Reading Centers with a Checklist

I've received a lot of questions on Instagram about how I run my reading center time in my classroom. I have played around with this precious 45 minutes of time for years. I want my students doing work that is engaging, purposeful, relevant and encourages them to become responsible for their work while giving choice.

This has all led me to my little center checklist. The checklist that I currently use looks like the one you see below. I don't like to tie myself to centers with names because what we do throughout the year changes and I want their centers to grow with students.

When I plan my centers each week, I do try to keep them somewhat consistent. I use the planning template seen below. It's easy, but keeps me focused.

Here is an example of what it looks like filled out digitally. Normally, I just write them down with pencil because I like to be quick and simple! :-)

Here is a break down of how the centers run in my classroom. We will begin with the rotation chart!

When students have the checklist card by their groups name, then they have the choice to pick an activity they would like to complete for the day. They are required to complete one checklist activity per day. They are allowed to do 2, if one doesn't take them too long. They get pretty good at managing their time (another important life skill to learn)!

I introduce the new activities on Monday. Wednesday, I have kids turn in their folders and I do a midweek check up to make sure everyone is getting their work completed. If not, then they get Mrs. Hursh on their tail for the rest of the week. It only takes about 1 week of me nagging a student for them to kick it in gear for the rest of the weeks. ;-)

Here are the centers set up from last week. I'll get to the grading part here soon!

This week students are unscrambling sentences. I don't want to make a million sets of these cards, so I just cut out one sentence, place it in a bucket and write a number at the top. When students visit this center, they grab one bucket, unscramble the sentence and then record the sentence on their activity sheet. When they complete that sentence, they put those cards back, put the bucket back, grab a new bucket and repeat until all sentences are done. The kids don't lose cards this way and they aren't overwhelmed by way too many sentences at one. It helps them focus on just one thing at a time.

 To prep the craft center, I place student supplies in the two bins you see below. If there are little pieces, I just put them in zip lock bags. I make an example craft for students for them to look at while they create their own.

When students complete an activity from their center checklist, they place it in their center folder which also doubles as their 'catch up' folder.

When students finish an activity, they put a check in the box next to the correct center number.

When we first began checklists, I would ask students to circle the one they wanted to complete for the day. This helped them have a focused plan and allowed them to set a goal for themselves. I still do this with some students who have a difficult time getting started. In my mind, this system is a great way for students to be responsible and learn accountability with their work.

On Friday, I collect their folders, take them home and grade them. I place checks by the completed activities on their checklist, staple their papers together and return them on Monday.

Now, we do our two stations every single day. Some students finish by Thursday! I make sure their work is quality work that shows effort and if it is, they're able to make choices during their checklist station. The choices are ones that are still literacy based.

When I introduced the choices to students, I made this anchor chart right along with it so it held meaning. They refer to it often! (The students also love to complete these activities at indoor recess *win, win*).

You can find the activities I use for choices here.

I do not have students turn this work into me. However, they do LOVE to share their sticker stories with the class so we do make time for that at the end of the day once we pack up to go home.

If you would like any of the resources you saw above, you can click on the links below.

Winter Sentence Centers

Editable Word Work Activities

Center Checklist Template & Planning Sheet

Big Book Activity Sheet

Digraph Word Work

Long Vowel/Short Vowel Word Work

Nouns

Candy Cane Craft

If you have any questions about checklists just comment below!!

I have another post about my stations with a checklist that I did a few years ago. It's a little different than I do now, but may give you more ideas!

Just click HERE for that POST!

You may also like these blog posts as well:

Phonics Lessons & Activities

Daily Spelling Practice

Editable Station Checklists

Scavenger Hunt with Words

Classroom Management

1

Sight Word Egg Carton FREEBIE Activity

Today, I prepped a little sight word station activity that took me all but ONE hour... to prep the entire year! All you need for this sight word activity is the sight word packet (that I am giving for free), an egg carton and your sight words! I spray painted my egg carton to make it bright and pretty! I would not recommend spray paint though if you want to color your egg carton! It doesn't take very well! :-) I would use tempera paint!

To begin setting up the station, you'll cut out your letters or use letter tiles if you have some. I am putting mine in a pocket chart. To prevent them from sliding, I staple in-between the letters. It works like a charm!

Next, you will want to pick the sight words you want to use for students to practice! I typed out 8 sets of words that range from pre-primer to 2nd grade Dolch sight words.  I printed out all of the words for the year and placed them in labeled baggies so when the kids are ready, I just pull the next bag!

Fold up the words and put them in some sort of cup/container.

After you have everything prepped, find a place in the room to set up your activity! Right now, mine is set up at home because I am too impatient to wait until I get to school to set it up to show you! :-)

Once set up, the kids are ready to go! The students simply, pick one word for each egg slot. They place the word in the egg slot. Then, they read each word. If they can't read a word, they put it back and pick a new one.

