How to Level Your Reading Groups!

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Hey friends, welcome back to The Education Connection.

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I am your host, Robin Wilson.

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I'm a public school teacher with a master's degree in elementary education from Indiana

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Wesleyan University.

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Teaching is my passion.

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I love to teach reading and so today my topic is about leveling your small groups.

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The last time we spoke I was just talking about how to start those small groups and

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how to get the kids in order to learn the procedures of those small groups.

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So hey, let's just stop for a minute and celebrate.

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This is my third episode.

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Did you know that 44% of podcasters stop after producing three episodes?

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Well, I'm not stopping.

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Less than 20% of podcasts that are started make it to 10 episodes.

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So as soon as I get to 10 episodes we're going to celebrate big.

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You'll have to help me think about how we can celebrate.

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Before I get started though I want to share.

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If you teach in a Christian home school, a private school, and need Bible based education,

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I am diligently working to create engaging lessons for your Bible education needs.

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I have applied common core standards with these so you can meet those standards required

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by your state.

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The Bible education I am creating for primary grades is designed to engage young learners

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with the stories and teachings of the Bible in a fun and interactive way.

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Through age appropriate lessons, students will explore key biblical themes such as creation,

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Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah's Ark, the Tower of Babel, Abraham and Sarah, and more.

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I will include where you can get your hands on those so you can meet your biblical foundational

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needs.

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Children just need to know about the Word of God somewhere in their life.

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And if your child does attend a public school and they're not getting it on the weekend

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or somewhere else, it is parents' duties to provide this for their children, whether

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it's Sunday school, home school, private school, or any school setting.

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If you are interested in personal coaching in the area of reading, biblical education,

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how to set up your home school, classroom, private school, or Sunday school, I am also

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a certified online coach.

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But back to setting up those reading groups, so here we go.

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For today I'm going to break down the science of reading for anyone that is just learning,

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such as a stay at home mom, a private school teacher, or a beginning teacher.

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Science of reading is systematic instruction and foundational reading skills such as phonemic

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awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

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In the past we've called it the five components of reading, but the term has been called science

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of reading lately.

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The definition of science of reading refers to a body of research that has emerged from

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various disciplines, such as cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics, regarding how

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children learn to read.

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It emphasizes the importance of explicit systematic instruction in those foundational

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reading skills, such as I've mentioned before, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary,

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and comprehension.

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So phonemic awareness is understanding and manipulating the sounds in spoken language.

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So it's what you hear, it's what your students hear when we're putting the sounds together.

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Phonics is systematic instruction in the relationship between the letters and the sounds.

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Vocabulary is the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression.

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Vocabulary is knowing the meaning of a wide range of words and comprehension, understanding

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and interpreting what is being read.

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Well, last week I talked about how to introduce small groups one at a time, but how do you

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know how to group those students once you've taught them the procedures?

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Depending on your grade level, you can test them on their book levels if you're wanting

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to start with reading.

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There's also other ways to test your students in schools.

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There is a public, in the public school, we use already reading and math, and it's a state

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level testing.

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As far as book levels, I like to use fontes and penel leveled readers, but I realize you

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may not have access to those.

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I would suggest doing a search on leveled books to find leveled readers.

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You may find some at your local library.

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Ask a teacher friend.

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Check on Facebook.

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Teachers are always cleaning out their classrooms, and you may find some that way.

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I will include in my Amazon store a link to where you can find books that are also available.

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These details will be in the show notes.

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To level my students, since I teach first grade, I start with level A, so it would be

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a book that is labeled a level A book.

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I ask a couple of comprehension questions, and if they speed through that without missing

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a B, without missing a word and are able to answer the questions, I'm probably going to

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skip level B and go on up to level C, repeating that process until students start to miss

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approximately five words in a reader.

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If you are not familiar with a reader, a reader is eight to eleven pages and is filled with

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words that are decodable for the most part.

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After testing, I group my similar levels on post-it notes.

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So I have my desk filled with post-it notes spread out in front of me with three to six

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names on each post-it note in similar levels.

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In my class, after testing them in each of these levels, I found out that I have four

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students that are below level A. That means they cannot read a level A book.

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They are missing five or more words to start with.

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When this happens, I just ask if I can read the book to them so they don't get too frustrated.

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We just enjoy the story together and talk about it, putting it in, putting in a little

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comprehension, but it gives me the idea that I need to back up and teach letters, sounds,

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or just simply how to put those sounds together.

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We start with C-V-C, and what that is is consonant-val-consonant.

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So a simple word like dog, d-o-g, and just having the idea of putting those sounds together

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to make words.

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So I have three below level A, three level A students, four level Bs, three level Cs,

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and one level L. I'll talk about that level L in a little bit.

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There is a movement.

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I just want you to know there is a movement moving away from level readers, but for me,

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it is the best way to really get up close and personal to find out the exact needs of

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that student in reading a fluency.

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There are other ways you need to test though.

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There's phonics, testing, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension, which are the five parts

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of reading.

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So once you get your levels, you can begin to work with students right where they are

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in their levels.

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I'd love to give you some examples of what I will do with each group.

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If you have a below level A student, you're going to check with these students to see if

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they know all of their letters and sounds.

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Do they recognize all the letters?

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Do they know all the sounds?

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Grab a pack of alphabet cards.

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You can make them from index cards or pick up some from your local dollar store.

