Reading Center Organization

Who knew dish drying racks would make the perfect organization for reading centers?!?

My students did centers twice a week, sometimes three times depending on the schedule.  Even though I had more guided reading groups (sometimes 5 levels), I have always had three levels of centers.  Students had a reading center menu that they would use to complete centers.  They would check them off as they would go and needed to complete a certain number of assignments per grading period.  I would collect ALL of the work at the end of each grading period and assign one grade for all the work.  This way I wasn't grading tons of center papers each week and was only planning centers 4 times a year.  Win, win.  

Where will I read today?

It was important for me for my students to always know what was expected of them.  This included what they should be doing, when they should be doing it and where.  Over the years, something I struggled with was centers and independent reading time.  There was too much going on around the room during that time. Some students at guided reading, others at the computer, some working on a project together and so on.  So, a few years ago I decided to make this sign.  Not only did my students know where they were reading each day, it solved the "he read on that chair yesterday" problem.  I look a picture of all of the reading spaces in the room.  There were chairs, rockers, little pillows and big pillows.  There was a place for each and every student in my room.  I labeled each picture so that there was NO CONFUSION.  Each student had a clothespin with their name on it.  I would rotate the clothes pins every week.  That way students were in one spot for an entire week before they moved to another spot.  Learning where they would read for the week was part of our Monday schedule.  This worked very well in my classroom and my students enjoyed being able to lounge while enjoying their favorite books.