Having time in your schedule to break into small groups and teach students at their level is so beneficial. When I am meeting with students for our guided reading time, the rest of my students are doing various literacy centers.
I love this part of our day because it’s a time that I can tailor lessons to my individual students. I can support them when they need support and challenge them when that’s appropriate. This time is also important as it gives the students doing centers a chance to be independent and grow in their problem solving abilities.
Before we begin doing literacy centers, I take a week to teach each center. That way, when we break into groups, students can be independent and successful in what they are working on. It’s very important that you train your students to solve problems on their own so you’re not being interrupted a million times!
The Centers
Meet with the Teacher
During “Meet with the Teacher” students come to my table and meet with me. This is when I use my guided reading lessons that coincide with their reading level. Students are grouped by similar abilities so I am able to support, teach and challenge depending on what they need.
Word Work
Our “Word Work” station is where students practice our sight words for the week. They do this through different games, activities and worksheets. They know what to do for each activity because they have been taught prior to this time, about directions and how to play or complete properly.
Work on Writing
When students go to the “Work on Writing” station, they are practicing writing skills. In the beginning of kindergarten, I teach students to use many details and try their best to convey a message through 3 Star Coloring. Once students have learned their letter sounds, they are ready to start sounding out their words. This is when I give them other types of writing activities such as responding to a question, drawing and writing about a season or holiday or writing in their writing workbooks.
Listen to Reading
The “Listen to Reading” station is when students get to use Raz Kids (Learning A-Z) on the iPads. This program is awesome as you can assign students books at their level. In the app, students may read the book to themselves or they can listen to it being read to them. When they listen to it being read, the word is highlighted as it’s being read which is great for students to learn sight words and vocabulary.
Read to Self/Read to Someone
During “Read to Self” or “Read to Someone” students are in the library of our classroom and are again reading books at their level. The books they read in this stations are different books than the ones we’ve read during guided reading. Students have a box in the library labeled with their color group and are to grab only books from that bin. “Read to Self” sounds just how it is, they are reading to themselves. Whereas, during “Read to Someone”, students read to another person in their group.
This time with my students is so precious as I truly believe guided reading can take a non-reader and turn them into a reader or a reader into an even better reader! Literacy centers is such a valuable part of my day and in classrooms everywhere.
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