Teach the Reader. Not the Book.

I was sitting in a professional development class this spring where we were watching a webinar previously recorded from the Heinemann Group, and one of the instructors made this statement:

Have you ever heard something and you thought, "Wow. Just WOW." That's what happened to me when I heard Dan Feigelson say, "Teach the reader, not the book." I felt like I was smacked in the face by a 20-ton truck. In a good way. If that's possible.

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Bright Ideas Round Up

This time of year always makes me nostalgic, so why not take a look back at all the Bright Ideas that have been shared in 2014!

I love how this link up showcases genius classroom ideas from so many amazing bloggers! Literally, thousands of "ideas only" posts have been shared over the course of the last 10 months. Let's take a peek at some of the Bright Ideas I've shared this year:

This post shows how I organize my guided reading groups and paperwork using a set of two-pocket folders. I love that I'm not constantly flipping through pages in a binder or lugging a huge binder to and from data meetings!

Going along with the guided reading theme, this post shows how my team and I have compiled our guided reading books into one central location. We actually ordered a TON of books this summer and will be needing another cart! Not sure where we're going to put it though! 

In this post, I took a break from classroom ideas to share a trick for tying shoes that I learned in college. It works wonders on my kindergarten son!

 Lastly, I shared this post during the back to school season that explains how to use visuals to establish classroom routines and expectations. I love how my students' faces are all over my classroom!

Thanks for taking a walk down memory lane with me this month! I hope that you've been able to use or have been inspired by the ideas I've shared. Grab your coffee and snuggly blanket and check out the other Bright Ideas Round Up Posts from my friends below. Have a super weekend!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Bright Idea: Organizing Guided Reading Books

I'm back for another installment of...

I love this linky! No products, no sales pitches, just really AWESOME ideas!

Last time I shared how I organize my guided reading logs and anecdotal notes. Today I want to show off how we organize our guided reading books. We? Yes, we! I really have the bestest teaching teammates EVER, and a few years ago, we decided to combine all our guided reading books together in one central location. Check it out!

First off, it probably helps that we have some room for this set up. My school is divided up into three wings. At the end of each wing is a large common area we call the breakout. Then there are 6-8 classrooms around each breakout. Maybe if your hallways are extra wide or if you have some unused coat hooks, you could put yours in the hallway?

We purchased these carts and book bins from Calloway House (thanks to FB friend, Renee, for tracking them down!). The OCD in me had to put them in rainbow order :) The red & yellow ones have our literary texts (fiction and traditional lit) and the green & blue ones have our informational texts.

The books are all organized by Fountas & Pinnell guided reading level, going in order of course! On the outside of each bin, we typed up the book titles, so that we would know where each book belongs. Depending on the size of the book and how many copies we have, we can fit quite a few titles in each bin. Some levels need just one bin, while others have 3-4 bins.

Don't hate on the Comic Sans font! We don't have cute stuff on our school computers :(

Why I Love This Set-Up:

1. I don't have to store my guided reading books in my classroom anymore. Don't worry, I quickly filled up that space with my math manipulatives!

2. We each have a set of about half of our titles. So that means we have 18 copies of one book. It makes it a lot easier if one book gets chewed up by the family dog to still have enough copies to read with future groups.

3. We only have one set for the whole grade level (six copies) of the other half of our titles, so this system is MUCH more accessible than when we stored them in the supply closet. 

4. We have a basket in the breakout where we put the books that need to be put away. So whenever one of us has a parent volunteer, we share the responsibility of putting them away. And by "we," I mean the volunteers :)

5. I don't have a mountain of used books stored in my classroom. Because I know that two other teachers are using the books, I don't hoard them as much as I used to. Now my actions affect others. And it makes the task of putting the books away a lot more manageable.

We actually got this idea from the third grade teachers at our school. They actually have NO books in their classrooms! They don't have classroom libraries; they have a GRADE LEVEL library! Can you imagine all those books their kids have access to?! We thought about doing that for our second grade readers, but decided against it because our kiddos go through books a lot quicker than third graders do.

If you enjoyed this bright idea, hop on over to my Facebook, Instagram, and TPT and follow for more great ideas!

For more bright ideas from more than 130 bloggers, please browse through the link up below. They're all listed by topic/grade level. Thanks for stopping by! 

An InLinkz Link-up

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Guided Reading Lesson Planning and Note Taking

I got a ton of LOVE from my Bright Idea post from a few weeks ago.

If you missed it, the post was all about how I organize my guided reading scoring/notes sheets. Click here to check it out!

I had a lot of requests to share my recording sheets, so I will... but on one condition: you don't judge :) I made all of these on my computer at work, so that means I probably whipped them up in 5-10 minutes. I also used standard fonts and no clip art (no fun stuff on my school laptop), and I didn't cute them up either for this blog post so that you can edit them to fit your needs. So no judgy giraffes, OK? Feel free to download them and cute them up for yourself :)

This is my 10th year teaching, and I swear I change my guided reading note taking sheets every. single. year. But I think I found the perfect format (for me) this year, and in conjunction with my folder system, I am rockin' and rollin'!

Let's take a peek at what's inside my guided reading folder...

In the first pocket I keep my running record info, group info, group schedule, and log sheet. It looks like this:

The top page you're seeing is my log. Here's a close up:

Their names are on the left and then their instructional reading level. At the top I write the dates, skipping a column between weeks. It helps my visual brain stay organized. I can fit about one month on each page. I write the level of the book we read in the group under the day. This helps me keep track of how many days/weeks we've spent on a certain level. Click here for the blank one. You'll notice that I took students' names out, but left their levels on the page, so you can see where those go. Also, I use the bolded lines to visually separate each group. You can easily move the bolded lines if you have more/less students in a group. Just change the border style to the thickest solid line, or you can use the draw tool to draw in the borders. To get rid of the bold lines, highlight the cells with the bold line and then click on the standard border. Hope that makes sense!

