Yesterday I received exciting news!
At our school , we use Fountas & Pinnell to determine Guided Reading (instructional) levels. Then we group all 150 first graders (we do this for the other grades, as well) by level, like this:
At our school , we use Fountas & Pinnell to determine Guided Reading (instructional) levels. Then we group all 150 first graders (we do this for the other grades, as well) by level, like this:
The boxes are actually index cards with the students' names & their September reading level:
Next we look at the levels and spread out our man teacher-power (classroom teachers, Special Educator, Interventionist). There may be anywhere from 1-3 teachers per grouping, depending on the number of students.
Then we put "Power Hour" (it's actually only 45 minutes) on the schedule - we are starting on October 8! Students will rotate to their newly assigned class for this concentrated literacy block.
Guess where I was assigned this year?!? I'm super-psyched to be working with Level D readers - by myself! I have one week to figure out where my "classroom" will be (my office? intervention room??), how I will run Guided Reading groups, what the other students will be doing (i.e.: centers), & how I will track their progress. I'm actually really nervous, in a good way :)
I've always taught Power Hour alongside other teachers - we would be teaching Guided Reading/Phonics groups simultaneously and both keep an eye on a third small group working at independent centers.
I feel super comfortable teaching Guided Reading (love it!), but would welcome ANY suggestions for managing the other students. This weekend, I'll be headed to TPT, blogs, pinterest, my Daily 5 books...looking specifically for:
* management - expectations, transitions, rotation board ...
* independent centers - MEANINGFUL for this age group & level
This is what I'm thinking for groupings/rotations:
Out of the sixteen students, four have IEPs with early literacy goals & objectives (reading: decoding, comprehension, writing). We have the BIG GOAL of moving all first graders to Level M (city's goal = Level I). Can't wait to get started!
This is what I'm thinking for groupings/rotations:
 |
| Power Hour is Monday-Thursday: GR - Guided Reading Word Work - concrete work (cut & paste, sight word work, etc) Centers (i.e.: independent bagged centers) |
Please leave a comment with ANY advice - I will be working on this all weekend!! I welcome product suggestions, links, & sympathy (just kidding). Thanks in advance!!
BTW - I'm having a
20% off everything in my store today & tomorrow!
What a cool system! Your rotations look great! I bet as you get to know your kiddos you will be able to find centers very specific to their needs. You might want to peek at my post with an Authors and Characters freebie. It has four different pages that progress in difficulty, but really allows for all levels of learners to contribute at their level. I hope that makes sense.
ReplyDeletehttp://growingfirsties.blogspot.com
I just checked it out - it looks GREAT! I will def be able to use it. Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteI'm posting a unit on writing Personal Narratives very soon, so check back. It has lots of student samples and can be done with small groups or whole class. :-)
DeleteGrowing Firsties
Wow, sounds like a pretty cool thing your school has going on. I would love something school-wide at my school like this. I have been using Beverly Tyner's method this year for guided reading. I really like it so far. My only problem is that I can't seem to get my time down to 18-20 min. For some reason, it always takes me about 30 for a group. That's a problem and messes up my whole schedule. I have no idea how to do it quicker. Good luck to you!
ReplyDeleteAngelia
Extra Special Teaching
I just posted earlier but I've been going through many of your blog posts:) We also use the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmarks school-wide (love them). I love how you set up the rotations. I am wondering how it is going now? I see this is from September- what has worked, what have you changed? Maybe you have talked about that in other posts already (that I haven't seen yet)... I will keep looking:) I am going to subscribe to this post so that I can hear what you have to say:)
ReplyDeleteJennie
JD's Rockin' Readers
Hi, it's going REALLY well! We're going to adminster the benchmarks starting December 10th & I know some of my readers are going to show one or more levels of growth! I've been adjusting my 3 rotating groups these past couple weeks because I feel like I'm teaching Level D, E, & F now. Can't wait to find out for sure!
ReplyDeleteGreat!! It is always great to see the growth they make, especially at those levels!!
ReplyDeleteJennie
JD's Rockin' Readers