Stick it to 'em!!

I just had the most fun ever with my guided reading groups! I have an obsession with post-it notes. I have all sizes, colors, designs, stickness strengths....too many by far! My obsession seeped into my instruction awhile back and I love coming up with new ways to use the little magic pieces of paper with my kiddos.

Today I used my Non-fiction Text Feature post-its with my guided reading groups and they loved it! I love being able to find hands on activities during reading and what a way to keep them engaged. My students worked in pairs to find various text features in their leveled readers about penguins. The discussions that were taking place were focused on investigating the text and learning about each feature. After the pairs had ample time to search the text and slap their post-it labels (which by the way is a text feature!-just saying!!) we spent time letting them share their findings. It was such a worthwhile mini-lesson. I can't wait to do it again.

If you would like to try your hand at this guided reading activity, click on the post-it picture and head on over to my TPT store and grab your FREE copy of my post-its! They will be free until next Friday, October 14th. I'd love to hear from you all if you use this activity with your kiddos!! Have a good one!

Melissa

Guided Reading Rotations Made EASY!

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!

Guided Reading

Hey friends! I am very excited to be returning to the classroom to teach third grade after two FABULOUS years as an instructional coach. I have big plans to do some major overhauling of my classroom, schedule, reading program, EVERYTHING!!! I can't wait to dive in with some of the great things I have learned during my coaching days.

I have big plans to delve into my two feet tall stack of professional books this summer. I know I am biting off more than I can chew- especially since our summers seem to shrink more and more each year like a wool sweater that we just keep tossing into the dryer!! I have so much to do now that I will be teaching in the fall. I feel like I am starting over again. I will have to drag my classroom out of the garage and basement and set up shop all one more time!! It almost feels like I am a first year teacher again- the butterflies are already starting to flutter!!

Currently I am reading Guided Reading in Grades 3-6 by Mary Schulman. I am almost finished!! It has some great information in it and resources to use with my groups but I am looking for more! Do you have any book suggestions for me? How do you do Guided Reading in your classroom?