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Give students answers from a text they are reading- informational or fiction. They have to look back at the text and generate questions to the answer.

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Groups create presentations to teach rest of class about a topic

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FREE site for students to access books! All kinds of books!

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Free for educators! Give students unlimited in-class access to the best books & videos on Epic

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Do on paper or digitally.

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Work Samples from 5th graders

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Write and Read online

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Storybird - Read, write, discover, and share the books you'll always remember.

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Become a better writer with Storybird's creativity tools. Online courses, challenges, and reader feedback will help you improve your writing.

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Write stories online, adding images is an option

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Welcome

Welcome to the Tar Heel Reader, a collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. Each book can be speech enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces, including touch screens, the IntelliKeys with custom overlays, and 1 to 3 switches. Click here to learn more about alternative access methods.

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Welcome to the Tar Heel Reader, a collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. Each book can be speech enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces, including touch screens, the IntelliKeys with custom overlays, and 1 to 3 switches. Click here to learn more about alternative access methods.

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Do you do Daily 5 in your classroom! I love using Daily 5 for my small group rotations. Students have so much choice and autonomy when using Daily 5 and I can build important life skills, like making smart choices, though the use of this classroom routine. I've used it in grades K-2, which are the grades I have taught since I learned about the strategies in the Daily 5 book ( affiliate link)

Although I have done a few blog posts on using Daily 5 in second grade, Melissa from The Paisley Owl is here to share with you how to apply Daily 5 to upper grade classroom. This is great, because I have no experience implementing Daily 5 beyond second grade.

Do you teach upper grades? This post will help you implement it in your classroom. She even tells you about a few different features she has added it.

Hello there! This is Melissa from the Paisley Owl and I am super excited to be guest posting on What I have Learned Teaching! I am a HUGE fan of using center-based learning in the upper elementary classroom because it allows for differentiation and student choice! When I first read The Daily Five , I knew that I HAD to do it!!

However, I quickly realized that I would have to put my own "twist" on it in order to meet the needs of my fifth graders! I decided that I was not going to use the "read to someone" and "listen to reading" centers- although they are wonderful ideas, I felt that they just would not meet the needs of my class. Below, you will find detailed information about each of the "Daily Five" centers that I used in my classroom!

I basically followed what the two sisters suggested at this center. Students read their independent reading books in our classroom library. I allowed them to sprawl out on the floor, sit in bean bag chairs, and use pillows while they read! However, I wanted to keep them accountable for what they were reading.

My solution to the accountability issue was for them to keep a "independent reading journal"- they kept track of the title of the book, author, and wrote a quick summary of what they had read each day. When the kids came over to me for guided reading, they would briefly discuss their independent reading book with me!

This served as my vocabulary center. Word work looks MUCH different in an upper elementary classroom- I LOVED all of the ideas from the Daily Five and from other bloggers, but these were geared towards younger kids. I decided to make the word work myself because I wanted to get my students really thinking about their vocabulary words, but also keep them engaged!

I made two trifold board that held approximately 18 worksheets for them to choose from (of course, I introduced them only a few at a time!) For example, one activity that they could choose to do was build a "word theme park", where they used their words to design and describe rides, restaurants, and write customer reviews. Another was "my word is alive" where they wrote a story about what would happen if their vocabulary words suddenly sprung to life!

If you want to grab a copy of my Word Work , you can head on over to my store!

My school district has a separate block for reading and writing, so I mostly used this center to have kids respond to their independent reading books! This was AWESOME for accountability as well!

I left menus hanging up at this center for students to choose from. For example, one of the prompts on the menu was called "Birthday Bash!" (How fun, who wouldn't pick that??) The students had to plan a birthday party for each of the characters in their book. They were expected to write an invitation and write a paragraph explaining what they would get for each character. Students could also choose to write in our "whole class journals" during Work on Writing. One of the whole class journals was dedicated to book suggestions! This was wonderful! So many of my students choose independent reading books based on other students suggestions!!

I REALLY wanted to find a way to address the speaking and listening standards in the common core. I had also read a lot of amazing blog posts about allowing students to work on "passion projects" in the classroom. I could go on forever about passion projects, but to sum in up for you, it is basically when students are allowed to research, create a project, and present their work about a topic of their choosing. Of course their topics had to be approved by me, but that was never an issue!

