Most classrooms have a wide variety of skills/ levels when it comes to literacy... And adapting materials for those variety of levels/ needs can be really tricky! As a severe-needs teacher, I have a VERY wide range of abilities and needs in my classroom. The range of literacy abilities of my kiddos goes from working on interacting with literacy materials and engaging with reading materials to reading CVC and sight words. Despite the wide range of needs in my classroom, I've been able to find ways to adapt one book/ lesson to fit all of the needs of my students.
I do reading in small groups (2 kids per group) and I group kids based on similar IEP goals and levels. I differentiate all the books so they are accessible and appropriate for the below three levels/ abilities:
Level 1 books: Have textures and real objects
Level 2 books: Have materials for matching pictures
Level 3: Have materials for matching pictures, answering yes/no questions and comprehension questions with a board
This little chart further explains what kiddos in each level are working on:
Now here are some examples of books that we've adapted for a variety of levels:
Note: Don't worry, I don't call the groups "level 1, 2, 3" or anything like that in the classroom! The kids aren't told their level or anything, I just labeled the levels as a reference for this blog post to show the differentiation!