November 18, 2022

46. 3 Simple Ways to Differentiate Reading Instruction

19 minutes

Happy Friday, Friends! I have two questions for you!

1 ) Do you teach varying levels of children?

2) Are you looking for easy tips on how to teach differentiated reading effectively?

I bet your answer to both of those questions is yes! Finding ways to effectively teach reading to every learning level in the classroom is a tough task and we hope to help you do just that! That's why our episode today is all about 3 simple ways to differentiate reading instruction!

No matter what grade level you are teaching, you’re bound to have varied levels of readers in your class. A 3rd-grade class, for example, may have students reading at a 2nd-grade level (or below), and at a 4th-grade level (or above!) With such a variety of students, it’s difficult to figure out how to use differentiated reading passages (while still teaching the same skills), but it’s possible with these tips.

The first tip I discuss in this episode is books by level and implementing literature circles in the classroom. One of the ideas that I share is splitting groups into reading level specific "book clubs" or "literature circles". This helps to avoid students being called out because of their reading level. After dividing into groups you can have students take different jobs to study different comprehension strategies. For example, our Literature Circles/Book Club resource has these adorable job names that you can use in your own literature circles:

Super Summarizer

Illustrator

Connection Constructor

Character Analyzer

And more!

Next I talk about a super helpful website that one of our Wife Teacher Mommy team members has used in the classroom. Students pick their reading level and this website gives them the news passage at their level. Every student can read the same news story at their level so you can have great class discussions about what they read! It's a great tool (this isn't an ad I promise!) and helps with differentiating in the classroom.

And last I dive into our Reading Comprehension and Fluency Passages. For these resources, I teamed up with my sister Victoria La Rue, who is a professional writer. She has always amazed me with her writing skills, so I was thrilled to work together on this project that is much needed for the diverse needs in our classrooms. Our differentiated reading comprehension passages are available for Kindergarten through 6th grades.

These differentiated reading comprehension passages include a low, medium, and high passage for each grade. Each passage has the SAME title and questions- and covers the same skills. The difference is only in the passages themselves- to meet each student at their own reading level.

That's just a brief overview of what you'll learn in this awesome episode that covers everything you need to know to differentiate reading instruction in the classroom! Thanks for listening!

Resources mentioned:

Wife Teacher Mommy Club
Reading Passages Black Friday Deal
Literature Circles Resource
Reading Comprehension & Fluency Resource
Reading Passages Freebie
Newslea Website
Wife Teacher Mommy: Mentioned on Podcast Amazon List