How to Engage Your Students During Guided Reading Instruction

Guided reading is an essential part of your reading time.  However, it is usually a small chunk of time each day, so you need to make the most of it and engage your students during guided reading.  So how do you do that? I will share with you 3 things you should have at your guided reading table to make your time run smoothly and help keep your students engaged during guided reading instruction.  

What is at my Guided Reading Table?

1.  Tools to teach decoding strategies

First grade readers are decoders in their purest form.  They have learned that to read, they need to sound words out. Once they have learned their letter sounds, they are good to go, or so they think.  If you ask a first grader how to solve an unknown word, they will say “sound it out” every time.  We need to teach them that there are lots of other ways to figure out tricky words.

I do this by introducing them to the decoding strategies and the stuffed animals that go with each.  I created a set of Decoding Strategies Posters with animals to teach each strategy.  They are immediately hooked when the stuffed animals come down to the reading table as I model how to use a strategy.  For instance, when I introduce Stretchy Snake, we actually take turns coiling him up and stretching him out as we stretch out words.

However, it is not practical to keep Stretchy Snake there at all times, so I created a few student tools to go with the posters on the wall behind our guided reading table.  When working on a particular strategy, I give students the decoding wand with the character on it.  Click on any of the pictures below to get a closer look at the resource.  

This acts as a reference to try that strategy when they come to an unknown word.  Later on, students can use a bookmark, which includes all the strategies, when they are more confident readers and have learned some strategies to try when decoding.

I teach the decoding strategies in approximately the same order every year ~ Eagle Eye, Stretchy Snake, Chunky Monkey, Lips the Fish, Skippy Frog, Flippy the Dolphin and lastly, Tryin' Lion.

2.  Tools to teach reading comprehension

When it comes to teaching comprehension skills, I have a confession to make.  Many times I struggled to figure out what exactly to ask my students or how to word it.  We do not use a particular reading series, so I glean resources from many places.

Identifying key comprehension questions for text was sometimes a bit difficult.  That is why I decided to make myself a go-to resource for any non-fiction text that covered all the different comprehension strategies that I teach.  Enter Comprehension Checks!  These question cards are placed on a ring, and I keep them at my guided reading table and another set at our carpet area to use during shared reading.  

The Comprehension Checks are colour-coded and organized by reading strategy.  There are multiple questions for each strategy.  On each card, you will find the question and then “look fors” – what you might expect your students to say or think to answer the question.  This extra information makes the cards more teacher-friendly.

We are about to start our unit on story elements – Character/Setting/Problem/Solution.  The Analyzing Text and Demonstrating Understanding cards will be close at hand during my guided and shared reading lessons.  Here is a closer look at a Making Connections card:

3.  Tools to teach phonemic awareness

This tool isn't necessarily aimed at teaching during guided reading, but it is an essential precursor to teaching reading. In first grade, at the beginning of the year, not all of your students will be ready for a traditional guided reading group.  Instead, they need to develop foundational phonemic awareness skills to begin to decode and read the text.  In this case, teachers do not need to provide their students with books and questions, but they need to be armed with word lists and lots of them.  

I always start the year with at least a couple of groups who need to start here, and I wanted to keep them engaged too during their instruction.  I created a set of word lists to practice whatever phonemic awareness skill I was working on.  I pull out the colour-coded sets and have several different word lists for each skill, so I wasn't trying to generate word lists on the fly.  We have all done that!  

I hope you have found some new resources to make your guided reading time more effective and help engage your students during guided reading instruction.

Take a moment to pin this post so you can come back to it.

Until next time,

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Halloween Poems for Sight Word Practice and Reading Fluency

Students love Halloween, so why not use that excitement to build reading skills in October? These easy-to-read Halloween poems give beginning readers a fun way to practice sight words and high-frequency words in connected text while building reading fluency and comprehension.

I like to keep the poems short and predictable so they are manageable for first graders and easy to use during shared reading. We can reread the same poem several times, find familiar sight words, talk about meaning, and even add a quick comprehension or visualizing activity. The Halloween theme keeps students interested, while I can work on several reading skills at once.

One reason I like using poetry in October is that a short poem gives students a manageable text they can return to again and again. Once students have been taught the sight words, the poem gives them a chance to practice recognizing those words while building fluency through repeated reading.

