Guided reading stations, also known as literacy centers, are a cluster of tables designed to engage students while teachers meet with small guided reading groups. Use these ideas and resources to create effective guided reading stations to occupy your students and enable you to stay focused on the group you’re meeting with.

STEM/STEAM Guided Reading Lists for Every Level  

Art activities
Art stations are a great way to develop motor skills and encourage creativity, however, they often require a supervising adult, so can be difficult to manage if you’re the only one in the classroom. If you don’t have another adult present, these All About Me Art Activities are an ideal project for students to work on while you meet with another group.

Activity sheets
Scholastic Teachables has a veritable treasure trove of ready-to-go activities and worksheets for every grade, subject, and skill level. Of course, there are many more uses for Teachables than just occupying students at guided reading stations, including lesson plans, mini-books, and more (there’s a reason they’re known as “the savvy teacher’s best friend”).   

Sight words/high frequency words station
Teaching sight words is a great way to catapult kids to reading success and build fluency—and there are many fun and engaging ways to teach them. This Sight Word Readers Box Set is a fantastic resource to have on hand in your classroom, as is 100 Write-and-Learn Sight Word Practice Pages, which contains the most commonly encountered sight words in any text.  

Listening station
A listening station is probably the easiest of all stations to plan because all you have to do is play an audio book on a CD. Have your students listen to the book twice. On the first listen, they can simply listen to the story being told. The second time around, they can follow along with the hard copy. Following the second read-along, have your students fill in a reading log or graphic organizer—it’s good practice to have students turn something in from every station to keep them accountable.  

Writing station
This is also a quick and easy station to set up because all you need are pens and paper! Get your students’ creative juices flowing by getting them to write one of the following:

- Story
- Poem
- Newspaper article
- Letter to a relative they haven’t seen in a while
- Biography of a friend or relative
- Film review

With so many ready-to-go resources available for teachers, Scholastic is your one-stop shop for guided reading success.