Guided Reading

Guided Reading is one of my favorite parts of the day! I just love being able to work with my kiddos in a smaller group setting because I feel like I get to know them better each time I meet with them! To see their growth as a reader definitely makes this teacher heart happy!

This post is all about how to make the most out of that precious small group time you have with your kiddos. Today I'm going to focus on how I use small group time to reinforce phonics and grammar skills. 

To begin my Guided Reading group, I review our weekly spelling focus and go on a word hunt with the kids through our book to find words that match our pattern. I always have examples in mind to guide my students to do this if they are having difficulties. After they find words, we work on building words, using letter tiles, that fit the pattern. In second grade, our big spelling focus is on generalizing spelling patterns and not just memorizing words for a test!

Side Notes:

 -It is so important to preview a text and know your teaching points before giving the text to your students! 

-I don't do this every time I meet with a particular group. We do this activity after students have already read through the book during a previous Guided Reading session.

If there is time, I try to work on grammar skills that we have learned about and practiced during our writing time. If I run out of time, I pull kids when I can to practice these skills. 

Another favorite of mine is working on rearranging sentences! This really helps my kiddos see not only how to produce/create a sentence, but it helps them with that tricky expanding and rearranging standard. 

What is great about practicing these activities in small group first, is that when you place these activities into literacy centers, your kiddos will already know what to do! More time spent reinforcing skills through repetition! This has been especially helpful for my lower readers/writers! 

These activities and more can be found in my March Guided Reading product here. It is 50% off through tonight!