Accommodating Reading Levels in Guided Reading: Part 1

Guided Reading is a key component to literacy instruction in any primary classroom. It typically looks like the teacher working with a small, differentiated group of students... small group meaning anywhere from 2-6 students.

The goal of these small groups is for the students to eventually use the reading strategies we are teaching them independently to read fluently.

A few friends and I are teaming up to talk about Guided Reading by sharing different strategies to help you help your students be successful.

In my Life Skills classroom, I have 7 students and I have 3 different reading groups. I have a nonverbal reading group who is focusing on Core Vocabulary using communication boards, a reading group on a DRA Level A, and a reading group on a DRA Level F.

How in the world do I plan for all of this?

Reading A-Z. A-to-the-men.

Since our Life Skills curriculum is the "TEKS" (Texas State Standards), we don't have a specific set of books or guides to go from for each week... literally nothing. And when you have students in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade, it gets overwhelming REALLY fast.

Before Reading A-Z, I really don't even remember how I survived planning for each week. After purchasing a year subscription to Reading A-Z? As of right now, I am planned for 3 weeks ahead of time for our Reading Block... for all of my reading groups.

So you might be thinking, "...but I'm a SPED teacher too and I have students struggling" or "...but I have some really low level readers who are still struggling." And you are probably wondering how I could possibly differentiate books and lessons even more.

Well I'm so glad you asked, let me show you in a replay of a Periscope video I recently did:

*This Periscope replay video is not/was not sponsored by Reading A-Z. All views and opinions within this video are my own.*

To help you keep track of what books you are reading with which groups, and what books you've read with each of your groups, use this freebie.

{ Grab the Guided Reading FREEBIE here. }

Want to know more about how to differentiate your Guided Reading groups? Read Part 2 of this blog post here.

An InLinkz Link-up

Do you use Reading A-Z? How do you differentiate reading groups?