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Great thoughts to consider - having successful independent centers is so important. You mentioned "mix-up anew every week." So are you saying you regroup your kids every week?

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Yes, those little name cards that are in my centers pocket chart--I change them around every Friday afternoon before I go home. I do this so that they have to really look at the pocket chart every day to see if their name has moved and what center they'll start at that day. I know they only move around on Mondays, but the kids don't know yet know one day from another so I encourage them to look at the pocket chart every day before going to their first center. Now, I have some names vertical and some names horizontal in the pocket chart and that is an indication as to whether they'll be doing a floor puzzle or working at the green table. This changes every day so they definitely need to look and that is why I mix up the names and train them to look before we get to this point.

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Makes sense. I started names up and down last week, and they are doing really well with it. As to changing up your groups every Friday....how will that work for you once you start using your lesson plan template for your station? As I recall when I saw your plans in posts you shared, the names didn't change very often??

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So, just to clarify, the horizontal and vertical names don't have anything to do with my center. They will all just go straight to getting their reading folders out and reading on the rug and I'll call small (sub)groups from there. Often, I just grab the first three who have their folders and are ready to go. If I don't ability group this year, I probably won't even need my small group instruction template. I'll see. I'm still perfectly this approach myself! On Thursdays we work on writing and I foresee grouping students more strategically for that.

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Yes, thanks for clarifying. I did realize the down names are just for the floor station :) I’m looking forward to seeing how the year unfolds with your small groups and the decisions you make for instruction.

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I’m looking forward to it too because the progress they make is always so amazing.

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I am excited to watch your video and listen in as you are teaching the students at your table. I'm so glad I am a couple of weeks behind you so I can have time to be planning ahead.

Are your kids still in the same groups? If so, can you speak to your thoughts around how/when you will shift to differentiated homogeneous groups? I am starting to feel the "itch" to shift my students, because I can already see some clear divisions in their skills. Since I will be refiguring my groups from 4 groups to 3 in another week, I'm tempted to at least pull the students who I know struggle more into a group. What are your thoughts? Remember, I only have 18 students. If you had a smaller class like this, would you do anything different in regards to grouping your students?

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I haven't really answered your questions in regards to this because a) I've never homogeneously grouped my students during centers until last year--mostly because I prefer to work with 2-3 students at a time and can look at any group of seven at my center and find those subgroups of 2-3 to work with at the same time and b) I didn't particularly like having my students homogeneously grouped last year and am probably not going to do it that way this school year. Having learners at the same level is preferable at my teaching table but I don't like having like learners all together out there at the other centers. I want the highs mixed in with the lows so they can model and help each other. When I have my seven lowest and slowest workers at the round tables working independently on an activity meant for everyone in the class, they struggle and they're all coming over to my reading table asking for assistance and I can't get my small group teaching done. So, I think I am going to keep them not-ability grouped, but when a group of seven arrives at my center, I will have three similar learners at my table while the other four read independently nearby. Then, I'll look at those four and choose two or three who go together. It usually works out well. This allows me to maintain heterogeneous groups that I can mix-up anew every week. That being said, my teammate has five learners who are clearly not ready for reading folders. She has them all in one group already because she is going to focus on letter names and sounds with them. So, you should group them however you like and based on their overall needs as learners. As the weeks go on for me, I'm sure I'll be like oh, I always want these two together for sure. Or, these three are reading way beyond everyone else so I'll keep them together. But mostly, my hope is to keep kids all mixed up.

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I can't believe how huge your class size is. It must be exhausting!

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Yes, but I am used to it. We average about 27 per year. One year I had 30. Luckily, I have a full-time aide, the amazing Miss Lori!

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