in and out was a little too big and bulky for me. Last year, I used contact paper to adhere them to the table. This year, students and I are sharing the space at the table, so I’ve left them free standing. You can click HERE to grab them, if you think you’d like to use them.

After reviewing 3 sight words, students are introduced to their book for the week or begin rereading their book with prompting. The goal of this time is active processing. I want to see my students encounter challenges and observe them as they problem solve to decode words. It’s during this time that I take individual running records and make notes of student reading behaviors. It generally takes about 8 minutes or so.

After reading, we go over a quick discussion prompt that explores a comprehension strategy.

Then, one new sight word is taught. We go through the 4 activities below in order to learn this sight word. Each student has a little bin in front of them that houses magnetic letters to build the new sight word, pencils, a highlighter, expo marker and an eraser.

Finally, we complete one of two activities. Early in the week, guided reading lessons conclude with word study. At our school, we use Wilson Fundations. It’s at this time, that we work to learn phonics patterns. During visits to the guided reading table later in the week, we complete guided writing or reading responses to deepen comprehension.

My file cabinet sits just behind the table. On word study days, we use these cards for word building. On guided writing days, I provide an example of the graphic organizer students will complete on a small whiteboard. Because it is not used daily, I’ve attached it to file cabinet with velcro. Sticks when we need it….pulls free when we don’t! =)

Guided writing notebooks are kept on a shelf close to the guided reading table. The label on the front of each bin indicates the name of the group…blue, purple, green or red. The symbols also correlate to the leveled readers from our series that we use for guided reading. We’ll use these journals throughout the year to complete guided writing, reading responses, and graphic organizers. They do not leave the classroom.

Here’s an example of the graphic organizer we completed this week over sequence of events. The picture shows 3 out of my 4 reading groups. Same concept…differentiated. The first group responded by recording complete sentences from the story in the order of how they happened in the story. The second group, copied the time order words and illustrated what happened first, next and last. The final group, framed the verbs from their story’s pages and labeled each sticky note with an action from the story. That’s it! The End…ish.=)

Each rotation to the table lasts about 18 minutes…..jam packed from start to finish!

This is the little bin I keep close at hand during guided reading. For now, it houses little pointers, magnifying glasses, pencils, bloom’s questions, LOTS of sticky notes, stickers, coding dots, pictures for vowel sorts and letter formation cards. Other things may be added as the year progresses.

What are my OTHER kids doing while I’m at the table with a small group?

They’re checked into Daily 5. They’re moving through routines for read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, work on writing, or word work to grow as readers and writers.

Of the 5 areas that students work on, I only have to prep materials for two of them. The first one of them is work on writing. There is one sterilite drawer at the writing table. In each of the 3 drawers is an activity to write on a given topic, focus on words, or build sentences. Each activity is complete with an I CAN statement to foster reading independence and a quick confidence boost!

The 2nd of these areas is word work.

Like writing, each bin houses an I CAN statement. All of the materials that students need to complete an activity are inside the bin. These activities will follow a pattern throughout the year to build students’ independence and familiarity.

How do I motivate students to complete quality work? The simplest, easiest thing that I’ve found to motivate my students is hanging their work up for ALLLLLL to see!

A clip up comes with having your work framed as an example for your friends to follow too!

And how do my students feel about this time of day? Oh, just like I DO! They love it……

Thanks for being patient as it took me a little longer than expected to get this post up! Getting ready for the week ahead? Click the pic below to grab the activities that my firsties will be working on! You can click HERE to check out my lesson plan format.

Happy guided reading, friends!

Bright Ideas Blog Hop~Guided Writing Journals

Hi, Friends! How are ya?  I hope you’re having a hoppin’ good time gathering lots of exciting ideas for your classroom!

In Room 159, we love reading. We love writing. We love writing about reading too! One way we accomplish this is through the use of guided writing journals.  Guided writing takes place at the small group table at the end of our guided reading lesson {on day 2 or 3}. It helps us to extend and reflect on the text we're reading.

