Literacy Rotations

At the beginning of the year I wanted to set up a Literacy Rotation system that was easy to use and well organised. Our Literacy Rotations consist of 4 groups: Guided Reading, Comprehension, Word Study and Independent Activity. My EA runs two of the groups (Comprehension and Word Study) while I, or my team teacher, run the other two groups (Guided Reading and Independent Activity).

Our Literacy Rotations are based around a learning focus or a novel. Early in the year we had a space focus and chose a book each week to study. Our Literacy Rotation time starts with the teacher reading the text and asking oral questions related to the text. After the reading of the text the students split up into their various groups. We have Blue, Purple, Green and Yellow purely because those are the colours of the files I could find ;). Our Literacy Rotations run Mon-Thurs as we only have access to an EA on those days. On Friday we do a whole class grammar activity during Literacy time.

At the beginning of the week we sort all the activity sheets and guided reading books into the appropriate coloured suspension files which are stored in a suspension file crate. Then once the mat session is over we grab the day’s files and the groups move off to where they’re supposed to be with their activity. We have a chart which hangs above the crate showing exactly where each group goes on a specific day.

So on Monday the yellow group are doing guided reading with me while the green group are working independently alongside. The purple group is doing the comprehension activity with Mrs Burgess and the blue group is doing the word study with her also. By the end of the week each group will have cycled through all of the activities.

GUIDED READING: During guided reading the students take turns reading a page each of the guided reading book. This book is at an independent level for the majority of the children in the group. We keep a track of which guided reading books we have read using the chart below. This gets stored in the pink file at the front of the crate. We also store the whole class text in that file.

COMPREHENSION: The comprehension group will complete a worksheet or activity based upon the whole class text we read. Sometimes I make this worksheet myself (see sample below) but occasionally I will search teacherspayteachers and use a ready made comprehension pack from there. This generally consists of two pages. The lower ability groups complete the first page and the higher ability groups complete both. Though at this time of the year we’re encouraging all groups to complete both pages.

WORD STUDY: The word study group will also complete a worksheet or activity based upon the whole class text we read. Mostly I make this worksheet myself (see sample below). This generally consists of two pages also and again the lower ability groups complete the first page and the higher ability groups complete both. Though at this time of the year we’re encouraging all groups to complete both pages.

INDEPENDENT ACTIVITY: The independent activity group use the iPads during this session. We have 5 class iPads for them to use. I create sheets with QR codes on that link to YouTube videos based around the learning focus we are doing. For example if we are studying space they might be videos on how to brush your teeth in space, someone reading the story we’re studying or a song about space. below are some samples of the QR code sheets.