Guided Reading Groups- What Am I Supposed To Do?

I need guided reading groups...I have 4 fifteen minute centers every day.... that is 20 centers blocks a week....how can I make all of that time meaningful in an appropriate amount of planning time?

Sometimes your school district will have specific curriculum you must use for your groups... other times you can create your own stuff. My hope is that you can do a combination of both. Let's take a look...

Guided Reading: I spent 22 of my 30 years in education teaching primary, 1st - 3rd grades. Literacy blocks were generally 60 minutes long. I had my kids grouped by ability or reading level and I ran 4 fifteen minute groups per day. Obviously, any reading groups that were below grade level... I met with every day. On grade level groups were 3 times a week and above grade level groups were 2 times a week. When kids were not meeting with me they rotated through stations or centers. Here are some ideas to use for these center times:

1. Independent reading from assigned book bags which were leveled one level below the current instructional level was a very easy center. I created book bags with about 7-8 books in gallon sized plastic bags... enough for each child in a particular group. I marked the bags with the reading level and a bag number. The kids kept them at their desks for 1-2 weeks. Then I collected the bags and rotated them to a different kid in the group. It was my intention that they had the books long enough to do multiple reads of each book. Of course higher leveled readers had fewer books because their books were longer and took longer to read.

2. I tried to have a couple of game type centers either for independent or partner use each week. The centers could be differentiated for the different levels... or they could be assigned across reading groups to have lower and higher readers together for support. I created these games based on skills we were working on during phonics or even writing skills. (I mostly bought these games from Teachers Pay Teachers. I made multiple sets and I laminated them so that I could use them over and over... even year to year.)

3. The kids loved to have computer centers. Sometimes I used programs that were paid for and supported by my district, and sometimes I assigned phonics and spelling based activities that I created myself on Google Slides. (During the pandemic my technology skills grew imensely and I got very comfortable with recording lessons and posting them in my Google Classroom.)

4. Sometimes students were assigned paper tasks a couple of times a week practicing multiple types of literacy skills... perhaps handwriting, letter sounds, spelling rules, etc. They could be fill in the blank or even a color type of worksheet.

Obviously your guided reading groups will be based upon your school's required curriculum, your grade level, and each group's reading level or needed skills. My school had a book room from which I chose the leveled reading books for each group. I usually did some kind of needed skill work with my lower groups first and then we would do our reading work during group. My higher readers did much more reading at the table with me and then some comprehension work.

I created a planning sheet that I used over and over. I had an electronic version of the schedule projected for the kids to follow as well. I admit it is time consuming to get it set up... but once it's done... you just update the centers each week. This schedule is also very convenient to use with and explain for sub plans.

Here are some general examples for you to reference and/or use.

You MUST download and make your own copy before editing.

Google version of Guided Reading Centers Plan

Excel Spreadsheet plan of Guided Reading Centers

I will warn you that getting started with centers is a very time consuming process... but once you have it done, it becomes much easier each week. When making games or hands on activities I always made ten sets (make sure to copy each set on different colored paper or mark with different symbols) and I laminated all of them. This allowed for more than one group to use the center at a time, and I used the centers repeatedly throughout the year and even year to year! Once they were done they were very easy to pull out for sub plans or in a pinch. All of my centers were based on a learning standard... never just busy work. But the more some of them felt like a game or were a partner activity... the more engaged the kids were. Note that you will also have to norm behaviors for center work like this... but if you stick with it and your kids learn the routine... it runs very smoothly for the rest of the year!

Good luck on getting your centers and Guided Reading Groups started! Your kids will grow in their reading skills, you will have a smooth routine, and your administrators should like it as well!