First up on the daily schedule is...


Our school uses the FIRST 30 minutes of each day for grade level intervention groups.  When the first grade team piloted this 4 years ago, I have to say we were not so happy to give up this 30 minutes, never mind first thing in the morning when our firsties came in fresh and ready to learn! HOWEVER, as we progressed through the year and compared growth from the prior year, the students who made adequate yearly growth more than DOUBLED! 

You can read more about how we group and structure our intervention groups HERE. A key part is being able to service the children who struggle and who are in RTI without compromising the instruction for the rest of our students.  With the help of our literacy coach and speech therapist, we are able to structure our groups with lower numbers for those who struggle with phonemic awareness and phonics. 



This year, my instruction focused on  phonics for the first half of the year and then a fluency/comprehension at the mid-year switch.  At times, we need to focus on more than one skill because a student may have several gaps.  We even might need to have a blended group if there are several children with the same needs. 

In our county, we use Wonders by McGraw Hill and they offer  online resources for intervention in most areas.  I have also created a few products to help out in these groups. TpT has been a life saver as well. 



Building fluency takes time and lots of practice.  Children need to be immersed in reading books on their level.  During fluency intervention groups, we use a variety if resources.  We use leveled books from prior reading series, printed books from A-Z Reading, the RAZ-Kids website, a fluency binder for partner reading and LEVELED fluency passages. 


 I love the Raz-Kids website as kids are able to listen to stories, read at their level and take comprehension quizzes. They earn points and are engages in a super fun game!

As I look at the data for my students' reading levels, I have been thinking about what I need to do to get them to the next level.  We spend 30 minutes a day in intervention/enrichment groups four times a week.  These groups target each child's specific reading need. I also meet with each reading group daily and target their specific reading level.  Finally, my kids are working on their Daily 5 Centers so they have another 15-30 minutes to be engaged in reading.   This is a fabulous attempt to get the children where they need to be, but some of them still can fall through the cracks.

I have decided to work on extra sight word practice in addition to the 4-6 sight words our reading series introduces each week.  Students can practice sight word rings during Read to Partner and use them during word work to target the words they are struggling with.



This is "Super Reader" Fry Words 1-100.  It includes a master teacher list including words 1-100, 4 small take home lists with 25 words each, flashcards for the classroom and awards for mastery of the first 100 Fry words.


"Wise" Reader Fry Words 101-200 is the follow up and is set up the same way.  This allows for each student to be working on his/her own list and moving along at his/her own pace.  Again, this is above and beyond the reading series curriculum, but I strongly feel we need to increase the rigor to match that of the Common Core.


Today I was able to post Out of this World Reader {Fry Words 201-300}.  In all three sets I tried to keep the graphics general and not tied to a specific holiday or season.  The flash cards can be printed and used throughout the year for additional practice as each child progresses.

I would love to share one of each set with 3 lucky winners!  All you need to do is pin your favorite set for a chance to win it.  You can pin one, two or all three sets for up to 3 entries! Just leave a comment for each pin and your email.  Please include your pin link from Pinterest.  I will pick 3 winners on Wednesday:)

Our entire school participates in intervention groups from 8:45-9:15 four days a week.  Our first grade team piloted this practice last year and saw HUGE growth when compared to the growth from the year prior.

So I am linking up with Jodi over at Fun in First with her Fly on My Wall Linky. Head on over and check out what others are doing for Intervention Groups.


After assessments are done in September and then again in January, we group out children by focus skills.  This is a great way to service the children in RTI, the kids who fall through the cracks and even the children who need enrichment.  Its a win-win for all the kids.  Our team is also lucky enough to have our literacy coach and speech therapist take a group to help reduce the size of the groups.  The children love going to intervention groups because it is something just a little different in their day.

In first grade, our groups consist of phonemic awareness, phonics, high frequency words, fluency  and comprehension.  I have an enrichment group for comprehension.  We are working with complex texts and using a few different resources.

After regrouping in February, I began with non-fiction reading.  This was the perfect month to jump into presidents and other historical figures. I used 13 American Heroes by Teacher to the Core.  We read informational texts and the children followed up by reading the fluency passages and answering comprehension questions. 

I {heart} Farley's Currently over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade and I am a few days behind...ok like a week, but who's counting? 


I am pulling other resources to build on the heroes, and the kids LOVED it this week!  I am excited to share more nonfiction with them and build their comprehension skills.  You can check this unit out HERE.

If you have made it to the end of this post, I have something for you!  I posted my Reading and Spelling Patterns  BOAT RACE (Long a-silent e) unit last weekend and I am giving it away three units to the first 3 people to leave a comment about their favorite purchase or wish list item AND their email address. You can check it out on TpT HERE!


So happy tomorrow is Friday!