My third grade team has 4 guided reading groups that we meet with 4 times a week. I meet with my groups on Tuesday- Friday. Each Monday I front load with a lot of whole group activities, so we don't meet on that day. I also share the centers that students will be working in that week on Mondays so I do not take up any whole group time explaining on Tuesdays before our rotations.
I wanted a way to have my guided reading groups leveled but then let my students work with students outside of their guided reading groups during the other rotations each day. My system is pretty simple and the kids caught on right away! We practiced one day the first week of school and then they were ready to do it "for real".
My third grade team has also jumped on board and I think they are seeing great results with management during reading. They used to have each group rotate as a whole and the entire group would do one center each day. This meant that 6 students would be at one center together. Management nightmare!
I have 4 different rotations (since I have to meet with 4 Guided Reading Groups). They are Guided Reading (with me), Read to Self, Seatwork and Centers. During the seatwork rotation students are practicing skills that we have been working on during whole group or guided reading. During the Centers rotation the students visit one center per day for a total of 4 centers each week. My centers change from week to week but include: technology, word work, listening, spelling, art, science, social studies, math. It really depends on what stories/genre we are working on and skills we are practicing.
Your Reading Rotation Cards should be posted in a centers chart. I leave all of my student cards where they are and just rotate the center cards each day. Be careful to make sure that you are spreading out your students so that they are not more than 2 students at a center per rotation.
Check out my rotation cards for free at my TPT store! Click on the pic of my center chart to snag your copy. Let me know what you think!
