Reading Groups: Scheduling

Once I was ready to start pulling reading groups, I had to come up with a plan of how I would see everyone each week.

First, I divided my students based on DRA level into 5 groups.  I have 25 students, so groups of 5 work well in my classroom.  I may have more, smaller groups as we get further along, but right now, this works.  I have one group that has my kiddos with very few letters and/or sounds; one group with my "advanced" kids, mainly those who are ready to actually read a book together (DRA levels 1-4), and then my other Pre-A kids who have a solid alphabet-sound foundation grouped into 3 groups for skills, behavior and whatever else I could think of to balance them.

This chart lives next to my teaching table.  Each of the small slips is a child's name.  The groups are easy to change.

These groups will continue to change based on the needs of my students.  I will DRA again in February, and that will determine any major changes.  I expect much more variety in my group levels after the next report card, as a few shoot ahead.

I looked at my week, and figured I have a total of 11 slots for groups.  This is based on 3 groups Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and two on Tuesday (when we go to the library).  This is VERY idealistic, but I want to push myself to stick to it, as it means I see every child every week, at least once.  I wish I could read with every child every day, but it's just not realistic in the classroom setting I am in.

I started with my lowest group being seen 3 times.  Because they are far behind the other in my class, and we are no longer working on individual alphabet letters in class as much, I wanted to make sure to I was spending time with them.

Then my next groups each got 2 slots.  After Monday, only a group's second/third session with me is scheduled in my last slot so that, if we don't get to all three sessions in a day, I am not leaving out a group's first lesson.

This is my basic weekly schedule.  Mondays involve a lot of modeling, but if I have time I get to my purple group an extra time.

When we start a session of Daily 5, I pull my reading group out first.  They sit at my teaching table while the other students choose their activities so that I don't confuse them (or myself!).  Then I assign two children to computers, and the rest get to choose Read to Self, Read to Someone, Word Work or Listen to Reading.

It's getting complicated, but it's working for us most days.  The kids love to meet with me, and there are enough other activities that those outside the group stay pretty busy.

Hope this helps!