Many of my students chose to teach themselves how to code! One of them even built a game using the MIT Scratch program (it's totally free, check it out!) and presented it to the class. This was an AMAZING center and the kids just loved it!

I LOVE using technology in the classroom, and this was a perfect way to incorporate it. I was lucky enough to have a supportive administration and a lap top cart in my room, so I was able to have my students log on to Edmodo (a social media platform geared specifically towards students) and have book discussions in their literature circle groups.

So, now that you know what students did at each of the centers, you may be asking yourself "how do I get all of this done in one day??" Well, the great thing about the Daily Five is that students don't HAVE to get to every center, every day. Although we did the Daily Five each day (we took the Daily part pretty seriously), students got to three centers a day.

I grouped students and had them rotate based on their groups (I had a rotation board in the front of my room), but you can also allow students to choose which center they go to. If you do this, I suggest having a quota otherwise you will inevitably end up with 20 out of 25 kids at one center. I liked assigning the groups because it made it easier for me to pull guided reading groups. However, I changed these groups often.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post, and I hope that you will be able to incorporate some of these ideas into your own classroom!

I am Melissa (The Paisley Owl)- I taught upper elementary for a few years, and I am currently making the journey down to Kindergarten! I am a graduate of the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. I am passionate about finding new ways to differentiate instruction, and I believe that if the bar is raised high, students will excel. For upper elementary center-work to go along with the Daily Five, you can head on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store or visit my blog.

If you would like to find out more about Daily 5, I highly recommend their newest book, Daily 5, Fostering Literacy in the Elementary Grades. It really goes more in-depth for upper grade classrooms.

This post contains affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

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Do you do Daily 5 in your classroom! I love using Daily 5 for my small group rotations. Students have so much choice and autonomy when using Daily 5 and I can build important life skills, like making smart choices, though the use of this classroom routine.

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Literacy Center Ideas

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Literacy Centers: Getting Started - ReadWriteThink

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This lesson gives teachers resources and guidance to create reading, listening, computer, and poetry Literacy Centers in their own classrooms.

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Recommended on Reading Rockets

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A blog providing literacy work station ideas, examples, and reproducibles for educators of secondary students (middle school and high school).

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Reading Rockets

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References

Click the "References" link above to hide these references.

Daniels, H., & Bizar, M. (1998). Methods that matter: Six structures for best practice classrooms. York, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G. (1996). Guided reading: Good first teaching for all children (grades K-2). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G. (2000). Guiding readers and writers grades 3-6: Teaching comprehension, genre, and content literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Morrow, L. (1997). Literacy center: Context for reading and writing. York, ME: Stenhouse

Morrow, L. (2003). Organizing and managing the language arts block: A professional development guide. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Prevatte, L. (2007). Middle school literacy centers. Gainesville, FL: Maupin House.

Stone, S. J., (1996). Promoting literacy through centers {Electronic version}. Childhood Education, 72, 240-242.

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Click the "References" link above to hide these references. Daniels, H., & Bizar, M. (1998). Methods that matter: Six structures for best practice classrooms. York, ME: Stenhouse Publishers. Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G. (1996). Guided reading: Good first teaching for all children (grades K-2). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G.

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Read aloud (TTS) accessible and inaccessible text (OCR), simplify difficult vocabulary, and translate English into other languages.

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| | Filed Under: Guided Reading, Reading

Teaching reading in 5th grade is one of the best parts of teaching 5th grade. The standards and text level are more rigorous than in primary grades, but the students are much more independent. The books the students read are much more entertaining and interesting to read as a teacher. The discussions can be quite meaningful and deep as well.

I have always taught reading using a workshop model that promotes students reading a lot of books (and a lot that they choose) and a variety of text. I try to teach reading in a way that promotes discussion and enjoyment of reading as well as provides the students with the skills to be successful readers (and writers). This post will breakdown how I teach reading in 5th grade.