 

 

Sometimes, our reflections look like graphic organizers. I keep lots of different sticky notes on hand for quick assembly in notebooks. The novelty of holiday and themed sticky notes helps to maintain interest in the journals.

There are also times when I pose a question for students to use to take a deeper look at the text and respond to it. We share our responses when everyone is done. This helps students to explain and provide textual examples to support the position they've taken to answer and respond to essential questions.

 

 

For emerging readers, guided writing journals also contain word work, sight word sentences, and illustrations to respond to reading. In order to help students organize journals, we use lots of coding dots, sticky notes and stickers.  Lastly, we’re also beginning to use this as a place for me to jot quick notes to students to encourage them or give them kudos for their hard work.

 

Do you use guided writing journals in your classroom?  If not, I hope this "bright idea" might shine a little light on your considering to do so! =)

 

Next up on the hop is Stacey from Teaching Ever After. She has a great post about organizing for a month at a time! I can certainly use some help with that! You can hop to her post by clicking her blog button below.

 

 

 



Not up for a one by one hop? That’s okay too! Alternatively, you can search by topic, using the link up below and move along to any other stop on the blog hop.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Five for Friday~Love YOU bunches!!!

Hi, Friends! How are ya? Happy Valentine’s Day! I’m linking up with Kacey at Doodlebugs Teaching for a quick Five for Friday share. I think I’m just about over the sugar rush from snacking on so many Valentine sweets today. Juuuust about…BUT, I think the Big Red kick will last just long enough to get me through a quick post.



I rarely drink soda, but we had a little with some vanilla ice cream today as our Love Potion and WHEEEEW!!! Let me tell ya…… I have been running around like a hamster on a wheel since my first sip!



I had to take my little valentines to get their chompers checked {at the dentist} on Tuesday, so my kiddos and I only had 4 days to squeeze in lots of learning this week. Every minute counted and we packed each one to the brim. We started the week by working toward meeting one of our established New Year’s goals…….to expand our vocabulary. We explored non-fiction texts to learn about where food comes from and created an A-Z chart. It’ll hang in our writing station next week as inspiration!



Love was in the air as we began to explore contractions. This little foldable was a big hit! Next week….contraction surgery!



You can’t have too many charts, right? Hearts were flowing throughout the room. We couldn’t resist adding a few to our list of yummy favorites. Writers write for a purpose….now I know what to add to the grocery list, IF I were planning on doing a little shopping. Apples and pizza, anyone?



Guided writing was lovely too! Sticky notes make for the perfect sized, quickly assembled graphic organizer! LOOOOOVE me some sticky notes {and sharpies}! Writing about reading makes us HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!!!



FROOOOOGGGYYY inspired our Valentine card holders, but the smiles drawn on those bags didn’t compare to the smiles that were abound in our classroom this afternoon. Be it the sugar, the Big Red or the feeling of love in the room…it was a crazy, wonderful week!

Hope yours was too!

 

Five for Friday~Stolen Moments

Hi, Friends! How are ya? It’s been a doozy of a week! We’ve managed to play “catch up” after our snow day off. Yep! You read that right…SNOW day…! And guess what?! Today, it was over 70 degrees! That’s TX weather for ya!


In between switches from jackets to tee shirts, we squeezed in lots of smile worthy moments….



We completed another class book! As we’ve grown as writers, we’ve begun to really enjoy sharing our writing. One way we do this is through creating class books. Our goal is to have one for every student to take home at the end of the year. We’ve created them to practice abc order, sight words and as a way of making connections to our story of the week. I love that they’re writing! They love having personalized books to read. Win/win!



Word work in small groups took on the form of a mini-book of glued sounds. Students recorded the sounds we focused on for the day, listed 3 words and used them in sentences with their friends at the table. I never imagined this simple activity leading to me needing a tissue, but it did.

