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November 9, 2014

Guided Reading: 1st Grade Style

Guided Reading: 1st grade Style

Guided Reading offers students intentional reading instruction with texts that are just a little too hard! From lesson planning to benchmarking students to word work activities, planning and preparing for Guided Reading can be overwhelming. Over the past 4 years, I have tested different group sizes, organizational systems, and group structures to see what works. So, here we go!

Throughout this post, you’ll find Amazon Affiliate links, which means Amazon tosses a few nickels my way if you purchase something through that link, at no extra cost to you, that help keep my corner of cyber-space running and helps fund giveaways!  

Grouping Students in Guided Reading Groups

Over the course of the first few weeks of school, I sneak in the time to meet with and benchmark all of my students. This is definitely a labor of love and times lots of time, but by having reading levels for all of my students I’m able to intentionally plan instruction! Without this information, I would be randomly pulling books and wasting our learning time. Our school uses Reading A-Z to benchmark students and print guided reading books.

Guided Reading offers students intentional reading instruction with texts that are just a little too hard! From lesson planning to benchmarking students to word work activities, check out these awesome ideas to make Guided Reading work!

Once I have Reading Benchmarks, I list all of my students by Guided Reading Level. When I do this I put them under their independent level. Then, at the very bottom I choose my groups, listing their Instructional Level (the level at which I’ll work with students) and the amount of time I spend with groups. When I make groups, I always try to shoot for 6 students. This is the number recommended by Jan Richardson and Fountas  & Pinnell. Sometimes 6 words and sometimes it doesn’t. You can snag an editable version of this table here.

Guided Reading offers students intentional reading instruction with texts that are just a little too hard! From lesson planning to benchmarking students to word work activities, check out these awesome ideas to make Guided Reading work!

Focusing My Guided Reading Instruction

The planning of guided reading can be overwhelming at first. Once you have your routines and structures, it makes like so much simpler. Plus, once you have routines, you can streamline your work! My go-to- texts are The Reading Strategies Book (for picking and developing teaching points), The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading by Jan Richards (lesson plan templates, sight word lists by guided reading level, skills list by guided reading level), and The Continuum of Literacy Learning by Fountas & Pinnell (great descriptors of reading behavior by guided reading level, really explores what each level looks like).

Guided Reading offers students intentional reading instruction with texts that are just a little too hard! From lesson planning to benchmarking students to word work activities, check out these awesome ideas to make Guided Reading work!

Our Guided Reading Set-Up

Of course, the reason we use a Daily 5 or Workshop schedule is so we can have that critically important guided-reading time with all of our readers, every day. Small group is when growth happens, and our beginning readers thrive during this time. I have four reading groups that are designated three different colors – green, yellow, and blue. (You can read more about my differentiation system in this post.) I store materials for my groups in a 3-drawer plastic container.

Since we’ve started making Daily 5 choices, the transition time between rotations has been extended. Therefore, I set-up my teacher table before school. That way, when other friends are making choices, the group of friends who are meeting with me can get started reading. I put a whiteboard on the bottom of the pile, a blends chart for my 2 lowest groups, and then, the book we’re reading.
Guided Reading offers students intentional reading instruction with texts that are just a little too hard! From lesson planning to benchmarking students to word work activities, check out these awesome ideas to make Guided Reading work!

Our Guided Reading Structure

The structure I use is based off of Jan Richardson’s The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading. Her Guided Reading blocks last ~30 minutes, so I have to pick and choose what we do. Typically, below, are the things I prioritize in our 15-20 minute blocks.

A Familiar Re-Read (1-2 minutes)

After we have finished the ‘choice’ part of the transition (normally lasting 2-3 minutes), I head to the teacher table and listen to a friend read. This is normally when I am doing a running record, a fluency assessment, or taking data for our tiered folders. When I need a writing utensil, I grab for this small, Ikea flower pot that sits on my desk. It’s not fancy, but it does the job. Plus, it doesn’t take up a lot of space on my teacher table.

Guided Reading offers students intentional reading instruction with texts that are just a little too hard! From lesson planning to benchmarking students to word work activities, check out these awesome ideas to make Guided Reading work!

Sight Words (1-2 minutes)

Picking 1-2 words from the book that align with sight words students need to know at that level, we practice writing, saying, and applying the words. Application, not memorization, plays a HUGE role during this time. We do lots of sentence writing, oral writing, and sharing our ideas while using our focus sight words in context.

