Now that October is done, I'm feeling a bit better about things. Math is becoming easier and I've finally been able to pay more attention to literacy like I had wanted to. My team and I sat down and discussed the possibility of switching and leveled grouping by classroom for reading groups. Unfortunately, we realized we had to do it on a smaller scale (just switching students who are outliers) since our reading times don't completely align due to our lunch schedules. On the positive side, I now have 5 groups set up in my room and have figured out how to meet with 4 per day. (My two above grade level groups meet every other day.) My binder is all set up and I've even done running records on two of the groups!
I think my favorite thing that I'm doing is connecting my reading groups to what the kids are learning in science, social studies, and health at the time. It's like getting double the amount of time for those subjects and the kids are able to build really great schema for the text books (which are a little difficult for most of them). Luckily, we have a pretty extensive book room here at Sun Path (thanks to Cindy) and I haven't run into any problems yet finding books that are about the right topics.
I still haven't starting conferring. :( Maybe that will come this month?
One thing we are doing with our team is conferring one week and pulling small groups the next. That way we can ensure the groups are flexible and still feel like we are getting the informationg we need. Small groups is also a time I confer by writing down notes and set a goal for the whole group for the next meeting, because the groups are based on reading skills they are struggling with.
ReplyDeleteI like what you are diong by pulling in social studies. science, etc. I would like to here more examples.
Thanks for the idea on flip-flopping between conferring and groups! Right now I'm teaching about the solar system in science. My current leveled groups are two 24's, one 34, one 40, and one 50. The 24's are both reading fiction books right now but all of the higher groups are reading more about the solar system. For example, my 50 group is reading about astronomers and they're so excited to go deeper in what they are learning about! The book teaches them about Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler.
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