After they have their words, then they use their letters to spell each word. They can lay out the letters or they can put them in the egg carton. After the kids spell the words they can do a rainbow write activity or any other word work worksheet you choose.

If you like this activity, you may also like my other word activities!

       

         

If you are interested in this activity, just click the image below! It's free for you!

Thank you!!

0

Retelling Made Simple!

Something I work on every single week with my firsties during guided reading is retelling. We work on it over and over and over again with a splash of other comprehension skills thrown into our book discussions. One time a week during guided reading, I have all of my groups complete some sort of writing activity. The majority of the time, it has been to work on retelling the story. We need constant work on identifying the important parts.

Anyway, I created a little retelling kit to use with my kiddos. We work on the same skill, but it always helps to mix up the 'stuff' we use to keep them (and me) engaged! ;-)

My favorite tool that we use all. of. the. time. is the retelling bookmark. This is perfect when you only have a few minutes left with the group and just need to orally retell the book.

I just keep them in my little guided reading kit and pull them out when we need them!

Sometimes, we use the bookmarks to write about parts in our book.

I just give the students stickies and assign them an element, or tell them to recall the beginning, middle and end.

It really makes planning for guided reading EASY!

As I said up top, we also do some sort of writing activity related to our guided reading story.

The beginning of the year, we focused a lot of just retelling our fiction stories and identifying the different story elements.

I change up our retelling activities week to week. 

Here's some of them!

Some are just simple BME stuff.

Other activities, focus on the story elements!

If I notice a set of students is struggling with certain elements, then I'll pull these quick activities for them to complete. Much of the time, my higher group will complete the larger graphic organizer with their story!

If you're interested in any of these goodies, you can grab them here!!

0

Tips to plan for Guided Reading!

As elementary teachers, we all know that guided reading is such an important part of student's day. In college, they don't really 'tell you' how to do guided reading. It really is something that you feel like you just have to figure out. There are so many opinions on ways to do it, and really there is no 'wrong' way to do it... that's what I am told anyway... but when I do it... I sometimes feel like I'm not doing it the right way. So, I researched and did a bit of professional reading.

 I wanted to write this post to not only help improve my own teaching, but help you as well if you're feeling like I do sometimes.

Before, I start talking about how to plan for guided reading, we need to remember it's purpose!

I found this quote that you see in pink below. 

It really resonated with me. Guided reading is about giving the students increased time to READ. Sometimes I think we feel like we need to fill every second with an activity of some sort, when really, the kids get better at reading and comprehending by simply, reading and discussing the text. 

This is something, that I need to be reminded of as I plan my lessons.

So, now the planning part and getting ready to be the BEST we can be! How do we plan for guided reading and make sure we meet our kid's needs?

The first thing that must be done, no questions asked is assess your kids. Yes, it takes an entire week...(or more) but it's more than worth it. Through assessments you want to learn student's instructional levels. When you learn their instructional levels then you are able to choose texts that will allow them to grow as readers. As you assess students reading out loud you want to conduct some sort of running record. My school has a kit that we use. 

The students read the text out loud and I listen for any miscues. 

Yes, it makes me feel like this... after listening to 20+ kids read the same 4 books. :-P

But it's worth it!

When listening to students read I can gather information such as: the student isn't 'seeing' the correct beginning or ending sounds, the student keeps missing a particular vowel sound, the student skips words as he or she reads, the student may say a different letter sound for a given letter, the student may not be able to read multi-syllabic words, or the student needs to work on their overall fluency. There are so many factors.

After I assess students reading, I go back through the data and look for patterns. I then make note of the patterns that I see, so I can make sure to address those in my guided reading sessions with the student. I just write it on a sticky note because then it helps with grouping students in guided reading groups. To keep track of progress I like to put their sticky note on an information form for that student. It's very helpful for conference time.

Another aspect of assessment is to assess comprehension. To assess comprehension, I ask questions about the text. Some require students to answer questions where the answers are from inside the text, some answers require students to infer while others require students to provide explanations about an event in the text. I use the answers to comprehension questions to help me identify which comprehension strategies we need to work on in small group.

**************************************************************

If you teach K-2 (sometimes 3) you will also want to assess sight words.

 I simply use a binder system to assess these.

All students start at list one and I assess them until we reach their instructional level.

After we find their instructional level, each student is given a mini-book with the list they need to practice. Students keep their booklet and practice those words during Word Work.

This is a super easy, stress free system to assessing (and keeping track of) students sight words!

You can grab this here: Master My Sight Words

After you've assessed your students, you need to then form your groups. When forming your groups look for common patterns in their learning needs. You can form groups according to their instructional level, based upon what they need in terms of reading fluently or even what they need in order to successfully comprehend a story. Much of the time, I have found that the students within the same instructional level need about the same things. This is how I have grouped my students thus far. I would love to group them in other ways, but I just haven't quite figured it out yet. 

This article is a great one to read if you are at the point.

