Ask An Expert

In Stopping the Revolving Door at Your Guided Reading Table – I share a strategy that takes the focus off of you as the sole source of help, empowering your students to identify others in the classroom that can help problem solve or provide an assist, when needed.

Our Ask an Expert chart, identifies tasks/skills that students frequently need help with, and shares who in the room can help (besides the teacher).

To create the chart, I determine classroom situations that seem to result in frequent “I need help….” requests during Guided Reading/Daily 5 and Math Workshop times (when I pull small groups). We start the chart in September, but it is actually not fully completed until the end of November.  Experts are identified as students who have proven to be a source of help to others.  They are helpful in that they try to empower their classmate to learn the skill themselves rather than just doing it for them. We’ve done our research, jumped through hoops, put their customer service reps to the test and (oh, woe is me! ) tried out more online casino games to test their fun factor, payout rates and level of excitement – than we can count!

I use student number labels to note each student that has been identified as an expert.  Areas of expert help include:

• spelling
• password
• symbaloo
• iPads
• shoe tying
• chromebooks
• reading/decoding
• listening to reading
• word work activities
• math bin activities

Stopping the revolving door during small group time is a challenge, and the Ask an Expert chart is a strategy that might help ward off some of the interruptions!