Differentiated Reading Instruction

Sample
Here is a sample lesson plan for one week of my differentiated reading instruction that is delivered in a
small group setting while other students work independently. My reading lessons follow the format of a
warm up, lesson, word work practice, and emergent reading. Each group follows this format with lessons
tailored to their ability levels. Groups are determined using formative assessment that I’ve previously
collected to determine what skills students are ready to learn.

Group 1
Standards: K.RF.3c/K.RF.3a/K.RF.1d/K.RF.2d/K.L.1a
Objective: I can identify letter names and sounds. I can identify initial sounds.
Lesson: Students will warm up by practicing letter formation on specific letters they are working on. Using magic boards, teacher
will provide instruction on four letters practicing their names, sounds, initial sounds, and formation. Students word work practice is
matching those four letters to the pictures to practice initial sounds. This group is not yet ready for emergent reading and will
practice reading sight words instead with a game.

Group 2
Standards: K.RF.3c/K.RF.4/K.RF.2d./K.RF.3a/K.RF.3b
Objective: I can read sight words. I can identify long and short vowel sounds. I can isolate B/M/E sounds in CVC words.
Lesson: Students will warm up by learning any new sight words and playing a sight word game to practice. Teacher will give students
a lesson on short/long vowel sounds and practice sorting words on the pocket chart. Students word work practice is using letter
cubes to isolate and blend letter sounds in CVC words. Students emergent reading is CVC decodable reader and teacher provides
support in sounding out/blending CVC words. (one-two lines of text with only decodable words)

Group 3
Standards: K.RF.3/K.RF.3c/K.RF.4/K.RF.1a/K.RF.2d/K.L.1a
Objective: I can read sight words. I can apply grade level phonics to decode words. I can read emergent reader books.
Lesson: Students will warm up by learning any new sight words and playing a sight word game to practice. Teacher will give students
a lesson on decoding consonant blends on the pocket chart. Students will practice by spelling words on magic boards. Students word
work practice is reading onset/rimes with a fun matching game. Students will read an emergent reader book at their level to
practice skills they are practicing while teacher provides support. (repetitive texts with sight words & CVC/blends)
 Group 4
Standards: K.RF.3/K.RF.3c/K.RF.4/K.RF.1a
Objective: I can read sight words. I can apply grade level phonics to decode words. I can read emergent reader books.
Lesson: Students will warm up by learning any new sight words and playing a sight word game to practice. Teacher will review blends
and give students a lesson on digraph sounds using the pocket chart. Students will practice with a digraph sound matching activity.
Students word work practice is reading digraphs with a fun iSPY game. Students will read an emergent reader book at their level to
practice skills they are practicing while teacher provides support. (Longer texts with sight words/ blends/digraph sounds)

Independent Work
Independent work time is structured with clipboard work and table choices in my classroom. Students are given work on their
clipboard that must be completed before making a table choice. The work on their clipboard practices skills at their level that they
can do independently in both math and reading. After completing clipboard work, students may choose a practice activity on the
tables. My table choices are structured with a math, reading, or writing activity on each one. These activities vary often depending
on the time of the year and are chosen to spark student interest and engagement. During this work time, a pair of students are also
chosen to listen to the book of the week and complete a respond to reading paper. Students take turns with the listen to reading
table until all students have had a turn, then changed to a new book. Here are just a few examples of the activities during work time.
Differentiated Word Work with Magnet Letters Write the Room

Fine Motor Poke the Letter

Listen to Reading
Math Roll, Count, Cover

Sight Word Egg Game