Guided Reading Know How and a FREEBIE!

I have taught for about 11 years and taught guided reading for 10 of the eleven years.  When I first started teaching, many teachers were actually still doing whole group reading instruction with novel studies.  While I think that novel studies definitely have a place in the reader's workshop, I feel that students must be instructed in small groups to meet their individual needs as well.  Working with students with disabilities for the last three years has done nothing but reinforce that belief.  It has also made my teaching of reading "bag of tricks" much larger- I had no choice.

When I taught third grade I always felt like I really needed to make sure my students could read and comprehend ALL texts because many teachers feel like in fourth grade "students no longer are learning to read, but reading to learn" (I hate this phrase and philosophy by the way, but I will spare everyone my soapbox!  When I heard a principal say it I about fell over).

Click here to read more about guided reading and get your freebie!

Response to Intervention Organizational Tips

I have worked at two different schools and it seemed like both schools struggled with  RTI.  There was  tons of repetitive paperwork and often what was acceptable in one meeting for one child...somehow didn't work for another child and another meeting.  I think this is because it is a really confusing process in general- for all parties: parents, teachers, counselors and administrators.

While I have no magical guarantees of how to make RTI seamless for you and your school, I *do* have some suggestions on to help teachers stay organized while collecting data.  Last school year I had several students on the RTI tiers and collected LOTS of different data.  It could have been a paper work nightmare!  And it was...until one night I stayed late, developed a system and got myself organized. And it worked like a charm.

Click Here to Read More About It and for Freebies!

Watermelon Festival Craft: 3-D Watermelon Life Cycle Craftivity

Create a 3-D Watermelon craft when you teach about watermelons, life cycles, or plants during your science units. This craft is perfect to reinforce the topics taught during this science lesson and it works well as a science center too. 

Learn more about this watermelon craft at my blog {HERE}.

Thanks, 

Robin @ Sweet Tea Classroom