Using Halloween Poems for Shared Reading

Display the poem so everyone can see it and read it together as a class. I like to have students look for and circle the sight words they have already been learning. This gives them another opportunity to recognize those words in connected text instead of seeing them only on flashcards or a word list.

You can easily adjust the activity for students who are working on earlier skills. Instead of finding sight words, they might look for a familiar letter, beginning sound, or simple spelling pattern. Everyone can take part in the same poem while working at an appropriate level.

Build Reading Fluency with a Pocket Chart

A pocket chart is another easy way to use the same Halloween poem. Turn the poem into a cloze activity by leaving out some of the sight words students have already been learning. Give students the missing word cards and have them choose the word that completes each line.

Each time we add a new word, we go back and reread the poem from the beginning. All that repeated reading gives students lots of practice with familiar words and helps build reading fluency. Once the poem is complete, we read it together again and talk about whether each word makes sense in the sentence.

Try a Free Halloween Sight Word Poem

Want to try one with your students? The Black Cat Halloween poem shown here is available as a free download. It is a simple way to try this type of sight word and fluency practice with your class before using the full set.

You can use it for shared reading, sight word practice, repeated reading, or in a pocket chart activity like the one above.

Extend the Poem with Reading Activities

Once students are familiar with the poem, you can use it for a little extra reading practice. I like to keep the follow-up activities simple so students can focus on the text they already know.

You can use the poem to practice:

• Fluency by rereading the poem several times
• Sight words in connected text by finding and reading familiar words
• Visualizing by drawing a picture that matches the poem
• Comprehension with a simple question students can answer using information from the poem

Because students already know the poem, these activities give them another chance to work with the same text without adding a lot of extra directions or prep.

More Halloween Poems for Sight Word Practice

If you want more poems to use throughout October, the full set includes 6 additional Halloween poems with activities for sight word practice, fluency, visualizing, and comprehension.

You can use the poems during shared reading, in a pocket chart, or for independent follow-up practice once students are familiar with the text.

Take a closer look at the Halloween Poems and Activities for Sight Words.

Take a moment to pin the post so you can refer to it again next year.

Until next time,

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Celebrating Halloween in the Classroom? Keep it Simple!

Halloween in the classroom can be a CrAzY time, so I am so glad you stopped by. I will be sharing a few helpful ideas and FREEBIES to help with your Halloween celebrations in the classroom.

My best advice is to KEEP IT SIMPLE!

In my experience in First Grade, it is best to celebrate within your predictable routine. We already know our children are beside themselves with excitement. By enjoying fun Halloween activities in the regular structure of the day, your students get to celebrate, but things are less likely to slip over the edge into chaos!

A Literacy Center perfect for the week before Hallowe'en! 

The week of or before Halloween, I intentionally choose word wall words with the "oo" sound so I can review the two sounds these letters make. I use this quick little activity in my centers for the week. Just sign up below to grab the FREEBIE!

Next up, some Halloween Art, with a bit of math thrown in! 

Who doesn't love to do Halloween Art projects! We created paint chip Frankenstein's using green paint chips from the hardware store! The students love this one, so I will do this craft every year. This is a great low-cost craft that really showcases each student's creativity.

All you need is: 

• Paint chips from the paint store. I have used 3 and 4 colour paint chips.
• Scrap paper is used to make the eyes, teeth, and bolts.
• A sharpie to add stitches.  

A fun math activity we did as a tie-in was to count the "stitches" on Frankenstein's face to see how many he had. Before making the stitches, we talked about how stitches look like tally marks to 5. After finishing, they skipped counted the stitches to see how many Frankenstein had. 

I have several Halloween books that pair perfectly with this craft. One of my favourites is:

And finally, a Halloween Math Freebie for good measure!  

In math, we will use my Halloween patterning center this week to revisit patterning. As a special thank you for stopping by, you can grab this Math Center FREEBIE to use with your students. Students will look at each card, determine if it shows a pattern, and then place it on the sorting mat. I have also included a recording sheet so students can record their work as they go. Click on the picture to grab it.

Wait, There's More! 

Are you looking for ideas for your Literacy block for Halloween, too? I have you covered there as well. Check out this post for Halloween poems for sight words that are perfect for Kindergarten and first grade. 

Thanks for stopping by!  

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