Time Frame: 20 Minutes

Materials Needed: Mentor Texts, Standards Based Passages, Anchor Charts, Post-It Notes or Reader's Notebooks

Mini Lesson with a Mentor Text

I start each reading block with a mini lesson via some type of read aloud. I begin the lesson with an anchor chart that lists our reading skill or strategy for the day. It may say something like: Good readers identify a character's traits using details from the text so they can fully understand the character. Before I begin the read aloud, we go over the reading skill statement and any vocabulary that the students need to know.

Then I provide the students with a focus for our reading. An example focus would be: We have two characters in our book today. The two characters have distinct personalities and character traits. Their names are Bibel and Marcel. As we read and discuss, I want you to look for details from the book that help you identify the characters' traits.

Sometimes, I have sentence stems written on the chart to help the students when we get ready to discuss the skill or strategy. For example: _______ is _________. I know because in the story ____________.

Here is an example of chart for the mini lesson that the examples I used came from.

After reading and discussing the read aloud, the students are ready to apply the same skill or focus to their own reading. I tell the students: When you are reading your book today, I want you to determine at least one character trait that describes your character. I want you to support that trait with details from the story. They record their responses either on a post-it note or in their reader's notebook. We will come back to this during our closing and sharing time.

If I am teaching the same skill for the entire week (which I usually do- for more information about my reading pacing, click here), I follow this format:

Monday: Mentor text read aloud

Tuesday: Mentor text read aloud

Wednesday: Practice the skill with a common passage

Thursday: Practice the skill with a common passage
Click here to see the mentor texts that I recommend for the skills I teach (and some fun holiday ones that help me spiral review reading skills).
Friday: On Friday, I use my reading mini-lesson time to assess my students on the skill that I taught that week.

After the mentor text introductory lessons (either after Monday or Tuesday depending on how complex the skill is or how well my students do with the skill), I give an exit slip that has the students defining, explaining, or describing the skill. The results of this lets me know if the students are ready to begin independently applying the skill to independent reading or grade level passages. Click here or on the image below to read more about these specific exit slips and grab them for free!

Mini Lesson with a Common Passage

As much as I would love to use mentor texts all of the time with my students, I have found that my students greatly benefit when we read passages that are specifically written for the standard or skill. To do this, I use passages from my Reading Supplemental Resources on TpT. I follow a similar sequence with reading passages as I do with mentor texts. The only difference is that the students have the passage in front of them and are able to read along and highlight/underline/annotate the text as I read. After reading, we often discuss the skill or strategy as it relates to the specific passage.
These passages and organizer come from my Main Idea Reading Unit.
After discussing it, the students start writing down their thoughts. If we do not have time to finish writing during our mini lesson time, we move into guided reading groups and they continue writing their thoughts down independently. Sometimes I assign a new question or response for the same passage that I want them to complete during reading. If we are going to use the same passage for a few different tasks, I will have them glue it into their notebook.

Click here to read a blog post that shows how I used mentor texts and passages while teaching Comparing and Contrasting Story Elements.

Time Frame: 60 minutes

Materials Needed: Guided Reading Sets of Books, Copies of Magazines, Copies of Passages, Reading Centers

I have never taught with a basal or reading textbook. I have always taught reading through guided reading groups. My students are grouped into groups of 4-6 students each, based on their levels (as determined using Fountas and Pinnell Benchmarking). In the 60 minutes that I have, I am able to teach 3 very focused 20 minute groups. I usually have about 5-6 groups of students, depending on class size. I meet with my below grade level reading groups four days a week. My on-grade level and above-grade level groups meet with me 2-3 days a week.

When I meet with my guided reading groups, we read books, magazines, or passages depending on the strategy/skill we are focusing on. I follow these basic steps with each guided reading lesson:

1. Review previous day's reading or introduce a new book.

2. Go over 3-4 tricky vocabulary words.

3. Set a focus for today's reading. (This could be a specific question or a reading strategy that I want them to use in their reading in addition to their normal reading strategies.). I also assign the pages I want the students to read.

4. Check in each the students while they are reading and listen to them read. I also ask comprehension questions during this check-in. Click here to grab the form I use to record my notes from guided reading groups.

