Resource Room HELP!!

[Unregistered]

I am trying to find a way to have centers/activities for
my students (in order to begin small reading groups)...but they vary in ages from K-5. Not only do
their ages vary, but their abilities vary quite a bit...I
am not sure how to get them all to have meaningul
activities to do without having a million different
versions of the same center/activity (trust me, it gets
confusing!) Any suggestions would be VERY helpful. Thank
you!

[Lisa's Hotscakes]

Why not teach them as a class? Why centers? Teachers often assume that they must use centers, then they spend countless hours trying to set them up. Does your school mandate them?

[Unregistered]

The levels of the students are quite varied...I have 5th graders that are illiterate and 5th graders that are reading at a 3rd to 4th grade level...and that is just the 5th graders! My students go all the way down to a kindergartener with the age equivalent of a 2-year-old...and I pretty much have everything else in between. Lastly, they all come and go throughout the day...so if I could do whole group instruction I might...but I just don't see how that would be possible.

[Unregistered]

Do they come on a content mastery basis, like tutorials? If so, there is no way you can have centers. They need to bring in the lessons they need help on and you basically have to reteach the lessons. A regular resource room, like I have, will have students in one grade level come in for an hour. I teach Reading in the mornings, and math in the afternoons. To address all the levels even in one class, you should find a book that is close to the grade level. ReadingA-Z is a great site to download books from. That way you can address the needs of your low readers, expand on the book for the higher level kids. Any more help, email me Peggisu890@aol.com

[Unregistered]

This is difficult. If you have a parapro you could try a rotation system. I did this with my reading groups when I was lucky enough to have a parapro. 1 group worked with me, another was doing seatwork and the third worked with my para. We did 20 minute rotations so they all received 40 minutes concentrated work daily and 20 min. of seatwork. Maybe you could get volunteers to work with you for short periods during the week and give it a try. It beats centers. I have never had much luck with them either in a resource room with so much coming and going. I too try to keep each grade level coming in separate unless they are on about the same level then I group. You may want to look at rearranging times to work for you. Getting this right can make all the difference in a great year and an a really tiring one for you. I use the A-Z reading program with my resource kids as well as word lists such as dolch, fry and word families which suit the needs of each. If you have a computer in your classroom look at starfall.com and betweenthelions which is a pbs website. Both are great for reading practice in phonics, abc's, and reading. Good Luck!