Mrs. Richardson's Class: Organized Guided Reading

Hi sweet friends!!

I'll never forget my first year of teaching when I had no idea what to do during that time of the day. I was blessed with an amazing principal who saw my need for some help in that area. Our district had a lady who came into my classroom once a week for 6 weeks and modeled all of the elements of balanced literacy for me. I learned SO much!! Guided Reading quickly became my favorite, though.

When I moved to a new school and had the opportunity to teach next door to a teacher who previously taught Reading Recovery and also had been a Reading Specialist, I learned more than I could have ever imagined! She was just a wealth of knowledge when it came to all things reading!! I have just been blessed to have several wonderful teachers in my life to teach me about organizing my Guided Reading time.

I'm linking up with some great gals from Primary Powers to share some organization tips!

I wanted to share with you some tips on organizing your Guided Reading groups.

Let's start with books. Some schools are blessed with a guided reading library. I have always worked somewhere that has had some sort of guided reading library. Even with that available, I used printable readers A LOT the last 3 years. They were easy to replace if lost or torn or spilled on. Here is how I organized them in my classroom.

Something else I always try to do at the beginning of the week is plan ahead with my groups and materials as much as possible. I know that can't always happen because sometimes you are just in the moment and you realize you have to change teaching points or a book is WAY to hard or easy, but I did the best I could.

I keep everything I need to know about my students and their progress inside my guided reading binder. It's the heart beat of my groups. It's a MUST HAVE for me to stay organized.