OFD Guided Reading

Organization, fun, and data keeping are 3 HUGE components of guided reading in my room. 

Hi, I am Kirstin from Hip Hooray in K! Come take a peak!

It probably looks super cluttered at my table, but I really need all my tools at an arms length. I don't have a desk, so my GR table comes a collection zone at times. I have to keep all my tools close AND organized for ease of access.



 I love this caddy from the Target dollar spot. It holds highlighters, pencils (& grips), dry eraser markers, crayons, glue sticks, and other knick knacks. It is in the center of my table on top of dry erase boards - easy to access!

I also have about a zillion binders to keep my data organized (which I'll cover below). I have a running record binder, standards based grading binder, sight word binder, math data binder....you get the point :op

 Reading HAS GOT to be FUN! If it's not fun, your done. Have fun learning sight words, super E, blends, decoding strategies.  I am a firm believer that learning to read looks different for each child. Differentiating your guided reading groups not only based on need but learning style is SO important! 

Organizing stamps in a clear divided container like this makes it easy for kiddos to find letters. Plus, small stamps give you the option for all your guided reading kiddos to have their own set.  Differentiated by only including a few letters or only vowels for tricky vowel combo practice! 

If you read Katie's post, she mentioned that she doesn't have to have specific guided reading plans - which is amazing! I love that she can just roll with what her kids need.  However, if you are to have plans like I do, you can leave them open ended. I often have a structure set up - books picked, vague idea of concepts I am teaching. Then I fill in the plans as we learn together.  So less plan I guess, more of a record. 

... data, data. How we prove our teaching is effective and our kids are learning (or what they need interventions in), like it or not.  Data tracking is a necessity.  Once a week, I pull a few students for running records while the rest are working independently. 

I keep all the grade level appropriate A-Z benchmark books and running records in a binder, organized by level.  Again, this gets me organized and provides a quick and easy way to assess my students progress. 

Each student has a clean plastic protector where I can document their reading level, title of book read, and date. This was NOT my idea. My wonderful mentor showed me her binder my first year and I have used a copy of it since. Seriously, so worth is. 

How do you organize your guided reading groups?  Do you abide by the OFD method? Have your own? We would love to hear about it!

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more guided reading fun all of April! 

<3 Kirstin