Non-Negotiables for Reading with Emergent Readers

Hi, I’m Cathy Collier and my blog is The W.I.S.E Owl (Where Instruction Supports Excellence) at www.cathycollier.com. I have become the crazy OWL lady. When I went back in the classroom after a 2 year “sabbatical” as a reading specialist, I couldn’t have a BEE classroom because the lady across the hall was already the BEE lady. So…I wanted something no one else was using. So when I decided to decorate my classroom in OWLS I was told I was crazy. Yes, I am personally responsible for OWLS in your classroom. (hehe)

I am also kinda a control freak when it comes to teaching reading to kindergartners. I have a passion for emergent readers and writers and truly believe kindergarten is more important than ever. There are a couple of non-negotiables in teaching reading.

Non-Negotiable #1 – Guided Reading Instruction EVERY Day
That’s what I mean…EVERY day! Students not only need lots of exposure to lots of text, but they need it consistently. The hour of guided reading and literacy centers is a given. The centers are set up to create independent learners, so that my guided reading groups are pulled every day. Starting with predictable texts in Level A, students are forming good reading behaviors from the beginning.

Speaking of Good Reading Habits…

Non-Negotiable #2 – Fix-It Strategies

When I was teaching at a previous school we adopted school-wide fix-it strategies. This is valuable. Every student in the school hears the same words for the same skill. When they leave kindergarten the first grade teacher doesn’t have to reinvent the “fix-it” wheel…they can expand on what they already know. An area reading specialist created the Reading Toolbox of fix-it strategies. I love this. I had a toolbox with physical things to represent the strategies.  

My school adopted more specific fix-it strategies…not themed. Teachers have the posters on their wall and they were sent home on bookmarks for the parents. I made desktop fix-it strategies that are taped to my reading table. As the students get stuck on a word, I can point to the strategy to remind them how they can fix it. It is far more powerful for students to learn to fix the interruption in their reading rather than rely on a teacher or parent to help them. 

Non-Negotiable #3 Independent Reading at the Guided Reading Table

After instruction and a book walk, students must be afforded the opportunity to read the entire text in an uninterrupted format. This is not Round Robin reading. Round Robin has its own special soap box in my mind. Reading the entire text is important for fluency, comprehension, and practice with reading strategies. I ask the student to my immediate right to begin reading. When student #1 finishes the cover and title page, I direct student #2 to begin. When student #2 finished the cover and title page, I direct student #3 to begin, and so on. The routine in my classroom is to read the book over and over until I tell them to stop. This is typically when the last child reads the book 2 times. The students read in a soft tone a bit higher than a whisper. As the students read at their own pace, they are reading for understanding. I listen to each child read a page or two before moving to the next student. The predictable text makes it easy to hear mistakes (even if you are not focused on that student). You can quickly turn your attention to that child and help the child make corrections for the mistake. (The perfect opportunity to use the desk mats for fix-it strategies.) To give a visual cue for your students, I am sharing my Reading Fix-It Set.  You can access it by clicking the image below.

Non-Negotiable #4 Independent Reading is not just recommended. It’s necessary. 
Students must be given the time to practice reading. We wouldn’t expect to become a prima ballerina, professional athlete or concert violinist without practice, so we cannot expect students to become prolific readers without practice. Having the time scheduled is just the start. Students need to be encouraged to read when they finish early. 

Students in my class have a bag of books that are leveled texts. These books are given at the guided reading table and they have gotten instruction on these books. They also have 2 areas in my classroom for self-selected books. The first area is the leveled library in the room. These books were collected over the years and have single copies of books. Students know their reading level and they are allowed to take any book from that level or the levels before it. 

The second area is the classroom library. They can choose from themed books. Most can’t be read independently, but can be discovered and investigated independently. These books are not put in their bag, but in their individual boxes. Let them read to a “buddy” (stuffed animal) or a friend. Teach good routines for reading to a friend. Set norms for taking turns and providing feedback. Kindergartners can do anything when expectations are demonstrated and allowed to be practiced. Sending home guided reading books is another debate. Some schools allow it, some don’t. Regardless, make sure you don’t do running records on a book that has been practiced for days and taken home for homework (but that’s a post for another day).

Thank you for inviting me to post.  I LOVE talking about reading.

Cathy

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Preparing for Your Guiding Reading Routine

Assessments have been completed, daily routines have been established, and positive classroom environment encouraged.  Our reading groups are ready to begin.

