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 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.
