Literacy Groups in Special Education

Literacy Groups in Special EducationI've had a few people ask how I running literacy/ reading groups in my severe-needs classroom, so I decided to share how we do them!

First, I split students into groups based on needs and similar IEP goals. For example, my students who are working on identifying letters and beginning letter sounds are grouped together, my students with Vision impairments who are working on Braille are grouped together, and my students working on matching pictures and letters are paired together. I make as many groups as I have staff (I normally have 3 paras but during literacy the vision para is in our room, so I get to have an extra group, YAY!). I make a tub for each group with students' names on them. The tubs are great because I can update them daily/ weekly (depending on the students) and then staff can just grab the tub for whatever group they're working with.
Literacy Groups in Special Education

Each tub contains the 3 things:
1) A simple "literacy plan" that shows what students should be working on and what supports they might need
2) A phonics/ letter activity, depending on students' needs
3) An interactive story and possibly a comprehension activity
Literacy Groups in Special Education


Literacy Groups in Special Education

Literacy Groups in Special Education

A few ideas for the phonics/ letter activities:
-I love the old school Lakeshore Learning letter tubs. They're great for hands-on learning about letters and letter sounds. Check out the letter tubs I made here.
-Differentiate the activities with visual prompts, Braille or real objects.
-Use interactive beginning letter sound books. You can get this beginning consonant printable for free here. It's great because there are two versions- one with a visual prompt and one without visuals.

This a super basic example of our reading groups, but hopefully it helps you to get an idea of how they work for our room.