If you notice after some time that a student is making progress and ready to move onto another instructional level (do the assessment first!), then don't be afraid to move them to another group. If the student needs to move down an instructional level, then don't be afraid of that either (assess again). We are here for the students and to meet their needs. Always be flexible. It's a good thing!!

This is how I organized my groups last year. 

The guided reading groups were in the same groups for reading stations.

You can grab the station label and editable name cards here.

The next step in guided reading is choosing books for your newly formed groups! 

How the hayyyy do we do that successfully? There are millions of books!!

It's really not too hard. We are teachers, we have a calling for what we do and we are GREAT at making the right choice for our students. We know our kids, and we know what they will be interested in. But, some things to keep in mind anyway:

1. Look for a book that the students will be interested in. Make sure it has a plot (problem/solution).
2. If you have beginning readers, then choose a book where the text is clear, crisp and clean. Make sure there is enough space in-between the words too! Reading small, close words can be hard for those beginning readers to read.
3. Vocabulary: Make sure there aren't too many new words in the text. You want there to be a few, but not so much so that it will deter students from understanding the text.
1. Imagine reading a text yourself, where there is one or two foreign words on each page... that's kind of how the students see it when they don't know a word. It's tough!
4. Look at the pictures. Will the pictures help students read the text and add to students comprehension of the story? You really want to make sure the pictures support the meaning of the text.

So, you've done everything above... now what? 

Before the kids read the book...

1. Read the book that you're going to be using in your guided reading group with your kids. You have to!
2. Decide how you are going to introduce the book to the kids. Come up with some sort of Gist Statement. Example: for a fictional text, name the characters of the book and briefly introduce the problem. This will build excitement and interest! For non-fiction text, state what the kids might learn and allow them to tell you their schema, you can even write it down... or they can!
3. Take a picture walk. Taking a picture walk helps the kids construct meaning and begin to discuss what they think is going to happen in the book. This is a must for your new readers!
4. Introduce new vocabulary!!! Do this during the picture walk! Use the pictures and a kid friendly definition to help kids learn what the word means. As kids walk through the text, point out the unfamiliar words or ask.... "Oh, I see a tricky word! Do you?" Read it to them, explain it, connect it to the picture and then ask them to read it and talk about it. Bring it full circle! 

When, I teach vocabulary to students, I love to use the Frayer model! Easy, quick and oh so purposeful!

You can grab this one here for free.

So... all of this before we even read the dang book with the kids?! Ha! Yep, if you want to get the most out of that guided reading session! You really want the kids to start constructing meaning BEFORE you read the text!

Now, what do you do while the kids read it? 

Do we do round robin reading, take turns, silently reading, whisper read?
Oh my goodness, there are so many options!

I personally find the biggest benefit in having my early readers read the text softly.
This the perfect time to pull out those reading phones.

(I went to Lowe's and bought PVC pipes instead though (cheaper)) ;-)

Photo: courtesy of Teacher by the Beach! :-)

Read her post next for goodies you might need for guided reading!

While students read softly, you can prompt and observe individual students. This is when you have the opportunity to provide one on one instruction to students who have certain needs that you found during assessment.  Monitor  their comprehension, remind them of strategies to use to comprehend and decode words. While you listen to this student, be sure to make notes of other things you notice. 

After the kids read, choose a concept to teach them if you noticed a common problem. If you noticed that they had trouble decoding certain words, then go over a reading strategy with them and practice it!

Then, have a comprehension conversation with the students, especially if it's the first time you're reading the text. You can focus on any sort of reading concept that the kids need (story elements, critical thinking questions, thinking critically about the characters and their choices). 

At the end of the conversation it's the perfect time for a short word work lesson. You can do your phonics focus for the week, or something that the group needs in particular. Students can spell/read words with magnets. Or sort words by their vowel sounds into a t-chart!

Here are a few of the things I use for comprehension activities and word work during guided reading:

Ready, Set, Go - Printable Activities

This is full of comprehension sheets, visualization forms, phonics activities and sentence work!

Short Vowel Sorts

Students sort words between their short vowel word families.

Magic E and Short Vowel Sorts

Students sort the magic E word and it's short vowel version.

Magic E Reading Activities

I use this when the kids are ready for magic e. 

There are word work activities, and a reading passage with comprehension questions.

If you are going to read the same text the next day (which I would recommend), then this is a perfect time to implement a writing activity! The kids can write a short response to the book they've read. Again, choose a comprehension concept that meets their needs. You could give them a sentence starter such as, "The main character in the story was..." You could also have kids write the words beginning, middle and end. Then draw a picture of the different parts or write about the BME. 

All of my students just keep a reading notebook where they write their responses.

I use my cut and glue reading response strips for this. 

Thanks for reading this post! I hope it comes in handy this year! I know it was a great reminder for me as I enter a new year with my first graders!

I will be posting more through the year on what I actually do during guided reading time, so be sure to follow me and stay tuned!

********************************************************************

If you want to read more about reading in the classroom, check out my post to gather ideas on how to structure your reading block! 

4