Book Study: Week 1! (Guided Reading- Center Rotations!)

I am so excited to be teaming up with the #GuidedReadingGals to do a book study on The Next Steps in Guided Reading by Jan Richardson!

Have you read this book?? If  you teach guided reading in your classroom, this book is a must! 

This week, Marie over at The Literacy Spot is blogging about Chapter 1: Preparing for Guided Reading. Go check our her page for an in depth blog about chapter 1!

My favorite part about this chapter is setting up the routines and procedures (p. 9-22). It took me years to get center rotations the way I wanted them in my classroom. My last two years as a classroom teacher were spent in 2nd grade and I finally found a system that I loved! The best part about it- it is simple! See the wheel and the white piece of paper with student names on it?

 The wheel told students where they were going and the white paper told students which group they were in. So easy!

My four rotations were:

1. Teacher (guided reading lesson)

2. Library/Snack (students ate their snacks while they read their books, went to the library, took AR tests or finished any unfinished work they had)

3. Centers (I had a hands on activity for a center; the subject changed each day: M- vocabulary,  T- writing, W- spelling, Th- word work, F- reading in social studies/science)

4. Daily Reading (students completed a daily reading passage and a reading activity that corresponded with our whole group reading)

Since 2nd graders are fairly independent, it usually didn't take long for students to master rotations- I'd say one week and we were ready to roll. On Monday, we would just practice. I'd turn the wheel and students would stand where they were supposed to be. We would practice this a few times until I felt students had a good understanding of what color group they were and where each rotation was going to be held. Then, on Tuesday we would actually rotate. I gave students in my group something easy to complete (usually a daily reading handout or something from ReadWorks) so I could walk around and check on students in rotations. We did this the rest of the week and by the next week, we were usually ready for full on guided reading groups. Each rotation was 30 minutes for a total of 2 hours. 

Easy peasy! :)

There is so much more to this chapter so don't forget to check out The Literacy Spot for more awesome information!!

Check out each week of the book study by clicking the links below!
Week 1: Guided Reading- Center Rotations
Week 2: Guided Reading- Grouping Students
Week 3: Pre-A and Emergent Guided Reading
Week 4: Early Guided Reading
Week 5: Transitional Guided Reading
Week 6: Fluent Guided Reading
Week 7: Helping Struggling Readers