Happy Friday, friends!
It's Friday and all week I've been busy with my first online class through UCLA to get my English Language Learners certification and I have to say that I am absolutely loving this class. I feel as though I have been given a fresh perspective as to view my students and it's definitely impacted my approach to teaching this year. This summer course has us learning about Culture and Inclusion and how we, as teachers and administrators, can better create culturally responsible classrooms and schools. A lot of good stuff!
Also, if you've been following me on Facebook lately you'll know I've been super busy with getting all of the Eureka Math resources fine-tuned and finished up. You can already download Module 1 for FIRST GRADE as well as Modules 1 and 2 for SECOND GRADE over at my shop. I really look forward to using these because it maintains the integrity of each lesson, but cuts down on all the busy work students do with their original worksheets!
But....
...that's not what we're talking about today.
Today is all about launching an organized and focused guided reading block this year!
One of my favorite mentors on effective guided reading comes from *Jan Richardson and her text, Next Steps in Guided Reading. I first heard of Jan Richardson when I first began teaching in Virginia and my school at the time only used her approach. It took some getting used to, but with some practice and refinement on my end I found I was really teaching skills to my kiddos and by the end of the year they were soaring in their reading.
*affiliate Amazon link
So, to help pay it forward a bit I wanted to share a couple of resources I swear by and has made prepping my guided reading block a breeze. Again, Jan Richardson's lesson plan templates are easy to use, but I found that when I'm sitting down and planning everything out I found myself all over the place.
Not anymore!
Common Core Cheat Sheet Flip-book
This flip-book has all of the CCS at your fingertips and can be kept in your guided reading binder. This resource is there to help you find those objectives and tailor your lessons around them. Keep it handy for your daily reading lesson planning, too!
Lesson Plan Templates
You'll find in my Guided Reading Resource Packet a bunch of lesson plan templates that are inspired by the teachings of Jan Richardson. I've included Pre-A all the way through Fluent so every teacher, no matter the grade or student ability, has access to these plans!
Each plan has check-the-box style focus skills, which helps you stay on-task during your lesson. I found these to be super helpful because, well, they're all right there! See what skills need work and use these plans and notes to influence the next lesson you plan for a given group!
For example...
I pulled an AR level 2 book from my son's room bookshelf to showcase how easy it is to use these lesson plan templates!
Before their reading
- Each lesson begins with the basics: record the title, reading level of the selected book, and date of day 1-2.
- You can opt for a mini-review of sight words just to get their brains warmed up. These sight words can be chosen by words that you notice this group of students regularly misspell or mis-read. This is also optional if you're working with a higher group.
- Next, you are going to introduce new vocabulary that will be featured in their reading. These are going to be words that help give context to their reading. You should always try to look for 1-3 new words.
- I chose "license" because I know it'll be a word students would have difficulty with sounding out. It's a great word to review the different sounds "c" makes and gives context to the sentence about Amelia Bedelia's drivers license.
- I also chose words that sound the same but have different meanings. Amelia is known for being literal-minded, so this is another great opportunity for students to learn about words such as: herd ('heard of cows') vs heard (as to 'hear' something), steer (a cow) vs steer ('steer' the car).
- The introduction is a quick sentence on the title of the story and the main overview of what happens, but leaving it open for students to be curious.
During their reading
- I already have all of the prompts that Jan Richardson recommends during the time students are reading out loud. Simply check off the prompts/strategies you want them to focus on during today's lesson.
- During this time, you can have students popcorn read or individually read in whisper voices. You'll lean in and listen to students as they read, prompting them on a given skill and taking notes on what you observe. Do this for all of your students.
After their reading
- Prompt them with a discussion question that focuses on the key comprehension strategy. For this story I chose a simple B-M-E summary and this will be the basis of their guided writing (which will be completed on Day 2).
Day 2 is very similar in structure to Day 1's lesson. Students re-read, or continue reading, and focus on the skills they worked on the day before. The majority of this lesson is fine tuning those skills and working on a simple guided writing activity to summarize the story. This time can also be used for continued word work or comprehension skill.
Parental Inclusion
Reading is such a complex skill and teachers alone can't be the only ones instructing students. My class at UCLA is teaching me about tapping into that resource at home! But, often parents don't understand how we approach reading in the classroom - no longer can this happen!
Sending home a simple FAQ sheet and information about Common Core is step in the right direction in terms of getting parents familiar with how we're teaching reading- and moreso, what they can be doing at home to help reinforce those skills.
This download comes with a couple of parent sheets that can be sent home at the beginning of the year and posted somewhere prominent in their homes. The yellow sheet is an outline as to what guided reading is and how it will look in the classroom. Right now this resource is geared towards 2nd grade skills, but I am happy to adapt this to any grade if you contact me!
The pink sheet is a helpful guide for parents with prompts they can give when their child reads at home and on the back a layman's explanation of the CCS reading objectives.
Get back to school ready with these downloads!