Book Intro (1-2 minutes)

A book introduction is short, sweet and too the point. It is teacher-driven and gives students only an overview of what’s in the book. It does not summarize the book or give away all the juicy tidbits. If a book is fully of content-specific vocabulary or I have several friends in a group that might need extra language support, I love to pull out this Word Predictors strategy from Hello Literacy.  It’s THE most amazing way to scaffold students during Guided Reading. I briefly introduce our book & students generate a list of words they might encounter while reading. Then, we circle or tap the words when we reach them. Super simple but such a powerful strategy and helps support vocabulary-building skills!

Guided Reading offers students intentional reading instruction with texts that are just a little too hard! From lesson planning to benchmarking students to word work activities, check out these awesome ideas to make Guided Reading work!

Reading with Prompting (6-7 minutes)

Once our book has been introduced, we are ready to read. Students are reading by themselves at the whisper. As students are reading (using all of their strategies and checking for any words we might have predicted), I am checking in with students individually. During this time I listen to students read, prompt them for strategies, ask questions, and provide support. Since these are INSTRUCTIONAL texts, they are meant to be slightly difficult and students will need support.

Guided Reading offers students intentional reading instruction with texts that are just a little too hard! From lesson planning to benchmarking students to word work activities, check out these awesome ideas to make Guided Reading work!

Discussion & Teaching Point (2-3 minutes)

Pulling from our weekly comprehension skill, Jan Richardson’s list of skills by Guided Reading level, or based on my observations, I pick a focus for each of our books. From self-monitoring for expression (using punctuation as the indicator) to looking at how the author convey’s a character’s feelings, this is the ‘meat’ of our guided reading time. These are discussions and applications of reading comprehension and fluency that I want students applying to their reading inside AND outside of our Guided Reading time.

Guided Reading offers students intentional reading instruction with texts that are just a little too hard! From lesson planning to benchmarking students to word work activities, check out these awesome ideas to make Guided Reading work!

Word Work/Guided Writing (2-3 minutes)

The last few minutes for our time together is spent in Word Work. Often pulling patterns found in our texts, we build words, word ladders, and use lots of words in context. Below are some of my go-to Word Work tools – foam phonics dice, hard-sided phonics dice (these are great because different word parts are found on different color dice), and phonics tiles.

Guided Reading offers students intentional reading instruction with texts that are just a little too hard! From lesson planning to benchmarking students to word work activities, check out these awesome ideas to make Guided Reading work!

 So, this is what our guided reading time looks like. With my below-grade level group, I plan 20 minutes, but my two on-grade level groups get 15 minutes. Not included above is my above-grade-level group – we have moved completely to Chapter Book studies – Frog and Toad, Horrible Harry, Cam Jansen, etc. They are VERY high and the basal is way, way, way too easy. We spend our time together reading, connecting comprehension skills to our reading, or writing about our reading.
Overall, this system really works for me. I would love to spend the entire time reading, but have found with the Daily 5 my mini-lessons have been cut much shorter (which is fabulous), but I do have to make-up the instruction somewhere else. Teaching our skills and comprehension understandings with texts in hands makes it more real-world and not so arbitrary. So, for us, it works.
So, please tell me, what does guided reading look like in your room? What works for you?
Guided Reading offers students intentional reading instruction with texts that are just a little too hard! From lesson planning to benchmarking students to word work activities, check out these awesome ideas to make Guided Reading work!

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Filed Under: 1st Grade, Daily Five, Don't Miss These, Reading/Literacy Tagged With: 1st Grade

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jennifer Findley says

    November 10, 2014 at 12:49 am

    Do you have that Blends chart in your TpT store? That would be great for one of my J readers. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Kate says

      November 10, 2014 at 3:54 am

      HI Jennifer! You can grab the chart here -http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Phonics-Charts-for-Guided-Reading-and-Writing-638022. Good luck!

      Reply
  2. Chris Saunders says

    November 10, 2014 at 3:41 am

    Hi,
    Love your post –can you tell me where you got the short vowel freebie? Thanks, Chris

    Reply
    • Kate says

      November 10, 2014 at 3:53 am

      Hi Chris! You can snag it here – http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sort-It-Out-A-FREE-Write-the-Room-Activity-for-Short-Vowel-Words-1457376. Enjoy! 🙂

      Reply
  3. Hope Newport says

    November 10, 2014 at 4:00 am

    I also start my guided reading time the second the kids walk in the door (at least that's how it feels). It is actually about 10 minutes after kids arrive, but I really like the idea of having everything out for my first group so they can start right away even without me. Love being able to take a glimpse into your room. Thank you for sharing!

