Guided Reading and Centers

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Home : 2007 : August : 19

Guided Reading and Centers
By linda2671

I struggled with this for years, but 5 years ago I came up with a plan that really works well for me. This is how I would do a class with 24 students and four different reading levels. Divide your class into four groups.
One group does guided reading with you, one group goes to centers, one group does seatwork, and one group sits together to read their guided reading books to each other. When the first reading group is finished with you, they go to their seats for seatwork. The ones who were reading together come to you. Those at centers go read together, those at seatwork go to centers. No one is doing

anything for more than 20 minutes or so, so you have to plan accordingly. I find that when I manage my centers this way, the kids are quiet and cooperative. They don't do any one activity long enough to get bored and cause problems. They know that they have very little time to get finished. This process takes about 80 minutes of your reading time. You still have time for a shared reading activity. You can do it before or after your guided reading. Don't forget to count the time that you have to explain seatwork. My seatwork is always review of something we've been working on. I don't have them do writing for seatwork, because I like to circulate and conference while they do writing. I use Language Arts cut and paste activities usually.