Accommodating Reading Levels in Guided Reading: Part 1

Guided Reading is a key component to literacy instruction in any primary classroom. It typically looks like the teacher working with a small, differentiated group of students… small group meaning anywhere from 2-6 students.

accommodating guided reading levels part one

The goal of these small groups is for the students to eventually use the reading strategies we are teaching them independently to read fluently.
Today I want to talk about Guided Reading by sharing different strategies to help you help your students be more successful readers.

In my Life Skills classroom, I have 7 students and I have 3 different reading groups. I have a nonverbal reading group who is focusing on Core Vocabulary using communication boards, a reading group on a DRA Level A, and a reading group on a DRA Level F.

How in the world do I plan for all of this?

Reading AZ adapted books are great for reading toolkits

Reading A-Z. More like Reading A-to-the-men. #hallelujah

Since the Life Skills curriculum is the “TEKS” (Texas State Standards), we don’t have a specific set of books or guides to go from for each week… literally nothing. And when you have students in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade, it gets really overwhelming… REALLY fast.

Before Reading A-Z, I really don’t even remember how I survived planning for each week. After purchasing a year subscription to Reading A-Z? As of right now, I am planned for 3 weeks ahead of time for our Reading Block… for all of my reading groups.

So you might be thinking:

“…but I’m a SPED teacher too and I have students struggling” or

“…but I have some really low level readers who are still struggling.”

And you are probably wondering how I could possibly differentiate books and lessons even more. Well I’m so glad you asked, let me show you in a replay of a video I recently did:

*This Periscope replay video is not/was not sponsored by Reading A-Z. All views and opinions within this video are my own.*

Level the adapted books you create for the toolkits

I, also, wanted to show you two more recent RAZ books that were the same book, leveled differently. I printed the single-sided book (Level A), laminated it, and then adapted each book accordingly.

The top book has the words. I image searched for real picture of each image within the story. Printed, laminated, and added hook/loop to make the story interactive.

The bottom book is the same book, but in the wordless format. Use Word, I typed out each sentence from the story. Printed, laminated, and cut out each word separately, then added hook/loop for students to then “write” their own story.

You can learn more about how I use Reading A-Z readers in my classroom here.