Differentiating Reading Instruction…where to begin?

I remember when I first began teaching, I was overwhelmed with all of the learning styles, abilities, and outside influences that affected my students and their success.  After a few years, advice from veteran teachers and administrators, hours of PLC meetings, 300+ hours of training and workshops, I feel like I've finally got it down.  Here's what it looks like at the beginning of the year in my classroom.

• During the first week of school, I always take an Interest Inventory of each student.  This is when I get to learn about their likes and dislikes.  Everything from their favorite cartoon, subject in school, and  place to eat.  This gives me a little glimpse of what motivates them and comes in handy when forming reading groups based on interest.  It also shows me what incentives work best!

• I use several formal and non-formal assessments to evaluate my students' strengths and weaknesses.  Several districts I've worked in use DIBELS and the Qualitative Reading Inventory (QRI) to assess fluency and comprehension. 

• Next, I take all the results and form 4 reading groups in a class of about 20-24.  For each group, I evaluate the assessments and determine what the group needs.  For first grade, it typically looks like this:

Low: phonemic awareness, high frequency words, decodable books from Open Court