Workshop Wednesday: Guided Reading and What I Have to do to Stay Sane

How do I stay organized with my guided reading groups?

Last year that was an easy question - I did Daily 5 - it worked beautifully - I was happy - the kids were learning.  I didn't know so much about task cards, just did the 5 different "stations".

This year is different.  We started out the year slowly implementing Daily 5.  They did a great job when we were all doing the same activity... then I started to give them a couple of choices at a time and it fell apart.  Didn't matter if we reviewed the expectations every single time - it still fell apart due to a handful of kids.  Basically that means that we have done a lot full class activities during reading time.  I have done intervention during silent reading time or independent time - a couple of minutes here and there, thankful for parent volunteers to help tackle one on one... that was for the majority of the year.

Here's my schedule with reading:
Monday - preview story, make connections, define vocabulary, spelling words
Tuesday - read/discuss, first skill - whole class activity with skill, story map
Wednesday - partner read, study guide comprehension question, summary write
Thursday - jeopardy game to review, second skill - whole class activity with skill, response to literature
Friday - test day, fluency test

Yes, I know I mentioned the region groups at the beginning of the year - we kept those for the first half of the school year.  It helped with fluency vs. sight words vs. comprehension.  It was easy to make sure that every kiddo had exactly what they needed when the parents called them over, and when I could sit by them during silent reading.  I could never do centers with those groups though, tried it and got a headache.  Some of them just could not stay out of mischief.  In 4th - I focus on sight words & fluency for only the first half of the year.  There is so much other stuff to accomplish that after we are halfway through the year I have my parent volunteers take over fluency completely - except for the Friday fluency partner read.

This is all with the weekly story.  We have our anthology - one story every week that the entire class is supposed to go through.  It's not differentiated, what is differentiated is what I do with it with the different needs of my students.

I have a binder with a section for each kid. In their section they have my notes of working with them - just binder paper with the date, their FACE goals, and a fluency sheet. It's simple and works.

Next year I'm looking forward to going back to the traditional Daily 5. :)

I'm excited to read about what you do in your class.  Go link up with Jivey!