How to Make Reading Stations More Easy and Efficient
Four tips to uncomplicate reading stations
Students hate not to have choices in their Daily 5 activities. Having a handful of fun activities for students to choose from helps them feel independent and engaged. Let's talk about 5 activities you can use that your students won't hate and will ask for over and over again! Making efficient, easy reading stations can be a teacher's saving grace. Having easy, automatic routines that keep students engaged helps to build classroom management and efficiency.
In today's blog post, I'm going to teach you how to make reading stations less stressful and more efficient. If you haven't read some of my other blog posts on this topic, go back and read those because I talk a lot about how to structure your literacy time so that you can get to all of your guided reading groups efficiently and effectively.
Teach your students the Daily 5 method so they can be independent during reading time
Teach your students the Daily 5 method so they can be independent during reading time
My first tip, of course, is to use the Daily 5! It’s hands down going to be the best way to create more independent learners. In last week’s blog post, I talked a lot about that. So check that one out. Truly kindergarteners, first graders, I've tested it out, they can do it all the way until fifth grade. It's the perfect way to structure that literacy block so that you can get to all your guided reading groups and your other students can be independently working, building their confidence and accomplishing all the tasks that you need them to get done. It’s a great way to get them to work on the skills that you need them to master.
Change activities out each month to keep students engaged
Change activities out each month to keep students engaged
My next tip is to change activities at least every month. A lot of elementary teachers will put pressure on themselves that they have to change out station activities every week, you don't have to, unless you love to, then that's totally cool. Don't put that pressure on yourself! We tell ourselves all the time that kids are going to get bored, and they're not. And if they are, they really need to learn how to push past that. That's what I love about the Daily 5 is stamina building. I don't mean the kind of bored where they're not challenged, I'm talking about the kind of bored where they can't hold their attention. I've worked with kids like that before that want to change activities every five minutes and that's why you build stamina from day one. They'll get better at it, if they come from a home where they're allowed to do whatever they want. That makes it really tough. But in the end, Daily 5 is really soothing to them, because it's predictable. It allows them to have quiet time to work, which they really need to be able to be alone with their thoughts and accomplish a task. I encourage you to try it and not try to switch everything out all the time, maybe every two weeks. If you’re looking for a way to track your building stamina process, try this chart!
Practice routines the first month of school until they’re automatic
Practice routines the first month of school until they’re automatic
My third tip is practice the routines until they are mastered. I talk about this all the time, but don't move on at the beginning of the year, from Read to Self or Work on Writing until they've built their stamina to that 15 minute mark. It's so key to build their stamina. You can use the exact Read to Self Stamina Chart that I use here. I'm going to work on making one for all the choices during Daily. You can blow it up on a poster maker and make it bigger, the kids love that. You can really talk it up even all the way until fifth grade, it's so important to build stamina. The only way to do that is to practice it and not move on until it's mastered.
Use a stamina chart to build reading stamina for all Daily 5 activities
Use a stamina chart to build reading stamina for all Daily 5 activities
My fourth tip goes along great with the last tip. Using a stamina chart for all Daily 5 activities is key to showing your students the progress they're making. It's like the example I want to use is let's say you want to lose 10 pounds, and you keep a little chart of it every time you lose a pound. Doesn't it feel so good to check that off? To look at it? Kids feel the same way about their goals and talking about building stamina and using their brain muscles is such a great conversation to have with them, especially with our early primary grades. Those kids really need that. But our older kids need it to hear it just like any other kid.
Project Daily 5 activity choices on the Smart Board to increase student autonomy and independence
Project Daily 5 activity choices on the Smart Board to increase student autonomy and independence
My last tip is to use a Smartboard chart to have your students rotate independently. In my classroom, it was really dragging me down to have to come back to the carpet the way the original Daily 5 method has you do and read off the choices to the kids. So, I made a Smartboard chart with their name going down the left hand side and then the five choices they have that day are color coordinated. They can go find their choice. If they see “RS” - it's Read to Self. If they have “W” then it's Work on Writing, so on and so forth. This is also in my TPT store and it’s available in Excel AND Google Sheets. It's 100% editable so you can change the student names and the activities out because you might call your activity something different. I'm telling you, that is life changing. In that product, I have a video on how to edit it so that you won't be confused about what to do to make it customized to your class. Absolutely a game changer.
Daily 5 Choice Board Activities for the Smart Board
I hope all these tips help you and encourage you to make your reading stations run a little bit more efficiently and effectively so that you can get to all your reading groups!
Will you try these tips?