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Pick up two packs though for games.

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You can mix them up and go through each one to see if they know all the letters by recognition.

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Make a list and write down the ones they do not know.

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Then go through the sounds and do the same.

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If you don't know their letters and sounds, you can get two decks and play matching with

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about 13 cards with each matching pairs, making sure to put the ones they don't know

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in the matching game.

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Make sure they are saying the sounds and the letter names when they match them.

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The next week then you can play with the next 13 pairs or the next day depending on how

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you have your group set up.

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So for level A, this is the next step up.

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This is where students are starting to put those letters together to make words and they're

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starting to recognize a few of the sight words.

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You need to get your hand on some level readers.

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If you are a homeschool mom, you may be interested in a purchase from Amazon that has five books

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for each level all the way through P.

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Now these are individual books.

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They're not the five same books.

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You can work through these.

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I've included links in my show notes.

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But if you're a teacher and you have three to six students in a group, you're going to

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need a set of leveled books so each child can have the same book you are working with.

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Books come in sets of six of the same book.

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And I have also included links for these in my show notes.

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Students that are level B, you're going to start with a leveled reader and help them

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work through each word.

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You will read with each child separately while the others are working through it.

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You will get to them in this time you sit with them.

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So you're going to go around to each child and listen to each one of them read.

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You can learn.

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You actually, before you even start this book, you're going to go through and look at some

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vocabulary and you're going to teach them this vocabulary.

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You're going to anything that they might not know.

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You can teach them to tap out the words.

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And so when I say tapping out the words, you're going to, if the word is dog, you're going

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to put your pointer finger and your thumb together and you're going to say duh and then

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your thumb and your middle finger, aw and then your thumb and your ring finger, guh.

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So it's duh, aw, guh, dog.

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And so you can tap these words out and have these words on some vocabulary, three by five

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cards for them and talk about the dog and tap each one out before you pass out the book.

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Then when you pass out the book, they have a little bit of background knowledge, a little

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bit of understanding about those words.

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Also talk about the content of the book.

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If it is about dogs, you're just going to ask them, what do they know about dogs?

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If they have dogs, if they don't have a dog, do they know somebody that does have a dog?

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And then they will open up and start sharing with you all kinds of stories about the dogs

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in their life.

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So you're going to start with the first child and listen to them read each word.

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You're going to tap out the words and then once they see these words many times, they

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will remember it for next time.

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But it does take several exposures.

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They say about four to 14 for a child to read fluently.

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For a child with special learning needs, it may take 20 to 40 exposures to a word before

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remembering it.

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With the Level C reader, you will continue to tap out words that they do know or that

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they don't know.

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Sorry.

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Continue the same process as in the other levels.

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These words will begin to include many tricky or sight words.

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Going over these words that are in the book first beforehand will give them the first

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exposure to that word.

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If you need a site, if you need a list of sight words, you can search Frize, sight word

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list and there are many free PDFs that you can get started on sight words as well.

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Then I'm sorry, that can be another group with just playing sight word games.

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Level D is just the next step up and so forth.

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Remember to ask comprehension questions for each level.

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If they cannot answer the questions about what they read, they're not reading at that

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level.

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There are some students, I've had students before that can read way up high level and

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then when you go to ask them a question, it's deer in the headlights.

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They cannot answer anything so they're not connecting the knowledge with the actual words

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on the page.

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To truly know a child is reading at a specific level, they must be able to read it fluently

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and answer questions about it.

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Now you may be wondering what I do with the first grader that is reading at a level L

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and he is an outlier in my groups.

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Well I added him to my highest group so he's not alone but he has a different plan.

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So I have three level C's in that group and a level L.

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So I have the books ready to go for the level C as I described before and then I pulled

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a few books for my level L reader that are at level L.

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I let him pick which book from the few I brought to him to make sure he would be interested

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before I began working with the others.

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Now he is fluent even in the level L so I gave him a nonfiction book and told him to

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start reading.

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He was immediately pulled in and got lost in the reading and got busy with that nonfiction

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text.

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I was then able to turn my attention to the others and continue breaking down words and

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following the process described above.

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After I finished with them I turned back to him and began asking him questions about his

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favorite animal in the book and he started rattling off all the details of a naked mole

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rat.

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That is the one he was most interested in and even wished he could have one as a pet.

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So there you have it.

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That is my small group guided reading.

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This process will work with homeschool.

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If you have one to two students it will work with private school, three to five students,

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Christian school, etc.

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If you have questions, more questions about anything I have talked about today please

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reach out to me for your needs whether it is reading or if you have any Bible education

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needs.

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I have included in my show notes where you can get these biblical studies for your littles.

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Again, if you are also interested in personal coaching in the area of reading or biblical

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education, how to set up your homeschool, private school, or Sunday school, I am a certified

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online coach and I can give you one on one instruction.

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I have taught 19 years in public education and 32 years in Sunday school.

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I really do simply love teaching and I would love to help you.

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If this podcast has ministered to you in the way of teaching your children or inspired

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you, I am in any way or in biblical education, you want to know more about that, I would

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just love it if you headed over to my review page and gave me a five star review.

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I am just starting out and I could use all the help I can get.

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If you want to know more about this episode or any of my other episodes, slide into my

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DMs, jump on a coaching call, or follow me on any of my socials for more information.

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Happy teaching!