Reading Group Organization

Who doesn't love to be more organized?  Even when I think I am organized I know there is always room for improvement.  I would love to share with you how I organize everything for my reading groups.  It makes my life so much easier during our guided reading time.

I use one of the ten drawer carts that you can find at teacher stores, Michaels, or even Sam's Club.  On each drawer I put a picture of an animal.  All of my reading groups are animal names.

Inside each drawer I have everything that I need for that group.  You will find in each drawer, the lesson plan for that group for the week, the book they are working on, magnetic letters (for our focus sight word), sentence strips, envelopes, pencils, and scrap paper.  You can also sometimes find a Words Their Way sort or Elkonin boxes depending on that group's activities for the week.

When it is time for that group's lesson, all I have to do is pull out the drawer and bring it over to my guided reading table.

I love organizing the group materials this way for a few reasons:

1.  It is easier when I have a sub.  I just tell the substitute teacher to pull out the drawer and everything is there for her.

2.  I have two reading aides who come in to help with reading groups so all they have to do is grab the drawer and go sit with their group.  Easy peasy!

3.  It makes my life simpler.  

When I go to plan for the next week, I take out all the drawers and only put them back in when their drawer is ready to go!

How do you organize your materials for your reading groups?  I would love for you to tell us in the comments.  

My Guided Reading Digital Toolbox

Hi there, Kinder Tribe!  I am Brittany from Mrs. Banister’s Kindergarten Kids, and I’m going to tell you about some of my favorite apps to use during my guided reading time.  

Guided reading is by far one of the most important times of the day.  I’m a firm believer that students learn best when working in small groups with someone leading them.  No program, device, or robot will ever change that! :)  However, there are so many meaningful, engaging resources available to the modern day student.

Many of you have probably heard of Reading A-Z, but have you heard of RazKids?  In a nutshell, RazKids is the digital version of Reading A-Z.  This affordable leveled reader program offers students an interactive set of books on their level (assigned by the teacher), where they can earn incentives for their reading!  The app allows students to read silently, be read to, or record their reading.  Higher levels of books also offer comprehension questions for each story.  In my classroom, we use a combination of both Reading A-Z and RazKids.  Since my students do not take their iPads home, Reading A-Z offers a great at-home connection to our guided reading time!

This program is expensive, but sign up for a free trial to check it out!

Confer is an app that houses all of your info!  While this app is a little pricey ($24.99), it is a one-stop shop for your guided reading information.  Confer can store your notes, your pictures of student work, your student goals… It literally does everything.  

Record of Reading is a free app from Clemson University.  Record of Reading is your running record in digital format.  After you complete your running record, you can save it or send it.  I love it because it eliminates the paper trail!

Running Record Toolbox has been in my guided reading toolbox for years!  Prior to my class going to a 1:1 environment, I used this app to determine my students running record scores.  It is quick, easy, and one you definitely need!  It’s much more than a calculator… It will tell you where your students are struggling and their level after reading the text!

Within our guided reading time, I also love to utilize creation apps for word work and retell.  Here are some of my favorites!

ChatterPix is great for story retell!  My kiddos this year have really needed extra support in retell… This app is GREAT and novel enough for kiddos to really engage in what they are doing.

PicCollage is WONDERFUL to use for any kind of graphic organizer.  Whether you are sequencing parts of the story, or organizing types of letters, this app offers limitless options!

Sock Puppet is a super fun app for story retell!  Students can practice retell by making their sock puppets tell the story.  We love using it in guided reading!

Thank you for joining me today!  Happy (Guided) Reading!

Guided Reading in April--Reading & Vocabulary Strategies

Hello, Kinder Tribe! I am Breanna from A Pinch of Primary. I am so excited to be posting all about one of the biggest parts of our day--the literacy block. My school uses the Fountas & Pinnell literacy foundation and I just L-O-V-E it. Guided reading fits perfectly with our F&P resources and The Daily 5 model we use! If you're looking for a fabulous guided reading resource, Jan Richardson's book is like the HOLY GRAIL for guided reading lessons and ideas. Seriously, we swear by it in my corporation. I love that I can look at the time of year in the book and see exactly where they need to be, what we need to be working on, and how to give the extra boost to those low, average, and higher kiddos.

