Favorite Reading Strategies Linky Party! {Reading Inventory Freebie!}

Hey Y'all! I'm linking up with The Primary Chalkboard to bring you one of my favorite reading tips for primary kiddos. When I moved from kindergarten to second grade I was a little overwhelmed at the thought of teaching such "big" kids. I quickly found out that they are not that "big" and that guided reading really doesn't look all that much different.

Because I was the inclusion teacher I had kids all over the guided reading spectrum. Literally from the pre-K/K level to U/V. Not kidding. How in the world was I going to differentiate across 5 grade levels?! Well I will say The CAFE book and my Daily Five routines really helped. In addition, I got REALLY good at creating differentiated material.

Here's a little something I whipped up for the beginning of the year. During the first week of school I gave all of my students a reading inventory. I wanted to know more about them as a reader to help guide my instruction. I don't have pictures saved of their responses but I do have the reading inventory. I jazzed it up a little for y'all, I hope you like it! :)

Like I said before, I was the inclusion classroom so I created many differentiated activities. There are two reading inventories below. The first one can be copied front and back. It is for younger students or students who need a little extra support. 

This back page gave me some clues about their interests.

For higher students I created an inventory that looked like this:

Notice the question about reading difficulties is geared more towards comprehension rather than decoding on the second reading inventory. I found a lot of my higher readers needed comprehension work during guided reading. They were the kids who could read anything you put in front of them but because of their age/schema, couldn't tell you what it was all about. If you would like to use this reading inventory you can pick it up here. 

What's great about this inventory is that it gives you some insight on your students' attitudes towards reading as well as strategies they already use. You can use this inventory several times throughout the year to guide your instruction. 

I hope y'all enjoyed this little snippet. Head back to The Primary Chalkboard for some more reading strategies!