Each year that I have sat down to prepare for my guided reading groups, my routine changes a bit.  Maybe I have a new component that I want to add.  Or I have read a professional book that has helped me to grow in my learning.  Possibly my schedule has changed and the time that I have for guided reading is different.  Perhaps my students just need something a little different that what I have offered in the past.  Really...the reasons that our routines change is endless.

But to prepare for a guided reading routine, some things remain the same.  The first thing that I have to think about is time.

 

Time plays a huge part into the routine that I will establish.  A group that is 20 minutes long looks very different than one of my 30 minute guided reading groups.  And there have been years when my groups were only 10-15 minutes long.

Once my time period is determined, then I can analyze what my students need and compare it to the amount of time that I have.

The components that I include depends on their reading level, phonics skills, phonological awareness skills, and the sight words that they have mastered.

As a school building this year, we decided that more emphasis needed to placed on vocabulary.  My teammate and I chose to hit this skill through nursery rhymes in our guided reading groups.  This changed my routine because now I have to think about how to creatively use my time to hit vocab and phonological awareness at the same time.

Thinking through these challenges take a lot of time.  But I know that once I figure out what I need to hit in each guided reading group, my year is going to run more smoothly.

Once I have the time and skills determined, it is time to devise a plan.  And I mean a lesson plan format.

There are so many plans out there.  And good ones!  I have tried time and time again to use a pre-made format.  But when it comes down to it, my guided reading lesson plan format has to fit the routine that I have established and my teaching style.

One example of this: My guided reading groups occur in the same room as my teammate.  We co-teach for parts of the day.  Our guided reading routine is sooooo similar.  It was not necessarily on purpose but we have taught together for so many years.  I hear things that I really like and they become part of my group and the same occurs with her.  Anyways...I have offered my lesson plan format to her.  But it does not work for her style and mind.

Here is an example of how my formats have changed based on my new learning, time, and needs.

This format was very simple but it had the different components that I wanted to hit at this particular point in my career.  But I had to do a lot of writing when I planned.

               






This one was created after I read Jan Richardson's book, Next Step In Guided Reading.  But I had to make some changes to her format to meet the needs of my students.  

This is my current format for the year.  It is very similar to the one above.  But we made some changes to our vocabulary instruction and sight word instruction.  We also decided to add a component from the Reading Reflex book that we read over the summer.  I also created some "Putting it Together" sheets that we want to incorporate into our phonics instruction.

All of these changes impact my lesson plan format.  There is a lot on this template when you compare it to my first one!  This allows me to circle, highlight, and fill in blanks.  My routine stays the same throughout the year.  I may delete or add some components along the way.   But as first graders, I have found that this consistent routine helps them and me.  We can expand our learning through complexity of skill and level.

Now that my time is planned, the needs are analyzed, and the template is created, I am ready to begin gathering and organizing my materials for the week.  But that would be another whole post :)

It is amazing the amount of time it takes to plan a 15, 20, or 30 minute part of your day!  I love it!

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Teacher Appreciation - Organizational Tips

Today we're celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week by giving you a few tips to help you stay organized.  Procedures and preparation are the key to behavior management and we hope these ideas will fit nicely into your 'teacher toolkit'.

Since it's Teacher Appreciation Week, I thought what better gift to give teachers than a list of websites that will save you time.  I love go-to places, and these five websites are fabulous and free! 

Read Works is the first one I'll share.  It has a database of reading articles that you can search by topic, by genre, by reading level, and by comprehension skill. I love that I can see the readability level so that I select material that hits my students' needs. Comprehension questions are included with each passage, so teachers have the option to use/not use them.


Reading A-Z is a subscription site (almost free), and most likely you are using it, have tried it, or at least heard of it.  I'm did a long post about tips you might try with it.  You can read that post [here]. Reading A-Z offers materials for all levels K-6 as well as poetry, reader's theater, close reading articles, and lots of manipulative printables.

The Writing Fix is a free website that ties reading and writing with mentor text lessons, anchor papers, lots of printables to guide student writing, and even apps to help you as a teacher.  [This post] will help you learn a bit more about the mentor text lessons it includes.

Read, Write, Think is a fantastic place to see model lessons on a multitude of skills and for a wide range of levels.  The lesson database is deep with teacher made lessons and materials. It offers interactive activities teachers can use with their students as well as lots of printable reading projects students can print and make or make online, print, and put together.


The last website is fairly new to me, and it's all about the news! Newsela offers current event articles and questions to teachers that are geared to student interest and to student needs.  You can check it and all of the other websites out by clicking the image to the left of each description.