At this point in the school year, and with the way our kindergarten assessing schedule works, we finished up 'official' guided reading groups last week. I know, I know...This is sounds HORRIBLE and every other possible synonym for horrible, but we have a lot going on in the next 28 days before school is out. Yes, 28 days! YIKES! Where does the time go with our little kinder babies?! We have end-of-year benchmarking to do, our mile-long list of quarterly assessments to give, and we give the Observation Survey a second time to see how much they have grown (this is our K-screening method and is a time consuming task, but contains extremely useful data). We still do unofficial reading groups to push those little ones that need the extra little boost and we continue to work with the kids that need that enrichment to continue growing as a reader. In those 'unofficial', in-between-testing reading groups, I work a lot on fluency strips, comprehension passages, and, my favorite, reading/vocabulary strategies.

To start the year and my reading groups, I use the animals to introduce reading and vocabulary strategies. Here is a glimpse at the reading strategies in my classroom:

You can grab these posters in my TpT store here.

These posters have been so beneficial to my students. Even my little ones who are constantly needing those reminders to get their lips ready or use your eagle eyes, they always remember the picture. I have even heard them telling their elbow buddy to use the strategies to sound out a word they are unsure of. (#HappyTeacherMoment) Not only are these strategies fabulous to use during reading, they are also extremely helpful when sounding out more difficult words during vocabulary time. In our F&P series, we use sound boxes to segment sounds, chunks, blends, etc. This is one of my students' favorite parts of the group time. We have our challenge words or words found in our books during our group time that they are to sound out, but the sound boxes work from the beginning of the year in K all the way through first grade! These resources are so connected because I hear myself saying get your mouth ready to know which sound to write, use stretchy the snake to stretch those words out, find chunks you know, etc. There are so many options! Here is a picture of the sound boxes I created to use with my kinders:

They are nothing fancy in my room. They are laminated to use for dry erase markers, but putting them in pocket pals would be just as easy!  Click here for a FREEBIE of my BOOMIN' sound boxes! I just love how these work from August to end of kindergarten and beyond! Consistency in a reading routine is just as important as the physical procedures we practice each and every day--even when the craziness of April and May ensues! :) 

What guided reading resources or tools can you use from start to finish in your classroom?

~Breanna

Guided Reading: How I Set up For Success!

Hello everyone!! I am Molly from Miss K's Little Rays! I am excited to be posting for Kinder Tribe today! Our topic for the month of April is GUIDED READING!! I have been thinking about guided reading and came up with some of the tips that I would recommend for starting a successful guided reading block!

1. Practice! It is so very important to practice transitions and group activities, especially in kindergarten!! I spend the first month of school with practice stations (playdough mats, stamps, etch-a-sketch) to get my kiddos used to working in small groups and to practice the appropriate noise level. This is also CRUCIAL in getting transitions to be quick and quiet. This year, my kiddos were AMAZING and loved the practice. I think this truly helped to create an environment and expectations of what guided reading time should look and sound like. My students know they need to be accountable for the work that they are doing and that it isn't playtime. Below is a picture of my little rays during the first week of practice! They would work for increasing periods of time to build up their stamina! 

2. Plans! After attending the IL ASCD Kindergarten Conference two years in a row and listening to Deanna Jump talk about how she does guided reading, I was sold! I bought her Guided Reading 101 Strategies and Word Work as well as her Guided Reading Unit Two.  These two products have been SO amazing to use with my kiddos. The strategies and materials provide my little rays with hands-on learning. There are so many different ways to setting up guided reading, so find what works best for you!! As a second year teacher just starting guided reading, I needed a little guidance on how to begin so this product was extremely beneficial! 

One of the strategies that two of my groups are working on is stretching their sounds. We use "Stretchy Snake" to remember to pull these words apart by their sounds as seen below.

3. Manipulatives! We all know that manipulatives allow for students to grasp concepts at a concrete level, and in order to be able to reach the higher levels of abstract thinking, they have to understand the concept on a concrete level. Some of my kiddos never move on from concrete, and some grasp it rather quickly and are ready. Manipulatives also help make the learning more exciting or engaging for students. Whether it is a reading wands or fingers to help track or magnetic wands to help blend words, they make the experience and the skills easier to learn and understand.

4. Set schedules! I have revamped my 'schedule' so many times trying to find one that works best. I have done rotating each day to different groups, but consistency was lacking! I finally sat down and scheduled my groups to meet with on specific days. Not only was this easier for me to keep track, but my student's were way more accountable and excited for their groups because they knew "Monday is our day!". I love that my students get to meet with me the amount of times they are supposed to and I am help even more accountable to meet with the groups as needed :)

Thanks for checking out my guided reading tips! Comment below with some ideas or tips of your own!!

