Next Step in Guided Reading: Early Readers

After reflecting on my first year back in 2nd grade, I realized that my guided reading instruction needs improvement. This past school year I focused on guided math and I'm feeling pretty confident about that so now is the perfect time to take a look at reading. 

I'll be sharing my takeaways from the following chapters from Jan Richardson's Next Step Forward in Guided Reading:

Chapter 1: Guided Reading Essentials

Chapter 4: Early Readers Levels D-I (DRA Levels 6-16)

Chapter 5: Transitional Readers Level J-P (DRA Levels 18-38)

Chapter 7: Moving Forward with Comprehension Instruction 

This post will share my take aways from Chapter 4: The Early Readers (Levels D-I, DRA Levels 6-16). 

• There are 2 essential assessments for teaching early readers: a reading conference and a spelling assessment (pg. 107-109). My last school administered the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) and the DSA (Developmental Spelling Assessment). We analyzed data from these assessments to form reading groups and word study groups. JR says that the number of errors is not as important as determining why the student made those errors and deciding what strategic actions will accelerate the child. All errors aren't equal. You should be asking yourself "what kid of action does the child take at difficulty? did the student monitor using visual information? is there a pattern in the child's errors?"
• Consider a "range" of instructional levels (pg. 110). Choose a lower level if you want to focus on oral reading fluency and a higher level if you want to practice decoding strategies. 
• Once you've analyzed the assessment results, form groups (pg. 115). JR suggests 5 groups max with 4 kids max per group. I can understand the logic of having smaller groups while students are at this level however I know it may not be feasible with 22-28 students in our classrooms. 
• For "early readers" it is wise to delay teaching comprehension strategies until students are independent word solvers (pg. 115) While this makes perfect sense, this may be unrealistic due to district standards. Our 2nd graders start the 3rd week with taking cold read assessments, and then take them every 3 weeks. My DRA ranges last year were from level 4-28 at the beginning of the year. JR says, "when choosing a strategy focus for this level, always consider self monitoring for meaning, work on monitoring for visual information word solving strategies and fluency. Once those are strong, choose retelling as a focus." 
• Guided Reading Materials (pg. 116)
• dry erase boards, markers, erasers
• 6-8 sets of magnetic letters on individual trays or sorted in a box
• sight word chart
• pictures for sorting sounds
• sound box and analogy chart templates in plastic sheet protectors
• guided writing journals
• leveled books
• timer
• 2 Day Lesson Plan, 20 minutes (pg. 117)
• Day 1- sight word review, introduce new book, read book with prompting, discuss and teach, teach a new sight word, word study activity
• Day 2- sight word review, read book with prompting, discuss and teach, reteach sight word, guided writing

Now that it's the last week of summer school I hope to jump into Chapter 5!

Cactus Themed Brag Tags

So I'm a self proclaimed "Clip Art Addict!" I could easily have 1,000 sets of clip art on my computer right now. As I was making brag tags for my second grade classroom next year I ran across these cute cactus graphics I own from Creative Clips. I knew immediately that I wanted to use these! 

If you're looking to add some to your collection, they are available for download @ the Teaching Oasis!

Smiley Themed Brag Tags

Yesterday was my "blogaversary", I've had this blog for 8 whole years now! It also happened to be my mother's birthday so my husband and I spent the day with her... shopping and eating at her favorite restaurant. I even bought a new dress, did you know that Loft gives a 15% discount to teachers with your badge? I never knew! 
I snagged some new graphics from Creative Clips and decided so make some new brag tags. I've been implementing them in my classroom for 3 years and I'm looking forward to using them next school year as well. Be on the lookout for new brag tag designs this summer, I've got an entire to do list!
If you're looking to add some to your collection, they are available for download @ the Teaching Oasis!

