Today was my first official day back and it was all meetings, schedules, and dust, dust, DUST. My classroom is so dirty! Yuck! We went through several rounds of clorox wipes. And then I went through several rounds of schedule changes. I think I liked the clorox wipe round better. I think (fingers crossed!) my schedule is set. I’m not thrilled about it – but it could be worse! Figuring out the inclusion schedule takes forever! Three grades worth of 4 preps (music, gym, library, world language) each = lots of complications!
I haven’t done my students’ morning schedule yet but my coworker and I did plan our guided reading groups. She teaches the primary autism classroom and we have paired up the past 2 years to run our guided reading together and it works so well! There are more kids to group up so you can actually group students according to reading level. Our students who are not readers usually do independent work tasks or work with the paraprofessionals during this time.
Our groups worked out really well! We had about:
- 7 students at level I
- 4 reading at level G/H
- 2 reading at level E/F (these guys need more attention – so a small group worked perfect!)
- 3 reading at level A/B
- 2 prereaders – working on letter identification and sight words
We broke the level I students into 2 groups (I – 1 and I -2) and had six groups total. We will be doing parallel teaching this year where each of us will run a reading group simultaneously and we will switch each week. The groups we are not working with will do independent reading centers.
Here is our schedule:
We will be doing the first 2 rounds of reading groups in her room and then at 12:45 switch to my room to run the last 2 groups. At 1:00 many of our students from the other reading groups have inclusion preps so they will go to those then! Our A/B and prereaders will be working in the life skills room with a paraprofessional during the first hour of reading groups.
I’m pretty excited about how the groups worked out – the groups are small enough to really target the necessary skills. Our kids have come a long way! We spent almost our full first year (2 years ago) of reading groups working on how to:
- raise hands
- take turns on academic tasks
- follow along while some else reads
- attend to peers
- answer written questions without saying the answer out loud
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12 Responses
Your blog has been a blessing. I am eagerly checking each day to glean tips to use with my little ones. We have more and more students in our classroom that fall within the autism spectrum and we are trying hard to learn the best ways to teach them and help them progress in our situation. Thank you for being so willing to share! 🙂
What kinds of reading programs or reading activities do you use with your students (low, middle, or high). Thanks for sharing so much valuable insight and practical tools!
I use Guided Reading with my students who are readers with a BIG focus on the comprehension aspect which is what I see holds them back a lot. The language aspect is so challenging. I do one on one or small groups. We read books at their level and practice answering questions throughout the book and at the end. We also do read alouds, daily sight word fluency timings, individualized spelling word lists based on common spelling/reading errors, and tons of activities on wh- questions. With my pre-readers, we work on letter/word recognition, adapted books (matching pictures within a story), read alouds, and any activities that will involve them in the world of reading.
Phew – that was long! I will be doing several posts on reading in the next few weeks so stay tuned!!
Thanks Michelle!!! That’s so great to hear 🙂
What reading curriculum are you using? Just curious 🙂 Thanks!
We don’t really have one! Ugh. We do guided reading based on the Fountas Pinnell Assessments with leveled books – there is a big focus on comprehension and fluency. It’s a mash up of a few approaches! 🙂
I know the feeling. “Curriculum” is a rough word in my classroom 🙂 I pretty much do my own thing for math and supplement from EducationCreations.com, a really great website! For Reading, I use A LOT of Reading A-Z. I like it a lot!! 🙂
Have to check that out – thanks!
We use SRA Reading Mastery for our students in Reading. I dont know if you have ever heard of it.
https://autismelements.blogspot.com
Yes – I have heard of SRA. You can apply this same concept to most reading curriculum! Group your students based on the particular assessment from that program.
I use Edmark Reading Program, for the kiddos who learn to read by sight words. The Reading Milestones program is great for comprehension, vocabulary, sequencing, and story retell (this program is recommended for kiddos with ASD). For my higher readers, I use the materials (McGraw-Hill series) that the classroom teachers use. Reading A-Z is a great resource too.
Love your blog 🙂
Yes I used to use reading milestones too! Thinking of using with some of my lower readers this year! Really like that program! Thanks for reading! 🙂