What do poetry, reading, writing, listening, community building, word work, and high-frequency words have in common? These are things that students can practice, review, and strengthen through kindergarten literacy centers! Once literacy centers (aka literacy stations) have been introduced and established, your students will love getting to work alongside their peers and strengthen their literacy […]
One common misconception about guided reading is that you can’t start until kids know all of their letters, sounds, and sight words and are ready to read. But, how do you know when kids are ready to read? Is it when they know all of their letters? Or are they ready when they can name […]
You are sitting at the guided reading table and a child gets to a word and is staring blankly at you. You aren’t quite sure why they don’t know that word. You know the child can monitor for meaning as they are reading. You know the child has seen the word before. But you see […]
At one time or another, we’ve all as teachers had that one student that dreaded coming to the guided reading table. The student who didn’t want to read to you or with you or out loud for anyone. Maybe even this student visibly hangs their head when it comes to reading. Reluctant readers are often […]
Guided reading groups look different in each teacher’s classroom, but they usually have the same components. We all have a book introduction, read the text, and then teach a skill or strategy that our students need in order to grow as readers. We all also can feel overwhelmed trying to squeeze everything into such a […]
Tips for Guided Reading When It Feels Like It’s Not Working Have you ever felt like your students aren’t making a lot of growth in guided reading? Does it seem like they have been working on the same level for a while? Have you found yourself wondering if you should continue doing guided reading? I […]
When teachers ask me about how to help students move forward in guided reading instruction, I ask about what they are doing to also help improve reading fluency. These two things go hand in hand: fluency is just one of the five pillars of reading instruction. But, what if you don’t have time to do […]
I remember in my early years of teaching, sitting at my kidney table after school and looking at my guided reading level tracker. Was it time to move up Susie? How did I know if it was time to move students up in guided reading levels? What did a student do in their reading that […]
When it comes to completing reading assessments, there is always so much to do! Teachers have to gather their materials, prepare both students and parents, find testing checklists, and keep track of important data. I know you are already doing so much to serve your students, so I wanted to help make reading assessments easier […]
One of the trickiest things for young readers to learn is to self-monitor and notice their own reading errors. It’s hard for readers to master and coordinate all of the pieces of reading like concepts about print, phonics, reading strategies, sight words, and self-monitoring. So what do we do to help coach readers to notice […]
When it comes to analyzing running records, circling in the MSV section shows you what’s going on when a student is reading. Once you determine the information a student is using to solve an unknown word, what do you do when you notice that the student is only using syntax or visual cues, but ignoring […]
When things went bananas last year and we were thrown into distance learning, I was excited to figure out how to launch virtual guided reading groups. I had tons and tons of teachers just like you asking for my help in figuring how to do virtual guided reading to keep moving readers forward. Just like […]
Have you ever found yourself using a system, but not really knowing why? Maybe you are using it because someone introduced you to it and you just rolled with it. Maybe you have found yourself using it because you knew there was a purpose but weren’t sure what it was. I know I have been […]
One aspect of in-person learning that is a little challenging to recreate while distance learning is small groups. For guided reading, this is critical. If your district won’t let you use Zoom, there is a way to create breakout rooms on Google Meet. You might be wondering, “Why do I need breakout rooms for small […]
Distance learning has so many challenges – technology, student engagement, parent involvement (too much or too little), and the list goes on. Before distance learning reading instruction can take place, teachers will have to complete virtual assessments for each of their students. Without getting some best practices in place, it can be difficult to get […]
Tips to help you equip parents to master guided reading via distance learning. Part of mastering distance learning is going to be figuring out how to best equip and prepare parents on how to support their child’s learning at home. While guided reading look the exact same? Nope! You will probably find yourself battling distracted […]
With many districts around the country opting in for some form of distance learning again this fall, it’s time to really dig in and pivot our teaching practices to serve our students. What about guided reading? How do we launch guided reading while distance learning? I wanted to help you map out a plan to […]
One common hang up in guided reading is what to do with students before they read. How can we get students’ brains ready to read and set the tone for the small group time? Teachers often know the lesson needs to be about 20 minutes, but wonder what to do with students besides read the […]
