Teaching Reading to Two Grades

I know, I am super behind.  I am now a teacher, coach, student council moderator, and a tutor.  Life is CRAZY!!!!

Teaching Reading to two grades at the same time turned out not to be as too complicated as I thought.  In my classroom, I break my class into reading groups.  I meet with each group for 20 minutes daily. 

I have tried two ways in my classroom and chose one that I felt worked the best for my students.  Here is how I teach Reading:

Length: Our Reading block is 60 Minutes.  

Grouping:  I have broken my class up into three groups based on ability.  They are not even groups (6 in one group, 3 in another group, 5 in my last group).  Each group works with me for 20 minutes daily.

• Purple group works out of the 4th Grade Basal Reader
• Red group works out of the 5th Grade Basal Reader
• Pink group is my advanced group.  They read novels that are in the 5th grade to 6th grade level.

Activites:  While I am meeting with each group, I give the rest of the class things to do.  I originally tried to do rotations, but I am not good with keeping on time, so I just put a list of things on the board, with the most important things at the top, and the students just work through the list.  Some kids get them all done, others do not, but they all know they need to get through the first three.  Here is an example of what I give them:

• Vocabulary Circle Maps:  These are thinking maps used to study their vocabulary words.  I have found that these help tremendously on their test scores.  Here is a completed example.

Circle Map Example from a 4th Grade Student

• Journal Entries:  Each student has a composition notebook.  I write a journal topic on the board and they have to respond to it.  I use journal calendars that I found online for the entries.

A Journal Entry and Response from a 5th Grade student.

• Various Assignments:  I then have a list of various assignments for them to do.  They range from vocabulary workbook pages, reading comprehension work, or holiday activities that have language arts background.
• Daily Handwriting:  I use the Daily Handwriting Practice: Traditional Cursive book by Evan-Moor Publishing.  This gives them a short assignment to do every day.  The students are expected to write in cursive in everything they do.

I know it is wordy and I know it sounds complicated, but it works very very well in my classroom.  Ask any questions you have!