Reading Station

We cover reading at a variety of stations in the classroom.  I run reading groups with all my kids (whether the group is working on learning the alphabet or making inferences).  However, we also have a station specifically called "reading."  This is an aid run station, where the kids get to work on reading every day in a group of 2 students for 15 minutes.  I have 3 levels of work at this station which I will go over today.

My beginners have binders of matching work.  I have 3 students at this level and they all have different matching work depending on their level.

One student is working on matching pictures with only 4-6 pictures on a page (all different colors).

Another student is working on matching pictures with 9-12 pictures on a page (with more similar colors).

Another student is working on matching letters.

My mid-level group are all working on learning their alphabets and beginning sounds.  I have 6 kids currently working at this level on a variety of pencil/paper worksheets revolving around tracing, writing, and sorting letters.  Each student has their own binder where they work on these worksheets.  

When these 2 groups finish working in their binders (about 5-10 minutes), they spend the remainder of the time reading adapted books.  All of these books have pictures that can be velcroed onto each page to match the pictures in the book. Some of these books, I have created myself.

Others, are real books that I just made pictures for.  My kids enjoy this activity and it can be easily tailored to meet individual needs.  Beginning readers can learn print concepts like how to follow along with an adult reader or how to turn pages.  Others, can begin to "read" repetitive books with an adult or independently.

My 4 most advanced students use this station to complete "Reading Milestones" Curriculum.  This curriculum is not my favorite for teaching reading, but it does work at a slow pace, gradually introducing new words for reading.  It is also great for an aid run station, because it includes everything you need from the book, to a comprehension workbook, and spelling workbook.    

The great thing about having stations that are centered around a variety of levels like this one, is that once students "graduate" from one level, you usually have work ready for the next level!