5. I try to time it so we end our assigned pages a few minutes before the group is finished to discuss the focus skill or strategy. Sometimes, I assign a writing task for them to complete and sometimes I assign more pages for the students to read before our next meeting.

That gives you the gist of what a guided reading group looks like. I plan to write a more detailed post about guided reading and what it looks like in my classroom in the next month or so, so keep an eye out for that post.

What do the other students do while I am teaching guided reading groups?

This varies from year to year depending on my students and their reading behaviors. To read more about what the other students do, check out this post with ELEVEN reading center/station ideas that I have used in the past.

Looking for ready-to-use reading sets for your small groups?

Time Frame: 10 minutes

Materials Needed: Any completed work that was assigned during the mini-lesson.

This part of my reading block is really important. When reading groups are over, we come back together as a class and discuss the skill that we learned during the mini-lesson and how the students were able to apply it to their own reading. We share our thoughts that the students wrote down based on my focus question - see mini lesson section with partners. Then I usually have a couple of student share their ideas with the class, if time allows. This part of the lesson helps them stay accountability and ensures they are applying the skill to their reading. If the students had some type of extension activity to complete (from as passage or read aloud), we also discuss it at this time and/or turn it in for me to check.

I do a lot of authentic assessment during reading mini-lessons and guided reading groups on the strategies and behaviors my students use or need work on. To assess the reading standards, I use reading exit slips.
Click here to read more about how I use exit slips during reading instruction and grab some free ones.
I prefer to use reading exit slips (versus long, formal assessments) because:

They are quick and don't take up as much instruction time.

They provide a good snapshot of how the student is doing with a specific skill.

I have two exit slips per skills so I can assess, continue teaching or re-teach, and then assess again.

I am very blessed to have 90 minutes dedicated just to reading, separate from my writing instruction and grammar/word study (which you can read about by clicking here). I have never had to teach with a huge restriction on my reading time. If I did, I would probably follow this sequence of instruction:

Note: These are suggestions based on a 45 minute reading block.

Monday: Teach a whole group lesson of that week's reading skill for about 20-30 minutes. I would then have the students complete independent practice of that skill for the rest of the time. While the students are doing independent practice, I would either monitor the whole class's progress or pull a small group of students who are struggling.

Tuesday-Wednesday: Pull two 20-minute small groups while the other students read or complete reading centers. I would also give the students a task that takes them about 10-15 minutes that reviews the week's skill. I would also review or incorporate the skill in my small group instruction. In the last five minutes of class, I would do a quick review of the skill by going over the task the students completed.

Thursday - Based on how the students are progressing with the skill, I would either continue the Tuesday-Wednesday sequence (if the class is doing well with the skill) or repeat the Monday sequence (if the class is struggling).

Friday - Assess the reading skill for 15-20 minutes. Pull a small group after the assessment to re-teach (I have the students turn in their assessments when they are finished so I can quickly glance at them and know who needs re-teaching). The other students would work on reading centers or literature circles while I re-teach.

Click here to read about some must-have reading professional developments book that I highly recommend for upper elementary reading teachers.

There you have it. That is a quick run-down of how I teach reading in 5th grade and some suggestions for those of you who do not have more time. Let me know what questions you have in the comments.

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How I Teach Reading in 5th Grade (Detailed Breakdown)

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This post breaks down how I teach reading in 5th grade and how my reading block is structured, including the materials needed.

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Ideas

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| | Filed Under: Guided Reading, Reading, Reading Centers

Do you have a difficult time finding activities to keep other students engaged while you are teaching guided reading or small group reading lessons? If so, you're not alone! Many teachers feel this way. It can be a challenge, but it doesn't have to be! Today, I am sharing over TEN reading centers and activities that will keep your other students engaged and reading while you teach guided reading.

4th and & 5th Graders Are Not Too Old for Reading Centers

If you're like most teachers, when you think of reading centers, you probably think of primary grades. However, reading centers can be beneficial for students in upper grades, too! In fact, many 4th and 5th grade teachers use reading centers on a regular basis.

There are several reasons why reading centers can be beneficial for 5th graders:

1. They provide a way for students to practice reading independently AND with others.

2. Students are able to read at their own level and their own pace.

3. Reading centers give students the opportunity to explore different genres and reading topics that they might not choose themselves.