I hope these time-saving sites will provide you with lots of great planning ideas. Have a happy week!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  As a teacher and mom, I know how important it is to spend time with your family.  I hope that my tips today will help you manage your school day so you can spend more time with your family!

I really like to be organized, but it definitely doesn't come naturally to me.  I had the bedroom growing up that you couldn't walk through without tripping on something… I’m sure you have never been there…BUT, over the years I have longed for organization and I have gotten better at it every year that I have been in the classroom.  Sometimes I think back and wonder how I found anything in my first few years of teaching because I was really laking in the organization department.  It’s still not perfect and I know that from year to year it will get even better.  For now, this is what works for me.

During Guided Reading, I call groups up to read with me.  I have “stools” that open up and all of my supplies are inside.  The kids think this is just AMAZING!  I love the stools, but I just got them this year and they aren’t holding up as well as I had hoped.  As you can see, each “stool” has a caddy.  Each caddy holds many supplies including dry erase markers, erasers, word windows, magnifying glasses, scissors, clue sticks etc.

I also use my FREEBIE Guided Reading Binder to stay organized.  I have all of my groups in my binder.  I LOVE that when I change my groups, I can easily change move them with the Velcro strip in my binder.  I also keep all of my Guided Reading Lesson Plans by level in the back.  I have tabs with each letter using Fountas and Pinnell reading levels. I can easily get the plans that I need from my binder.

I also have The Ultimate Guided Reading Toolkit that allows me to have the resources that I need at each level to have an effective Guided Reading Lesson.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  You deserve it!

Top Tips for Maximum Results

Two quick classroom organization tips from Wendy from Ms. D’s Literacy Lab. I work as a full-time K-6 Reading Specialist at a Title I school in the suburban Boston area. I can easily have 8-9 classes/meetings each school day with back-to-back classes so organization is a must !

My first tip is color coded folders and labels for 3 drawer carts !

I have 11-12 groups this year. Each reading group has color-coded folders with stickers on it. These folders match the label for the drawers on my 3 drawer carts that I purchased from Target.

My 2nd quick tip allows a busy teacher to keep their files in order for multiple classes or grade levels. I purchased these brightly colored labels from Lakeshore Learning. I use a different color for each grade level each year. For instance, yellow may be Kindergarten, green may be First Grade, and melon may be 2nd grade. As grades move onto middle school, incoming Kindergarten gets the exiting 5th graders’ color for their first year. It makes it very easy to locate a child’s folder for parent conferences, a meeting, and filing assessments !

Have a wonderful end of the year !

Hello, I'm Jessica from Hanging Out in First.  I am here to share with you a great organizational tip for your guided reading time.  So many people have a hard time knowing what to do with the rest of the students while you are meeting with your guided reading group.  Center time can be a chaotic mess at times!  My recommendation is to use heterogeneous groups for your center time and take whole group breaks in between your groups.  

Take a look at my center schedule:

 

My students sit in groups.  They work with these groups during center time.  They are heterogeneous and when arranging my classroom I consider their levels as well as behavior.  This helps students with supporting one another during center time.  If your students are homogeneous, then often times you are left with a low group that is unable to work independently and a high group that is bored and finished early.  Heterogeneous groups allows for students of different levels to support one another so that students stay on track.

If you want more tips on guided reading, check out my new guided reading series.

Tomorrow teachers will share their favorite series of books to read with their students.  Leave us a comment and let us know if you're enjoying our tips this week!

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Starting Points for Readers

Hi ! This is Wendy from Ms. D's Literacy Lab joining you in a discussion on grouping students for Daily 5 and Guided Reading Groups at the beginning of the year.

When I first began teaching reading around 2000, I used to group students simply by DRA levels for Guided Reading groups. As the years have gone on, and I have learned from others and observing students within my groups, I realize that the data is just the tip of the iceberg.

In this data-driven atmosphere, administrators might put a heavy emphasis on just the data. The reality is that the skills a child needs and uses to become a successful reader goes way beyond that basic information.

Rodney is a first grade student. He is from Haiti and speaks French Creole at home. His mother works hard to provide for him. His older brothers help Rodney play alphabet games and more to make up for his lack of preschool skills. He has a lively, happy spirit but gets frustrated easily when he doesn't feel successful from a task. He loves music and rhythms. He had reading services 4 days a week for a half an hour during Kindergarten. He entered Kindergarten in late fall when most of his peers had already mastered the alphabet. His DRA shows a score of O which tells us that he has little awareness of books or print. In addition, his DIBELS scores show that he is still mastering the alphabet, continuing to learn phonemic segmentation, and has no understanding of nonsense words.

