you're right

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you're right
By adrienne

I totally agree with you. It is ridiculous to have to waste all of your time explaining worksheets that become trash anyway. Although I will be teaching fourth grade, I will be testing out Four Blocks myself for the first
time. I strongly recommend getting Guided Reading (not sure on title) by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell. I got the upper elementary version, make sure you get the K-3. It goes through how to set up an effective reading program. From what you wrote I would have the other kids do centers while you read with one group. Say that you have an hour long rotation. You switch every fifteen to

twenty minutes. You could choose leveled reading books for each group, short ones that you could preview, read, and briefly discuss. The other kids could rotate between several centers, like read around the room, abc center (magnetic letter center where they make words), writing center (they could write letters to you or other class members, or whatever), puzzle center, computer center. As long as you preview the centers, and give them your expectations of their behavior..it should work better than worksheets. Plus, its much more hands on. When I worked with the first graders I had the directions written out at each center (as simple as possible)and I told them that if they had questions they had to ask the student they were paired with OR the question kid. The question kid was a student I chose who understood the directions most of the time. Last resort, they could ask me. Usually I didn't get any questions and got through guided reading without interruption. I usually had about ten centers. They rotated through them with a partner. Obviously, they didn't do all of them in one day. This takes more thought than worksheets, but is worth it in my book. I also am always finding ways to avoid worksheets. OH! and I always paired them with someone not in their reading group so while I pulled a group their partner would keep rotating and they would meet up with them after their reading group. I hope this isn't too confusing.Good luck,if you have any questions or want more info email me I'm happy to help! And I'm glad you're questioning the usual routine!!