I have a student that I’ve affectionately nicknamed ‘Halo’. I call him that because he is an angel. He’s the love of Christ personified in a 6 year old…genuinely kind, always thoughtful, hard working and just an all around wonderful person! As busy as our days become and with all that we have to do, sometimes we have moments that completely surprise us and remind us of why we do what we do. This activity led to one of those little moments. When I asked the kids at the table to use one of their words in a sentence, Halo, leaned over his book and began to write. When he was done, he lifted his head with a sweet smile swallowing his face and the entire room lit up! A sunray from the heavens shone down on his face. Then, I looked at his book to read the sentence he had so proudly written….

  Thank you for helping me.

….and my heart skipped a beat because he not only wrote a sentence, he wrote a message. A message that helped me to realize, that yes…we had things to do and to cover to catch up from the previous week’s day off. BUT, more importantly we had moments, messages, and milestones to enjoy, to savor, to completely be in the moment for.

Thank YOU, Little Halo, for helping ME!



When you work in a place where appreciation, uplifting, and positivity is the name of the game, it’s an easy thing to show up each day. Our school is more than just a group of people working together, more than friends…we’re family. A collection of dedicated, talented people with one purpose, supporting one vision. We take the time to enjoy special moments, uplift each other and encourage each other. We’re each blessed with unique talents that compliment each other and share them freely. It’s a blessing to walk into the atmosphere of our campus. Though my kids’ efforts and hard work often move me to tears, these ladies bring on nothing but smiles and sheer joy. They’re simply the best and we make one rockin’ 1DERFUL team!



As we all move toward 100th day celebrations, wrap up mid year assessments, plan for the end of the year while looking ahead to the next….stop, for just a moment. Lift each other up. Exhale. Enjoy the moment. Be silly. Be absolutely, 1DERFULLY, insanely silly…….TOGETHER! It’s a 1DERFUL, blessed life that we live.

 

A Peek at Last Week…{Visual Review}

Hi-ya, Friends! How are ya? Last week was our first week back after the holiday break. After enjoying some time to rest and rejuvenate, we returned to school on one of the coldest days of the year to a chilly 19 degrees! Ugh, it makes me cold just thinking about it! In true Texas fashion, it was back in the 70’s by Friday…BUT getting to Friday with the coldest weather we’ve experienced yet, rain, and NO recess was just a little K-RA-ZzzzY, with a capital K {wink, wink}! HA!

Sooo, as I prepare for Week 2 of 2014, here’s a quick peek at our last week! I hope you you’ll find it helpful as you kick off the new semester.



Our little home for the day has been reorganized for a better flow and easy access to materials. The picture above is of our writing station. The picture below is of our little library nook. I LOVE open and clutter free. If it doesn’t have a specific purpose or function for our learning, it’s out of our room!


Books are organized by level and interest. This spot is a definite class favorite!



Meet our new addition…the author’s chair! This little guy has sparked a renewed interest in poetry journals, inspired better quality work in writer’s notebooks and morning journals. They’ve all been volunteering to share now that we have a special, dedicated spot for it. Who knew?! I’m thrilled the kiddos are lovin’ it!



We’ve begun practicing multi-step directions. We used this craft by Miss Kindergarten to set reading goals for the new year!



Our CAFE board has now been personalized with names. How I wish I could’ve recorded some of the conversations students had as they honestly identified areas of growth. Each student chose an area to work toward improving and posted their name under the appropriate header. After completing this activity, students then worked together in small groups to write down the specific reading skill they would like to work toward improving. My class amazes me a little more every day!



Interactive writing….(They love sharing the pen…..sometimes, I wish they’d let me write a little more.) =)



Guided Writing in small groups….



Differentiated word work…. We’ve come so far, but still have lots of work to do.





And here’s what we’ll be up to this week…including mid year testing. Yaaaaaaaaaay, right?! Haha! We’ll get through it…interpret it and make adjustments to get ready to rock this second semester of the year! It all goes by so fast!



Have a great week! Click the pic to grab ‘em. “See ya” soon! Laters, gators!