I'm Back...Again

It's been quite a while since my last blog post and I am so sorry it's been so long. Lots of things going on personally and professionally, but I'm back and ready to share what's going on in The Perch. Our school is a first year Fountas and Pinnell balanced literacy school and we have been fully engaged in it for the past 5 months. It's been a labor of love but I finally figured out how to get to all of my guided reading groups in one day without sacrificing any content areas. This is the first week of my new schedule and I'm really excited that it's going so well. I never thought it was possible but here is how it looks:

8:30-8:45- Calendar, morning meeting
8:45-9:00- Shared Reading (usually a mini-guided reading WG lesson on PB)
9:00-9:30- Whole group writing (I work with small groups of students who need extra help and my aide monitors and helps the rest of the groups)
9:30-10:30- Workshops and Literacy Centers/Guided Reading (2-3 rotations)
                    *WS 1- Teacher led guided reading small group
                    *WS 2- aide led workshop (word work, phonics, word families, etc...)
                    *WS 3- Word Work (sight words review and practice)
                    *WS 4- Phonics (letters, sounds, segmentation, etc...)
          ***When students are finished at their workshop they place their work in the check basket and go to            their assigned center. I have included my "fun" centers in the rotations to give more choices and                      alleviate boredom. 2 students per center for a total of 12 centers. When I finish my first GR group I              call my next group over from centers to work with me. If time permits I pull the third group.
10:30-12:30 lunch, RA, recess, bathroom
12:30-1:00- SSR/RTI- this is when I pull the remaining GR groups
1:-1:30- Math workshops
1:30-2:10- free centers

During the GR times I do the focus mini lesson with the group and then send them off with the book of the day and the books from the week to read while waiting for me. I have 3 students read to me each day, rotating them out each day. On Friday I pull those students who struggled and do strategic intervention with them or I use the time to do a RR. By the end of the week my students have all read to me independently at least 2 times. That is huge! I had to get myself out of the mindset of not being able to read with every child every day, but there's just no time for that. I take comfort knowing that twice a week is plenty. I have seen amazing results from doing it this way and can't wait to see how much it's going to impact my reading scores at the end of the year.

If you need literacy center rotation cards you can get them in my TPT store at 20% off tomorrow and Friday. My students love them and it has made independent work time so much easier to manage. I hope this schedule is helpful to you. I'm happy to share with you the things I've learned from Trial and Error! It's great to finally have a system that is working!!

I'll take pics tomorrow and post them of what my board looks like now. It has changed since I first started it. I'll also post my organization system for my guided reading time.