Getting Creative!

Despite what many might think...guided reading is not the answer to everything in reading intervention! I have a particularly challenging group of first graders this year. They are really struggling. I have been re-evaluating my instruction and making some creative choices!

Now, before you call blasphemy, I still instruct these students with a heavy dose of guided reading in the morning, but in the afternoon we really let loose. Here are some of the things I have been doing with my students:

Poems

We have been doing a weekly poem. This provides a lot of repetition and fluency practice. I have been choosing poems that work on specific sight words to help increase automaticity. The kids really enjoy the rhyming and melodic qualities of the poems. A poem is also significantly less overwhelming than a book and gives struggling students access to grade level content.

This is a great resource for finding sight word poems. They are organized around different sight words and skills, such as breaking words into chunks.

After reading the poem for a couple of days, I remove some of the sight words and have students practice adding them back to the poem. We also take turns reading with the pointer.

 
Writing
I am a firm believer that writing needs to be incorporated into reading instruction. Sometimes we compose an interactive writing  based around the content of that week's poem. Other times, we compose our own poem based upon a template of the week's poem. We have also written cut up sentences and switched with partners.

Phonics Games
I love playing file folder phonics games. My district is heavy into Fundations, but sometimes a scripted program just doesn't get the job done for everyone. Nothing beats a good old fashioned game. Right now we are working on r-controlled vowels. I am starting to see progress!

This is one of my favorites!

Sight Word Movement Games
We have been so busy having fun in the gym, that I keep forgetting to take pictures! We have been playing sight word basketball and sight word relay races. They are so simple, but the kids love them. Students must identify a sight word before they shoot the basketball or before they start their leg of the relay. A competitve edge is highly motivating. I carefully select the teams so they are equally matched and each race is very close.. That way no one is too upset or discouraged.

How do you get creative with your struggling students?