How Do You Keep Your Students Accountable While You Lead Groups?

This is a common question I often get.  I was asked numerous times during my experience as a 4th grade math teacher.  Guided math really became popular a few years ago.  There weren't many people who knew a lot about how to manage guided math groups.

Reading, on the other hand, is a lot more common.  There are so many teachers who have their own 'thing' going on.  I wanted to share a little management tool I have found very helpful in my classroom.  It may not work for everyone, but if it can work for you, you are more than welcome to use it in your classroom.

I implement my very own version of Daily 5 in my classroom.  It's really more like Daily 3.  I just couldn't make 5 work each day with the amount of time I have.  I also have guidelines that my students must follow.  I have the guidelines listed on my calendar that students complete each month. To complete the calendar, students write in the code for the activities they complete each day.  They keep these in the front of their literacy binders.  At the end of the month, I take them up and grade them for a class participation grade.  I basically give them credit for each day complete.  This particular month would be ___ out of 21 possible points.

Small Group: I meet with my small groups three times a week.  In the upper right corner, you can see that students must have SG listed on their calendar three times.  They complete these three rotations on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Word Work:  I would love to have students complete WW each day, but it's difficult to fit that all in.  Students must complete WW activities at least three times/week.  They can work on these M-F.  The activities will come from my Word Work Choice Board that I am working on finishing up soon.  It will be in my TpT store very soon.

Read to Self: Students MUST read to self each day, M-F.  It can be during rotations or if we have time at the end of the day.

Read to Someone: My students love to read to someone, but it can get overwhelming at times.  My students want to do this every day.  Unfortunately, I had to limit them to only once a week :(  If we have time on our whole group days, I will try to let them read to someone during that time.

Individual Conference: This isn't listed on the key because it's random.  I may pull students to my desk at any time during the week.  The code is there if needed :)

I create new calendars each month, and I will try to post them here on the blog.  I know a lot of you will not go back to work until later this month, but you can download the August calendar HERE!