4. Strategically chosen reading centers allow students to continually practice and review reading skills and strategies

5. Reading centers engage all learners, including struggling readers and reluctant readers.
To read about how I keep my students accountable for their reading, click here.
Independent reading is an important goal for this grade level. Students in 4th and 5th grade really need to have the stamina to read for extended periods of time. Independent reading center is a center that ALL of my students complete each day and some complete this twice a day. For independent reading, the students read books of their choice while applying the reading skills from our reading mini-lessons.

This reading center goes perfectly with independent reading (and is one of the ways that I keep my students accountable for their independent reading).

There are many different ways that you can have students respond or write about their reading. Here are a few:

Reader's Response Letters: One way that I implement reader's response is by having my students write bi-weekly letters about the book they are reading. They either write to me in their reader's notebooks or they write to a partner via our class blog.

Book Reviews: Students can write short reviews of the books they read. This is a great way to get students thinking critically about what they are reading and share their reading with others.

Reader's Theater: Students can create skits or plays based on the books they are reading. This is a great way to bring a book to life and to encourage student creativity.
💡Click here to read more about these "write about reading" ideas and grab several freebies to implement in your classroom right away, click here or on the image below.
Graphic Organizers: Students can use graphic organizers to organize their thoughts about a book. This is a great way to help students process what they are reading.

Reading games are a great way to keep kids engaged and excited about reading. They can also be used to teach and practice important reading skills, standards and overall comprehension. There are many different types of reading games and activities that you can use in your classroom, but here are a few of our favorites:
Want to try these reading games out in your classroom?
Reading game boards - These reading games include one-page grade level passages (helpful for building reading stamina) with an accompanying game board of text dependent questions. Sometimes we read the passage together as a class before centers start. Then, they spend the reading center time "playing" the game and answering the questions, which you can have them do orally or they could record them.
Want to try these reading games out in your classroom?
Roll and Answer reading games- These centers include a half-page passage with 11 text-dependent questions. The students roll a dice twice, find the sum, and then answer the question that matches the sum. This can be "played" with partners (and even as a version of BUMP) or independently.

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Information text is an important genre of writing for students to read regularly. When students read information texts, they are exposed to new vocabulary words, concepts, and ideas. This also gives them the opportunity to practice reading comprehension skills such as main idea and details, sequence, and cause and effect. In addition, information texts often include illustrations and diagrams, which can help students visualize and understand the concepts being presented.

Because of this the informational text reading center is a very important addition to my reading center rotations. Through this reading center, I am able to expose my students to a variety of informational topics and a variety of different types of informational text.

I also use this center to both target my students' interests and to integrate science and social studies into reading. Over the years, I have collected a library of books that align with our science and social studies topics. When I introduce a new topic, I pull out the books that match that topic and place them in the center.

I use my Roll and Answer Reading Response to have the students think about, discuss, and respond to their reading. You can read more about this reading center and grab it for FREE by clicking here.

Similar to the informational reading center, I like to have a poetry reading center in my classroom to expose my students to a variety of poems.

For this center, I place a couple of poetry collection books and sometimes printed poems that I know my students will enjoy and poetry response task cards. During the center, the students read a poem and respond to the poem using the task cards. Click here to grab the poetry task cards and response booklet I use for FREE.

The printed poem shown in this picture can be found in my Holiday Reading Bundle which contains an informational text, fiction text, and a poem for each holiday or season represented.

For more poetry reading centers that include poems and text-dependent questions, click here to see my new Poetry Reading Centers.

Partner reading center is one of my students' favorite reading centers. It is also an effective way to improve reading fluency and comprehension, while also engaging students.

There are many benefits to using partner reading in your classroom, including:

1. It allows students to practice reading aloud with a supportive partner.

2. It gives struggling readers the chance to read with a more fluent reader.

3. It allows students to build stamina by reading for longer periods of time.

4. It gives reluctant readers the chance to read with a friend.

5. It builds confidence and motivation.

6. Students really enjoy it!

For my partner reading center, I like to mix things up and have several options. Sometimes my students simply read books together. Sometimes they read the same book and sometimes they read and discuss their own independent reading book. You can read more about how I implement partner reading and grab a freebie on this post.
💡If you need passages that target specific reading skills, click here to see my reading units that each contain several passages written specifically to target grade level reading skills.
Partner reading is also a great center to have the students partner read grade level passages that target specific skills. I have found that my students who read a grade level below really benefit from reading grade level text with a partner in this format. They support each other and both students are exposed to more complex text.

