Guided Reading and Managing Guided Reading Groups with Literacy Centers PLUS a FREEBIE!

What better time to get ready for the next school year! 


Everyone thinks that teachers take the summer off, but many teachers spend their summer getting ready for the upcoming school year while relaxing a little along the way.

How many of you conduct guided reading groups? Guided reading groups is a great way to differentiate reading instruction for your students. Managing guided reading groups can be difficult. While my students are in my guided reading group, one group is out of the classroom with the EIP teacher and another group is involved in literacy centers. Literacy centers include independent activities (sometimes monitored by my paraprofessional) so that the students do not bother the teacher while conducting the guided reading group.

I have five literacy centers set up for each week for these independent activities. Students have a chart to look at to see which center they are going to for the day. Each center is color coded. Some of the activities in literacy centers may include a making words center (magnets, letter tiles, letter cubes), a writing center, a computer center, a stamping words center, and maybe a puzzle of some type with letters and words.

Here are some pictures of a few of my literacy centers in action.

These first few photos show different "Making Words" activities and the recording sheet they use to hold them accountable.

Making words with magnetic letters

Making words with block letters

Making words with letter cubes

My students love the computer center. Their favorite websites are abcya.com and starfall.com

My students also love the stamping center. At the beginning of the year, we focus on sight words, and then we move to word family words. This year, I must invest in some new stamp pads or put them on my wish list for parents to send.

After they stamp these words, they write a sentence for each word on the lines below. If you are interested in these stamping pages, you can find them HERE.

The word family sheets are located HERE.

The writing center is a must during literacy center time. Sometimes they have free choice writing and sometimes they are given a topic to write about relating to the season or theme we are working on.

These sentence stem activities are great for the writing center at the beginning of the year. You can find them HERE.

During my guided reading group time at the beginning of the year, I use emergent readers focusing on letter sounds and sight words. This Emergent Reader A-Z Bundle includes 26 emergent readers. There is a reader for each letter of the alphabet including vowels for the medial vowel sound.

You can find this Emergent Reader A-Z Bundle HERE!

You can also find each individual emergent reader HERE!

This BUNDLE includes an emergent reader for all 26 letters.

During this guided reading time, we focus on tracking print, letter sounds, and sight words. Each of these emergent readers provides for DIFFERENTIATION. The last three pages of each reader has sheets that can be included or taken out depending on the need of each student/group. One page requires the students to circle the uppercase and lowercase letter of that particular reader. The next page requires students to write each uppercase and lowercase letter for that particular reader 5 times each. The last page requires students to write 5 words beginning with the particular letter. Students could look back in the book to find the words to copy or write their own 5 words using invented spelling (more differentiation).

The following pictures show each of these pages in action.

Tracking print

You can also have students circle the sight words you are learning.

You can also have students color/highlight with a yellow crayon the letter/sound you are focusing on for each reader.

Below are the three pages that provide for differentiation. You can leave all three pages in the book or take out sheets not wanted depending on the need of each student/group.

For an even greater challenge, you can have your higher level students turn to the back of their book and write sentences for each word they wrote on this last page.

The possibilities are endless. I hope you find these guided readers useful. I am giving away one of these 26 emergent readers at the link below.

Click HERE to GRAB YOUR FREEBIE!

Emergent Reader: My Mm Book

Later in the year, I use other books for guided reading. We begin our group by making predictions from the cover page. Then we read the title and discuss the roles of the author and illustrator.

Taking a picture walk is a MUST to guided reading. This allows you to introduce words that students may have difficult with as you discuss each picture. I always let students verbalize what they see on each page and what they THINK is happening. Then we check our predictions as we read. 

Then we review decodable words included in the reader and practice sounding them out as well as any sight words in the reader through the use of flashcards.

We also discuss reading strategies (such as use picture clues, stretch the word, skip the word then come back to see what would make sense, and look for chunks in the word) for them to use while reading if they find a word they do not know.

After this, I allow students to read through the book by themselves quietly. Then we take turns reading through the book so that I can hear each student read daily and sometimes we have time to hear some students read the entire book independently. I try to listen to as least one student read the entire book each day making notes of successes or areas in which they are struggling.

After reading, I ask questions about the book and have students ask questions they may have about the story. Then, we may complete a story map with title, character, setting, beginning, middle, and end or we may just write about the book or choose a favorite part to write about. There are so many things you can do during guided reading.

What are some things you do during guided reading time???

Please share in the comments below.

Don't forget to click HERE to GRAB YOUR FREEBIE!

Thanks for stopping by!