Guided Reading Progress and Interactive Writing

Last week, I decided it was time to reorganize my guided reading groups. My kids have made so much progress since the beginning of the year and their groups needed adjusted. Some kids jumped up several reading levels and needed to move out of one group and into another. That's what I love about flexible grouping in guided reading. The kids aren't "stuck" in one group. I can move them around easily depending on their needs at that time.

Since I needed to make changes, I collected the guided reading books out of their browing boxes. They keep these browsing boxes in their cubbies and bring them to guided reading when I call their group. They get out the book that they read the night before (this is in their guided reading bag) and reread it. This is when I take a running record on one of my students. When they are finished rereading the book, they place it in their browsing box. During reading workshop, they can choose from the books in our classroom library as well as the books in their browsing boxes. This is an easy way to help your kiddos that are struggling with fluency. Rereading familiar books helps them to read quickly and fluently. My students love reading books out of their browsing boxes because the books are at their level and are familiar to them. (Although lately they've been telling me, "These are sooo easy!")

Here is a pic of my guided reading table after collecting the books out of their browsing boxes...

 

It was crazy! You can't tell in the picture but I also had books on the window ledge, books on chairs, books everywhere! After putting all the books together, I bundled them up and placed them in the red bins that I use to keep my guided reading groups' books in.

 

 

It was so exciting to move up levels for each group and get rid of the lower books altogether. I used post-its to help me remember the level of each group while I was putting the books in the bins. (And yes... if you can read the post-its, I have a span of level from C to O!!!) Now we are all set for guided reading groups this week with new groups and new books! Woo hoo!

 

 Last week, we had an in-service about guided reading and one of the points that was brought up was that interactive writing can and should be incorporated into guided reading. To be honest, this is something that I hadn't really thought about and wasn't doing. I really liked the idea of having a 5 minute lesson using interactive writing at the end of guided reading with each group. The only problem was that I didn't have any sort of chart paper to use that was small enough for my guided reading table. My teammate, Casi, and I were brainstorming and thought that it would be easy to just cut a regular sized chart paper tablet in half. I already have a table pocket chart at my table, so I could just put the chart paper over it. Here's a couple pics of the table pocket chart before and after.

 

      



I'm so excited to start incorporating interactive writing in my guided reading groups. I think it will be especially beneficial for my lower readers and writers!