Magazines are always a hit with my students. They love the full color graphics and the variety of different high interest articles in the magazine. I usually have lots of magazines on hand from past subscriptions that I have paid for or were given to me. Check with your librarian for older magazines, too. I lucked out and got several class sets of Action this year to use with my reading intervention students. Even though the magazines were two years old, they were still super relevant for the students.

The great part about many magazines is they include comprehension questions and writing tasks to go with the articles. You could easily create a choice board with tasks for the students to complete. Here is a generic choice board that I use with my students when I don't have time to create a magazine specific choice board or when the magazine, I am using doesn't have a lot of comprehension questions/tasks. I just fill in the number of activities and articles required and copy it for my students.

💡 Click here to grab the magazine reading center for free.

Another popular reading center for upper elementary students are reading task cards. The short tasks and focused question that are used in tasks cards make them very accessible to all students, especially struggling students.

Since my students take their standardized tests on the computer now (with lots of typed responses), I like to get them on the computer as often as possible during reading time. There are several different types of digital reading centers that you can use depending on the needs of your students.

You can use:
Want more hands-on activities and reading centers?
One thing that I have noticed instantly increases engagement and motivation is making activities hands-on. But, this is not always easy with upper elementary skills and standards. To implement a bit of hands-on practice, I use my reading puzzles and reading spinners. Click here to read more about these hands-on reading activities and grab the ones shown for FREE!

I begin my reading time with a read aloud (sometimes a chapter book like Wonder and sometimes a mentor picture book). As we read the book, we do lots of discussion and even writing together. I also like to give the students questions or a response to continue during their reading center time. You can see an example of this with the book The Wall by Eve Bunting by clicking here. I read the book aloud and have a mini-lesson with my students on a specific reading skill. Then, the task cards (that are free on the linked post) would be placed in a read aloud extension center for the students to complete that week.

Interested in learning more about the different read alouds I use in 4th and 5th grade? Click here to see all of my blog posts that share the different read alouds and mentor texts for a variety of skills and even holidays.

Do you use all of these reading centers? No, I don't use all ten of these reading centers at one time and some don't ever make their way into my reading time over the course of a year. It really depends on my students, their interests and their existing reading behaviors and needs. The reading centers you choose to use also depends on your available resources and how you teach reading.

How many centers do the students complete a day? My students complete 2-3 reading centers a day. One of their reading centers MUST be independent reading.

How long do your reading centers last? Each center lasts approximately 20 minutes. I am very strict on my students beginning their center immediately once we transition since our time is limited.

Do you assign reading centers or allow the students to choose? I have done both ways. It really depends on your students and their maturity levels, behavior, and motivation.

How do you handle behavior during reading centers? I teach the reading centers explicitly and teach/model the proper expectations for the quality of work and their behavior at the center. I spend the first month of school doing this. By doing the work upfront, I have minimal issues with behavior throughout the year. Also, the consistency of the reading centers also helps with behavior. They know exactly what is to be expected of them at each center. Click here to read a more detailed post about reading center management.

Want more articles about reading and freebies?

If you are still on the fence about whether or not reading centers will work with your students, click here to check out this post for five reasons to use reading centers in upper elementary. The post also shares a free paired passage reading center.

Do you love reading centers but struggle with classroom management during reading center time? Check out my tips for reading centers management by clicking here.

If you would like to read about how I teach reading, click here to read a detailed breakdown of what reading instruction looks like in my 5th grade classroom.
If you are interested in reading about math centers, click here to check out all of my blog posts about guided math instruction and math centers.
Do you use any of these reading centers with your upper elementary students? Do you have another reading center that you use and love? I would love to hear about it in the comments.

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Do you want to keep your students engaged and reading during reading time? Read this post to learn about 10 reading centers for upper elementary.