Next Step Forward in Guided Reading: Essentials

After reflecting on my first year back in 2nd grade, I realized that my guided reading instruction needs improvement. This past school year I focused on guided math and I'm feeling pretty confident about that so now is the perfect time to take a look at reading. 
I'll be sharing my takeaways from the following chapters from Jan Richardson's Next Step Forward in Guided Reading: Chapter 1: Guided Reading Essentials Chapter 4: Early Readers Levels D-I (DRA Levels 6-16) Chapter 5: Transitional Readers Level J-P (DRA Levels 18-38) Chapter 7: Moving Forward with Comprehension Instruction 
This post will focus on Chapter 1: Guided Reading Essentials.   **Shared Reading is the whole class mini lesson, JR suggests limiting this time to 10-15 minutes. Traditionally our shared reading block is usually 30 minutes long. Until I can see my master schedule, I'm not sure how I will structure this time yet.   
**She has a timeline for teaching routines and procedures for reading workshop that spans 6 weeks.  Week 1- students work in small groups for 10 minutes a day on easy independent "tub activities." These can include books, puzzles, journals, Legos, coloring books. These tubs will eventually be replaced by literacy activities as you teach students to be independent learners.   Week 2- introduce a literacy activity to each of the groups, while other groups are in tubs  Week 3- introduce a 2nd literacy activity to each of the groups, lengthen time to 15 minutes Week 4- introduce a 3rd literacy activity to each group, lengthen time to 20 minutes Week 5- introduce a 4th literacy activity to each group, students should be able to work 30-45 minutes without direct supervision Week 6- all students should be working independently with purposeful literacy experiences, tubs should no longer be required At my former school, teachers were required to be in guided reading groups by the second week of school and my biggest complaint has been that students could not work independently and I spent more time correcting behavior than instructing. While I'm not sure I'll take 6 entire weeks, I will be taking several weeks to build stamina. I usually have a list of Daily Literacy Tasks on the board for students to complete while I met with guided reading groups, on Fridays the students completed READ (Read to Self, Engage, At Seat, Daily Writing) Rotations while I pulled reading skill groups. Engage consisted of reading puzzles and games, At Seat consisted of literacy menus. 
**Book Boxes/Bags (as a literacy activity), JR recommends students have a personal box or bag that contains a variety of books for independent reading. She says to include books students have read during guided reading and other easy books they can read without support. This allows them to develop fluency and practice strategies on easy, familiar texts. This past year we sent the previous weeks' guided reading book home with the students, with the expectation that they were reading it at home... they weren't and I stopped sending home books the 4th quarter. I like this idea much better, that way I know students are rereading the books. 
**Other Literacy Activity Suggestions: buddy reading, writing, readers theater, poems and songs, word study and spelling, word wall, listening to recorded stories, oral retelling, computer, research. I'll probably do something similar to what I did last year. Using the READS acronym, Read to Self, Engage, At Seat, Daily Writing, Skill Practice and embed some of these options into those stations. 
What literacy activities do your students complete while you're working with guided reading groups?

Plum Paper and Erin Condren Products

So I'm Plum Paper's newest fan! I purchased my teacher planner from them and then decided to order a Notebook too. I loved the idea of a Parent Teacher Conference book, so I ordered a 7x9 (8.5x11 is available too) personalized notebook. Instead of lined pages, I clicked on the Lifestyle format and chose Meeting Notebook. 

This book has 49 pages (f/b) of meeting pages. You could easily use this for team meetings, PLC meetings or any other meeting you might have. I'm choosing to use it strictly for parent conferences. With that many meeting pages, it could last 2-3 school years.

I also snagged a few things from Erin Condren as well. I told you in my last post that the EC interchangeable covers also fit my PP planner, I saw this one and knew I had to have it too!

I purchased these colorful circles to mark important dates on my yearly spread.  

I purchased these to snap into my planner on the current week. 

I purchased a set of personalized stationary. I chose to get the Happy Birthday set. It came with 20 folded (flat is also an option) cards with my name already inside them. I could have personalized a message in all of them but chose not to. I got to pick the color envelopes I wanted and it also came with envelope seals. I thought these would be perfect to give to my colleagues during the school year.

What are your favorite Plum Paper and Erin Condren products? 

National Donut Day

National Donut Day was Friday, June 7th and I knew I wanted to celebrate with my students. I decided to take the awards I usually give on the last day of school, redesign them. 

Then we had an awards ceremony that morning. After I gave out the awards, the students at donuts and worked on the following activities. 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Doughnut-Word-Search-Activity-Puzzle-4607608

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Donut-Activities-for-the-Beginning-and-End-of-the-Year-3797949

The students had a blast, this is something I definitely want to do next year!

Hallway Display

Classroom Door

Table Decor from Hobby Lobby

New School New Planner

The Hawk and I

12 years ago I had the honor of opening up one of my county's newest elementary school. Next year, I'll get that opportunity again. So after 8 years as a Coal Miner, I'm going to be a Hawk! 

The years I wasn't using planbook.com, I've used Erin Condren Lesson Planners. This year, I heard some EC fans say they had switched to Plum Paper. Biggest perk, it's very customizable! I've was having some issues being patient and went ahead and ordered a PP Teacher Planner since the EC Planner wasn't set to be released for a few more weeks (it's been released now). Can I tell you how much I LOVE my new planner!

The hardest part was choosing a cover, they have so many to choose from!

Each month has this on the left and a notes page on the right. 

Each month spread already has the holidays included. 

After each month spread is another notes page. I chose to "disperse" a To Do list to each month. That was $3 total.

The Teacher Lesson Planners come with a My Class Section. You can see what's included in that section here. 

Each TLP also comes with a checklist section. 

I chose to add a tabbed Notes section for $2.25. I forsee a lot of note taking in my future.

I also love that you can choose your lesson page layout, I went with Option 2 so I could have a weekend section to activities in. Option 3 is the typical layout and Option 1 has the days vertically as opposed to horizontally. You can check out the options here. The lesson pages are included with each monthly spread.

My husband purchased me an EC Gift Card before I decided to go with PP, I read somewhere that the EC Covers fit the PP Planners and sure enough... they do! So when I get tired of the Chevron, I'll cut it off and add my EC Cover. 

If you've never purchased from Plum Paper and want to create an account and give it a try, email me at jessicaysaunders@gmail.com or leave a comment and I'll send you over a referral coupon for 10% off!

I just ordered a Parent Conference Notebook for next year as well... I'll post about when it comes!