I am new to hosting groups in my classroom to do guiding reading. I have a few questions:
1. How long do you spend with each group?
2. What are some good books I can use for 3rd grade?
3. Is there a master list floating around out there somewhere that I could use that has the books & levels?
4. How do you organize your paperwork for your groups?
5. What are your other children doing while you are doing guided reading?
6. Is the guided reading book the students' only book or do you have a book that all students read & a separate one for guided reading?

I know this is a lot. However, I want so much to succeed at this. So far, we are doing well. I am having my students do 3 stations. While I am working with one group the other 2 groups are doing AR & skill sheets. Any tested ideas would be appreciated. I am very excited!

[QW]

1. I spend about 20 minutes, sometimes 15 per day.
3. Fountas & Pinnell (sp) have two books on guided reading with huge lists of leveled books in them.
4. We have master files at our school--each student gets a file in Kindergarten and it travels with them. It is for DRA tests and CAP tests only. I put this file in a hanging file and add my own personal stuff (benchmark tests, etc) to the back of the file for conferences. Really, there isn't a lot of paperwork. :-)
5. My students do any assignment I may have given them in group first, then they read independently and keep a reading log.
6. We don't have basals, so the guided reading book is their book and these books change very frequently.
Good luck! I think you'll love it once you get used to it.

[audriana]

1. How long do you spend with each group? 20 minutes per group
2. What are some good books I can use for 3rd grade? do you have a lit person at your school or a section in your library with leveled books?
3. Is there a master list floating around out there somewhere that I could use that has the books & levels? I use Fountas and Pinells book, too.
4. How do you organize your paperwork for your groups? I have a clip board with index cards taped on top. (They are on top of one another where just the bottom part of the card is showing so I can flip to the student's card easily while I'm working. Does that make sense?) I make anecdotal notes on their cards. I have folders for their running records.)
5. What are your other children doing while you are doing guided reading? Lit work stations -- 2 in a group. (These are things like word study, poetry station, listening station, writing station, etc.)
6. Is the guided reading book the students' only book or do you have a book that all students read & a separate one for guided reading? My students are also reading another book for their independent reading time -- that is the book they write their responses on weekly. We use another book for shared reading.