Molly - Miss K's Little Rays

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

Guided Reading Routine

Hey!  It's Katie from Miss Kate's Desk.  I am here today to share with you my routine for my guided reading groups.  I absolutely LOVE guided reading.  It is my favorite time of day.  I generally follow this routine below, but you know, sometimes things happen and we change it.  If we don't have a funky schedule change, drill, testing, or assembly...I am at my table with my groups. 

*Sight Words*

I always start out my guided reading groups with sight word flash cards.  Not all groups do the same flash cards.  I group my sight words by quarter which are color coded (we use 4 grading quarters in my district).  Some groups know the current quarter's words so we move on, others may be working on a previous or current quarter.  I start flashcards for sight words right off the bat at the beginning of the year when my students start reading groups with me.

*Read a Book*

Most Monday-Thursday we read a leveled book together.  Generally we read the same book more than one day (2-3 days) Some days we will switch it up and whisper read a book while I listen to various students reading.  On We read books on the students' instructional level.  They take home an independent level book each week after Christmas break.

I group my students by reading level. They are flexible groups.  My building does DRA in December for kindergarten to find out reading levels of students.

I do running records though starting about October to help group students better.  I also do running records or progress monitoring throughout the year so my groups are flexible and students change reading levels.  This way students aren't stuck with a level 2 (B) book from December to May.  

Don't forget to ask comprehension questions!  I am getting better at this, but some days due to time I would rush through or not ask any at all my first years of teaching.

*Boogie Board Phonics or Sight Word Practice*

I end my group with a few minutes of word writing practice.  Some days we work on blends or digraphs, or silent e words, or sight words.  It varies depending on my groups and what skills we need to practice.  Some days I give tally marks when they write words correctly.  The winner gets a smelly sticker or a gummy bear.  The beginning of the year we do a lot of letter writing practice and also CVC practice.

I am in love with Boogie Boards.  I use to use dry erase boards and markers in reading groups and they drove me crazy.  Someone was always losing a lid, or the ink would run out.  I got a couple on my own through Amazon when they were on sale.  My mom thought they were amazing and found a few at Sam's Club (pretty cheap) for me.  I also bought a couple from Michael's with a coupon.

They are wonderful!  Students write on these with the stylus and it writes with a fine tip point similar to a pencil.  To erase, simply push a button (with a finger, a student of mine pushed with the stylus pen and poked a hole in it and it would not erase anymore).  

*Fridays*

On Friday we always do a phonics or sight word game as a reward for working hard all week.  Some of our favorites are shown below.  I also have many resources from TPT that I love to use.

*The Time*

I stick to 4 groups that are 15 minutes long. 

Approximately...

-1 minute for flashcards

-5-10 minutes for the book

-rest of the time for word practice (letters, cvc, phonics, sight words, blends/digraphs, and more)

I am fortunate to have a reading aide come in my room to do 2 groups so each day all of my students are able to have a group.  In years past I've struggled to meet with each group and when I did their groups were only long enough to read one book and that's it.  She is able to go to our K-2nd grades for 30 minutes in each room a day.  It's such a huge help.  If you do not have this kind of help, look into other options such as volunteers, a staff member without a classroom, or even an older grade student who can read and do sight words with your higher readers who are reading on grade level.

*Placement of the Table*

My guided reading table has literally been in every corner of my classroom.  I finally settled earlier this year on one of my long sides of my classroom with the table placed in the center.  I do this so I can see ALL literacy stations.  I have a big brown walk in closet for student bags and teacher storage on shelfs that creates a corner of my room that is hard to see.  Kindergarteners love those places that they think you can't see them.  :)

I also put the table on the side of my room with the word wall next to it so my students have easy access to sight words and color words while doing our groups.

Find a routine that works for you and your students.  No one exact routine will work for everyone since groups due to time you have and number of students.  

You may have noticed I mentioned nothing about lesson plans.  Fortunately I do not have to have lesson plans for guided reading.  I pre-pick books for the week, other than none of it is planned. I observe and watch my students to see what words and phonics skills they need.  Plans are wonderful but you may plan to do really hit retelling and then realize your group forgot how to use picture clues when stuck on a word and need to hit that first instead.  Be flexible and have fun!  If you make it look like a chore or a bother, your students will see practicing reading and words as that too.

Happy reading!