AuburnChick's Adventures

Whew!  What a whirlwind of a week this has been!

On Monday, I finally took the plunge and, with my friend, Barb’s, help, I began training my students on how to work in their guided reading stations.

If you’ve worked in or volunteered at an elementary school, you will probably be familiar with the “centers” that students rotate through.  This allows the teacher to work with small groups of students, targeting specific learning abilities in reading and math instruction.

Intensive reading students in middle and high school also go through rotations.

I’d never taught this way before, so that’s why this week has been such a huge thing for me.

I worked all weekend to get my baskets ready…

I worked with each class to develop expectations and rules that will, once everyone is trained, serve the purpose that the reading framework is intended to accomplish…

Another teacher suggested the roles that you see on the poster.  Brilliant idea, don’t you think?!  I just love collaborating with other teachers!!!

Barbara began coming into my third period class to assist me.  This class is my largest and rowdiest.

Monday afternoon, we had a sit-down, and she shared some observations.

Two things had stood out immediately:

1)  Two-thirds of my class are males
2)  Students had to sit for over an hour before we began stations

It’s no wonder I’ve been having so many problems with this class!  They’re boys, and they can’t sit for long periods of time.

Yeah, I was feeling a little dumb at that point.

We decided to change the order of items on my daily agenda.  Rather than having students sit through bellwork, independent reading, read aloud, then whole group instruction, they would be sitting through the first two things, a very short instructional time, and then stations.  I moved the read aloud to the last five minutes of class.

This is what students saw when they walked in on Tuesday…

So far, I’ve taught three days with this new schedule, and things seem to be going a little better.

Typically, reading teachers pull students to the kidney-shaped tables in their rooms to work on individual skills.  Although I’m not pulling students yet, I’ve been working my way around the room, providing training/instruction as I go…readying my students for when I release more of the control to them.

Even in the midst of my going from group to group, Barbara suggested that I am, in fact, providing the differentiated instruction…just in a different way.  I’m going TO my students rather than calling THEM to ME.

Hey.  Whatever works, eh?

Although I’ve been a bit self-conscious about having Barbara in the room while I actually conduct my lesson (she and I are close friends, and she even won teacher of the year for our school district a few years ago), I’ve found her to be an excellent sounding board.  She gives me suggestions while being positive.  She’s helping me keep my instructional time focused on the goal…helping my students improve their overall reading skills while weeding out unnecessary or tedious lessons.

This is such a humbling experience, let me tell you.

Once again, I’m reminded of how much fine-tuning this profession requires.

I will say, though, that watching my students finally be engaged during the ENTIRE class period has both encouraged and inspired me.  Sometimes the things that look most difficult can, in fact, be the things that are the most fun and rewarding.

Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: guided reading, teaching |