    Hope

    Reply
  4. Liz says

    November 10, 2014 at 11:03 am

    Great idea to time the reading groups especially when you give them a specific activity to complete. It's those little details that are so helpful!

    Reply
  5. paige buckwalter says

    November 11, 2014 at 1:43 am

    Hi friend! Where did you get the blend dice from? we would love that! Loved seeing your firsties in action:)

    Reply
    • Kate says

      November 11, 2014 at 2:35 am

      Hi Paige! I got them on Amazon. They were pricey, but we used them every week. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F8R5EG/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000F8R5EG&linkCode=as2&tag=thebrobagtea-20&linkId=RLI5XHKHYOPAOQIA

      Reply
  6. Kristin says

    November 11, 2014 at 5:54 pm

    I'm jealous of the freedom you have in the classroom! We use Reading Streets also, but are required to implement it almost exactly as it is written in the program. For Guided Reading, I teach all the advanced second graders and the small instruction program from Reading Street is just not enough to bring my kiddos to the next level nor is engaging for them. I'd love to be able to do chapter book studies with them. Keep sharing! Maybe one day I'll be able to figure out how to do it all.

    Kristin

    Reply
  7. Sivory says

    December 26, 2014 at 2:44 pm

    Thank you for the wonderful idea of placing 1st group materials at each seat. It really is the small ideas in a classroom that makes it flow easier on the teacher and students!!! Happy New Year!!

    Reply
  8. Angela Kelly says

    March 12, 2015 at 12:17 am

    I'm glad I found your blog! Just a quick question. Are your kids all reading the same thing, even if they read on a different level? I hand kids on all different reading levels in each of my groups and I'm just trying to get this all figured out. Thank you!

    Reply
  9. Angela Kelly says

    March 12, 2015 at 12:32 am

    I'm glad I found your blog! Just a quick question. Are your kids all reading the same thing, even if they read on a different level? I hand kids on all different reading levels in each of my groups and I'm just trying to get this all figured out. Thank you!

    Reply
  10. Samantha McClure says

    April 26, 2015 at 9:29 pm

    Do you meet with every group every day? How many groups do you have? I meet with three out of four groups a day and just can't find the time to meet with them all!

    Reply
    • Kate says

      June 4, 2016 at 4:40 pm

      Hello Samantha! I have 4 groups and I do meet with them everyday for 15-25 minutes. My higher groups meet for less time. Right now, I have 90-120 minutes for our reading block!

      Reply
  11. Natalie Ordas says

    September 30, 2015 at 2:33 am

    What do your assessments look like?

    Reply
    • Kate says

      June 4, 2016 at 4:39 pm

      We have District Common Assessments for the Common Core Reading Standards that we use, and we use guided reading assessments!

      Reply
  12. Sarah Thompson says

    March 11, 2016 at 2:15 am

    Great explanation of how reading is set up in your room. Question, if all your groups are reading different texts, how do you test/assess/grade? I am using a basal, Treasures, and am thinking about restructuring some things like you described in your post. I have a variety of readers, mostly low. The basal is not a good fit for them. But if I don't have the whole class read that story, what do I do about the weekly reading test on Fri for that story? Any suggestions are welcome!

    Reply
    • Kate says

      June 4, 2016 at 4:39 pm

      Hi Sarah! We actually pull outside comprehension stories from Reading Street for the assessment on Friday. They are not directly from the story read (if it was read) from the week.

      Reply
  13. Brandy Hanks says

    May 28, 2016 at 12:52 am

    Do you have a printable layout of what you do daily and the amount of time you spend on each? Do you teach anything whole group? Thanks

    Reply
  14. Valerie Rutherford says

    June 9, 2016 at 5:03 am

    Hi Catherine! Where can I find the mentioned Vowel Pattern Books? Simply Second does not make them.

    Thanks!

    Reply
  15. Beth Ammons says

    June 12, 2016 at 12:06 am

    Hey Catherine–
    Thank you for this awesome resource! A question for you– Where do you get your skill for the week from? Is it something you could share?

    Reply
  16. Colleen says

    September 21, 2019 at 2:23 am

    Hello,
    Do you have a writing block as well or is it embeded with the daily 5 and mini lessons?

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      January 1, 2020 at 12:36 am

      Great question! I do have a 35 minute block for Writer’s Workshop on top of our literacy block.

      Reply

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My name is Catherine Reed, and I am in Year 10 of my elementary life, residing in small-town, Kentucky.  I student taught in 1st grade and never ...

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