Simplify Reading Time

Reading has always been my favorite time of the day.  Why?  Because I can sit down and teach comfortably behind my kidney shaped table.  If an administrator walks in, they are always impressed at the learning going on around the room. 

So, what’s the trick?  Do I stay up late making incredible, engaging centers?  Nope.  I find a few things that work and stick with it.  Here’s how it works.  Let’s say I have 3 reading groups.  I have a chart that shows each group where they should be.

Green starts at the reading table with me, then moves to the computer station, then to the skills center.  Red starts as skills, then reading table with me, and last the computer station.  Blue starts at computers, then skills, finally they are with me at the reading table.  You can easily alter this to have 4 groups.  You would simply add a center.

So, is this chaotic?  Not at all.  I set a timer for 20 minutes.  When it goes off, we all stand and freeze.  When I give the signal, students move to their next center.  When they get there, they know what to do because expectations have been laid out since the beginning.

What centers should I include?  A lot of schools require students to complete a certain number of minutes on a computer program each week, so computers are always a center for me.  Another one that does not change is Writer’s Workshop.  Students have a spiral notebook to use as a writing journal all year.  When they go to this center, there are prompts with brainstorming ideas ready to go.  You can find these for all 180 school days in my store.

Finally, Daily Dose of Grammar is a great choice for center time.  If you have an extra laptop, students can begin by watching the video that introduces the skills.  Then they complete the daily worksheet practicing these skills. 

Make sure you lay down the law that they are not to interrupt reading group time.  This is your sacred time with the students in front of you.  If the computer has a tech problem, they need to ask a friend for help or go read their book until center time is over.