The rest of the pockets are for each group:

Each group has a lesson plan sheet. I started out with this page:

But after a few months I switched to this one:

The reason I switched is because in second grade, the guided reading books are longer, so it sometimes takes me 2-3 sessions to get through a book. The second version only requires me to write the title of the book once, whereas the first one, I had to write the title each session. It might sound a bit lazy that I didn't want to write the title each session, but I'm all about maximizing my time :) If you are a kinder or first grade teacher, you can usually get through your books in one session, so you might like the first version. For lesson planning, all I have to do is write the goal/strategy we're working on for the day. The application and summary/goal review at the end are already filled in to make my life easier. Here's the first version and the second version :) For some reason, they saved as a landscape document to Google drive so it's going to look a little goofy. If you click on the arrow in the upper left corner to download to your computer, the Excel file will open up and it will print in portrait A-OK!

Then each student gets one of these:

I am IN LOVE with this page. Notice at the top of the page it says D/C/F. These letters stand for decoding, comprehension, and fluency: the top box I give a decoding score, the middle box gets a comprehension score, and the bottom box gets a fluency score. I give my students a score of 3, 2, or 1, with 3 being the best. This is the scoring system I use on my report cards, but I know some people use letters or a 4, 3, 2, 1 scale. Do what you gotta do! Then in the large box I take notes. I write my notes about decoding towards the top, comprehension in the middle, and fluency at the bottom--trying to keep them in line with the D/C/F boxes. I used to have a larger space for notes, but I noticed that my notes were all usually focused on one aspect of reading (usually fluency). This set-up forces me to take notes on the whole reading picture. I also don't stress about filling in every score every day. Sometimes I don't get a chance to listen to individuals read or do an in-depth comprehension activity. Sometimes I write notes; other times I don't. Click here if you want this form :) Again, it will look a little strange in Google Drive, but just click on the arrow to download and print directly from Excel.

You've seen this pic before, but this is what my space looks like when I'm conducting a group:

I can easily move from one student to the next, and when I'm done with a group, all of their papers go back in their folder pocket.

My favorite part about the way I take notes is that I feel incredibly well-informed when I am talking about specific students to parents, administration, interventionists, etc. And my life is SO EASY when I need to complete progress reports or report cards. I hope I've answered all your questions about how I keep track of my growing readers. If you have any other questions, please leave a comment below :)

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Bright Idea: Organizing Guided Reading Notes

Hi friends! I'm super excited to link up with so many amazing bloggers for the Bright Ideas Link Up!

Today I want to share how I organize my guided reading notes and paperwork. I used a pretty binder for eight years, but I like to have a scoring/anecdotal note sheet for each student, and flipping back and forth between +/-20 papers was not working for me. AT ALL. So last year, my school's reading teacher gave me this:

Can you tell my folder is loved? <3

This folder system is AMAZING! Basically, it's four 2-pocket student folders that have been folded backwards. The front cover/back cover is one folder that has been cut in half. Then she used the binding machine in the copy room to assemble it.
Let's take a peek inside, shall we?

In the first pocket is where I keep my log of dates when I meet with my groups and running record progress form. On the outside of the pocket, I made a schedule of which group I'm taking each day and when. I put the schedule on a sticky note, so it can be changed easily when needed. I like to map out when I'm taking my groups so that I don't waste precious minutes trying to figure out who I haven't met with in a while. It also works great for my students because I tell them what days I'm taking their groups (and they get mad if I miss their group! Haha!) In my district, I'm required to meet with below-level students every day, on level students 3 times a week, and above level 1-2 times a week. All of my kids are currently reading at or above grade level (L/21 or higher), so that helps with my scheduling. I am still taking my on-level group every day, because some of them were below grade level when the year started. I meet with my M's 3 times a week, and everyone else 2 times. I was even able to make time in my schedule to do my weekly fluency progress monitoring. It works out well that I only have 5 groups this trimester :)

A close up of my first pocket. The sticky note on the left tells me which group I'm taking and when. The one on the right tells me who is in each group (although I pretty much have in memorized!)

The next 5 pockets are for the groups, one pocket per group. I put them in order based on their level. There is a sticky note on each pocket with the names of the kids in the group. Then inside the pocket, I have each student's scoring/notes sheet, as well as my group lesson plan sheet. Sometimes if we don't finish the book during one session, I'll also put my copy in the pocket to remind me that we need to finish it.

Close Up

Each student has their own scoring/notes sheet because it makes my life easier at progress report and report card time. I can also easily move students from one group to another... just move their sheet to the new pocket! When I'm meeting with a group, I will pull their sheets out of the pocket and lay them out in front of me. It makes it easier to move from one student to another.

This is what my space looks like when I'm working with a group. Super easy to switch from student to student!

In the last pocket,  I have guided reading teaching "cheat sheets,"district guided reading and running record expectations, and extra copies of my note taking sheets and lesson plan sheets.

I love this folder system so much, I begged asked my reading teacher politely for another one to store all my progress monitoring and reading intervention materials.

I am going to change out the binding coil to a bigger one :)

I actually just found out you can purchase these kinds of folders, although I don't know what they're technically called, where to get them, or how much. But if you buy a bunch of folders during the Back to School sales, you could easily put something like this together for less than $1. And if you need more folders, just use a bigger coil.

Thanks for stopping by! I would love for you to stop by my Instagram and Facebook to keep up with more of my bright ideas! And don't forget to check out more awesome ideas... links below!

An InLinkz Link-up

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