In early October, I make the big switch. For the first seven to eight weeks of school, all students work with me at my teaching table when they come to my center and they all do the same activity. You’ve been seeing this on the videos: name writing practice, reviewing letter names and sounds introduced during whole group phonics, and learning how to blend two sounds together.
Now, we are starting reading folders and with that comes the big switch. Students who rotate to my center will no longer come directly to my teaching table. Rather, they will get out their reading folder and sit on the reading rug—right next to me so they realize that they are still at my center and also so I can keep an eye on them—and practice reading on their own. From the six or seven students who are reading independently near me, I will choose two to four to work with me at my table. I will work with them for several minutes and then send them back to the reading rug. I will then grab two or three more and work with them for several minutes. My goal is to work with all seven within the 15 minutes that they are at my center but to not work with all of them at once.
Since only one-third to one-half of the small group that rotates to my center will be with me at my teaching table, the other part of the group must learn how to read independently. In this video, I show you how I get them started with this activity that they will do every day now for the rest of the school year.
We will be getting into some serious individualized reading instruction and I do not want to have seven students at my table all at once. My preference is to work with very small groups for fewer minutes than to work with a larger group for more minutes.
Remember, I will try to see all students every single day at my teacher table, at least for a few minutes of instruction. As the weeks go on, you’ll see plenty of video footage showing how I make this a reality—even with 27 students—and how very effective it is in teaching students to read and write.
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