This week we're looking at Chapter 3 which is all about Pre-A and Emergent Guided Reading.  Our host for this chapter is Pam from Mrs. P's Specialties.  Make sure you stop by her blog to check out a freebie that you can use with this level of guided reading.

On a side note, I just looked at my post from last week and realize that my thoughts weren't actually posted, just the questions...so sorry!  I've fixed that and would love for you to check it out HERE.  I have a freebie you can use to help assess during guided reading.

Now on to chapter 3!

1. What part of the reading caught your attention? The actual lesson breakdown.  I love that Richardson breaks down the actual structure of the lesson and gives you a template you can use.  She also has a 10 minute lesson for individual instruction which is great if you have a student that doesn't fit into any of your other groups.  I also love the guided writing component, especially for this level.

2. How do you already incorporate this into your guided reading routine?  I used the template that Richardson outlines for individual instruction with my one emergent reader last year.  I loved that I was able to tailor my teacher to her and because it was only 10 minutes, I met with her 4 times a week.

3. What is something new you want to try next year?  How do you want to make your guided reading time better or what new things to do you want to try? I plan to take the word work component out of my guided reading lessons in order to use Words Their Way and differentiate with that.  I'm looking to trim my guided reading lessons closer to 15 minutes (I went to a Balanced Literacy training last week and that was one of the topics).

4. What are some resources that you already have that you can use to teach what you read about in this chapter/section?  I found this free template from Grace at First Grade's a Hoot. I used them when planning guided reading lessons last year and the best part is...they're free and they are perfectly aligned to Richardson's outline!  You can get them HERE!

Make sure to check out everyone's thoughts on this chapter.  How do you teach guided reading to the Pre-A and Emergent levels?

An InLinkz Link-up

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Brandi

I spent this week in a training on Reader's Workshop.  I learned so much and can't wait to implement it in the fall!  This week for Five for Friday, I thought I'd share some of the professional books that I would like to read this summer.

I'm participating in a book study with some fabulous other bloggers about this book.  I am loving it so far and felt like such a rockstar when Laney herself commented on one of my posts!  If you want to check out my posts on Guided Math, click HERE.

I'm also participating in a book study for Guided Reading!  I really want to improve in the area of small group instruction and this book is great!  You can check out my posts by clicking HERE.

My grade level uses Words Their Way for word study and spelling so I'm diving into this book soon.  Would anyone be interested in participating in a book study on this book?  I'd love to share tips and resources to implement this well in the classroom.

I purchased this book last summer, but never finished reading it.  I really love many of the components of Whole Brain Teaching and am looking forward to adding to my bag of tricks from this book.

 

Finally, I purchased this book back in January and think that it will go great with Guided Math.

That's a lot of professional reading!  I need to sneak in some fun stuff too!  What are you reading this summer?

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Brandi

It's Thursday which means I'm back to share my thoughts on Guided Math!

 If you've missed any of my posts, you can check them out HERE. This week's focus is using Guided Math with small groups.

The chapter begins with the advantages of small group instruction: it's comfortable and safe for students.  It teaches students to work with others.  Allows teachers to vary the process, product, and content.  Allows teachers to meet with groups variably based on instructional tasks and needs of the group.  Increased attention.  Immediate feedback.

Sammons also lists some challenges: time to plan and less direction instruction from the teacher to name a few.

The chapter then moves into ways to form groups.  Data can be gathered from pre-tests, formative tests, performance tasks, observations, and conversations.

The last few years, I mainly used data from pre- and post-assessments.  This usually led to high, medium, and low groups.  I would like to use more informal data to help guide my groups this year.

One of the main takeaways for me from this chapter was about preparing for Guided Math groups.  I picked up this fabulous resource from Jamie at Diary of a Not So Wimpy Teacher.

This product has everything that I will need to get my small groups organized and up and running. I love that she includes the components of an effective mini lesson as this is an area that I would like to work on in the coming school year.

How do you organize and plan for small group instruction in math?

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An InLinkz Link-up

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Brandi

This week we'll be talking about Chapter 2 from Richardson's book (If you missed my thoughts on chapter 1 you can read them HERE).  This chapter is all about assessment and grouping.  Our host for this week is Jennifer from Rowdy in First Grade:

Make sure you stop by to check out her post and get a great freebie!  Also, you can see everyone's thoughts on this chapter by checking out the links at the bottom of this post.

Here are the 5 questions again that will be guiding our reflections:

1. What part of the reading caught your attention?
2. How do you already incorporate this into your guided reading routine?
3. What is something new you want to try next year?  How do you want to make your guided reading time better or what new things do you want to try?
4. What are some resources that you already have that you can use to teach what you read about in this chapter/section?
5. What are some new resources that you want to get or try to use to teach what you read about in this chapter/section?

Chapter 2 presents information on how to assess and group your students for guided reading.  Richardson discuss different assessments for different readers.

1. What caught my attention most from this chapter was the section on analyzing a running record.  It is so important to determine what kinds of mistakes students are making.  By specifically determining if their errors are part of the meaning, structural, or visual system, we as educators are better able to target instruction to meet their needs.

2. We use the DRA to assess students 3 times a year.  I use this as my formal assessment, but take running records more regularly.  I was not completely consistent with taking running records on my kids, and want to commit to taking them about once a week for each student in my class.

3. Something new that I want to try next year is keeping better anecdotal records of my students during our guided reading time.  To help with this, I created these labels that I plan to have on a clipboard during guided reading.  As I'm listening to students, I plan to complete these then put them in my assessment notebook.

 I made these to fit on 2 x 4 inch labels and there are 10 labels on a page.  (On a side note, I learned about a site called Online Labels that you can use to order a ton of labels for a great price.  I plan to order these labels later in the summer). If you would like to use these, you can click on the picture and download them from Google Drive.

4. A lot of the resources that I use to help with my organization when I'm assessing come from the fabulous Rachelle at What the Teacher Wants. Click on the image below to head over to her post which is full of freebies.

image from What the Teacher Wants

How do you assess and group for guided reading?  Make sure to stop by these fabulous blogs to read their thoughts and possibly snag a few freebies!
An InLinkz Link-up

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Brandi

I love that this linky party is back to being weekly.  It gets me up and motivated to create things to use at work and at home.  This week I made 2 things to use in my classroom.

First up is my Calendar Math.  I am participating in a book study of Laney Sammons' Guided Math and I am loving every little bit of it.  One of the areas that I know I need to improve is creating a numeracy rich environment and giving my kids an opportunity to be a part of a mathematical community of learners.  I created these posters that I plan to laminate and put up on my math board.  I will only put up 5-6 at the most and students will answer them on their white boards.  We'll go over the answers as a class and spend a lot of the time talking about how they arrived at their answers, what strategies they used, and how this relates to things we've been learning.  I'm really excited to see this in action!

Here are some pictures if you want to check it out:

I also made a sports theme clip chart.  We use this as part of our school wide behavior management and I wanted one to go with my theme so here it is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm excited to see what everyone else has created.  I get so inspired from everyone's posts and keep adding to my to do lists.  Please stop by tomorrow and Thursday for my book studies on Guided Reading and Guided Math.  Have a great week!

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Brandi

I love summer and being able to do fun family stuff.  According to my daughter, this week we were officially on vacation since we went away.  Here's some of the fun things we did:

 We spent 2 days at Legoland California:

 

 

 

 We caught some nighttime fireworks at Disneyland:

 

 

 We practiced skating:

then had a backyard picnic:

Finally, we had to get some learning in so we spent some time at Barnes and Noble and checked out the Frozen books:

 

Can't wait to see how everyone's week went!

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Brandi