To start off:

• Observation Survey-- I would choose Concepts of Print by Marie Clay (part of the observation survey), Letter ID, and see what words he can write within 5 minutes.
• Administer an informal assessment on Phonemic and Phonological Awareness
• Review and Reinforce on Kindergarten skills like : Letter Fluency, Rhyming, Phoneme Blending and Segmentation eventually leading to practice with nonsense words.
• Love of Music and Rhythm-- Rodney is a student that will enjoy sing-along books (include a copy he can read and take home), nursery rhymes, and spelling words using tapping (neurological impress method).  Music may strengthen his memory as well as using a reading program with consistent repetitive tasks such as Wilson Fundations.
• New skills... the reading teacher should be reinforcing that skill during his/her time.
• Kinesthetic games for Rodney will help his need to move and learn. As he manipulates alphabet letters and tiles, makes letters using snap cubes, and uses playdoh to write CVC words, his brain is using novelty (new ways of learning) to help him retain the skills.
• Superhero fan...so weave those Superheroes into the most mundane of tasks. Learning to blend nonsense words may be fun with Iron Man or Thor !
• Book bag to take home easy books to read and it also acts as a resource for reading during Daily 5 and Literacy Center time.

Nathan is a third grade student. His family is a gypsy family from Eastern Europe. He entered Kindergarten in the middle of the year with no previous preschool or daycare experience. He struggled through Kindergarten to learn his letters. In first and second grade, he was placed with 2 experienced teachers that gave him as many 1-1 experiences in reading as possible. His reading intervention was daily and his classroom teacher did reading with him 4-5 times a week. Nathan's personal motivation to learn to read was high even though there were no books in his home. In addition, both the classroom teachers and I were aware that Nathan forgets things quickly. He is reading at a level I-J in the fall. His Primary Spelling Inventory reflects where he is in his phonics instruction as well.

To start off:

• Easy Reader Series- Make sure there are extra copies of books in the classroom, school library, or reading teacher's library that he can borrow.
• Kinesthetic Word Work Activities-- Consider using the Quick Phonics Screener from Read Naturally to start and see where his strengths and areas of support are. He may need reinforcement on r-controlled words, vowel teams, other long vowel patterns and more.
• Guided Reading Books which are age and grade appropriate with minimal words, vocabulary, and familiar events with straightforward plot lines. Focus on keeping books in the 93-95% accuracy level so he will make rapid progress. 
• Graphic organizers should be simple, easy to use, and use the same ones in multiple settings (classroom, special education, reading, homework, specials)
• Reader's Theater, Buddy Reading, and Rereading Texts several times should increase Nathan;s fluency and confidence.

Charise is a fifth grade student. Her family consists of a single mother and older siblings. She had significant behavior issues in Kindergarten and Grade 1. She came to her current school at Grade 2. She has been making significant success each year and is know at a Guided Reading Level M entering 5th grade. There are no books in her home, yet her mother and siblings will listen to her read if books are sent home. The mother is hesitant to attend teacher conferences. She will be receiving reading, learning center support, and classroom support this year.
 
To start off:

• Age Appropriate Books- Anything that looks "babyish" will get abandoned and then she will pick up harder texts which will reduce her progress. Choose books in multiple areas that will appeal to her. Take time to find out her interests using a book or interest inventory. Consider purchasing high interest-low readability books from a publisher using grant, PTO, or other teacher funds.
• Phonics/Decoding Support- she needs support with vowel teams, long vowel patterns, r controlled vowels, and other patterns which eventually lead to prefixes, suffixes, and root words.  Word sorts, sorting syllables, and other kinesthetic games are important to aid in her instruction.
• Social Studies and Science textbooks-purchase a set of CDs for the classroom teacher. This way she can follow along, hear the text and learn the information for classroom projects, discussions and more. She may be able to be an expert in one area of the chapter and fill in a simple graphic organizer as she reads and listens to the text.
• Graphic organizers for comprehension and writing are important. The classroom teacher, special education teacher, and reading specialist should have the same ones for her. This way, when she encounters standardized tests or homework, she can easily begin it on her own.
• Guided Reading Texts in Science and Social Studies --will expand her understanding at the independent reading level.
• Teamwork--Monitor her decoding, comprehension, and oral reading skills frequently and share with the team. For a student who needs extra support, the communication between team members is very important and keeps the learning goals synthesized.

 

 

 

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