Reading Groups and your Theme

It is fairly obvious how to incorporate your theme into your reading groups.  A typical K-4 class should have about 4 or 5 reading groups and you can name your groups to fit in with the theme.  So Going with the jungle theme again, my first year teaching I had the Lion Group, Monkey Group, etc.  You can obviously get very creative with this.  I had boxes (the fabric kind you can buy at any teacher store with pictures of the group and the name on the front. I would pull guided reading books for two weeks at a time and plan and prepare lessons and then store these lesson sets in the crates until the day I was ready to use them.  This was also helpful for whenever I can up with a word or comprehension activity that I would want my group to do. I would sort it into their group's box.

If you have never done guided reading before, it is important to use a system to figure out what reading level all your students are on, preferably the first week of school.  Most districts use DRA or Rigby or another form of running records that correlate to book levels.  You then want to group your kids into reading groups, based on their ability.  All the kids on similar levels should be in the same group, so that they are reading the same books.

To see how to take Running Records when your kids are reading, click the link below for some great tips:

Busy Teacher Cafe- Running Records

Here is a breakdown of my weekly (most of the time) guided reading plan. I will go over my centers and center rotation system in a later post.
I always met with my low group first to MAKE SURE we have enough time. I meet with this group every day.  The Second lowest should also be met with every day.  Your 2-3 higher groups can be met 3-4 times but still as much as possible. 

Monday- Picture walk through new book to make perdictions about text, discuss difficult vocabulary words, and talk about a phonics sound we might see that will be new.  Students can use whiteboards to write predictions or brainstorm words with certain phonics blends. Students spend the last few minutes reading from the new book.  Students take the book home each night and need to read it to a parent and get the parent to log the book on the reading log.

Tuesday- Students do a semantic web or other comprehension strategy to show me that they remember what they read and understand.  We spend this reading group discussing difficult parts, questioning each other, and reading parts that were interesting/intrigueing, etc.

Wednesday-FLUENCY, I use Wednesdays to practice speed when reading.  My district provided us with a poetry kit that allowed me to time children and allowed them to time themselves when reading and rereading, with the hopes of getting faster the more times they have read.  You can either print poems or have them read sections of passages or books, but teach them how and why good readers read quickly

Thursday- Introduce a new book and follow similar to Monday.  Students keep both books to take home for practice.  They read Monday's book again for familiar read (helps with fluency)

Friday- Friday is the day I used to pull small groups that need help with certain skills or had problems during reading group/centers over the week.  Since this was our "Finish Up" day for centers, I could pull who I needed to pull and review as I saw fit. 

I always have my students begin reading as soon as they get to reading group so that I can listen to their fluency and accuracy and make sure they sound like they have read the night before.  I use this time to check that their reading log has been signed by their parents the night before.