How do I set up my meeting area?

The 6 Components you need to include in your meeting area

The meeting area is an important part of The Read Side by Side program. It is the place where you will gather students to read together, discuss together, share together, and make connections with each other.

1. Create a cozy space somewhere in your room where kids can sit comfortably. This could include a comfy rug and a cozy chair for the teacher. You want to create a sense of community and a safe space where students feel comfortable sharing their thinking. Something else to consider is having something unique for the kids in the back row to sit on; such as beach chairs, yoga balls, benches or upside down buckets or milk crates with cushions on them.

2. Identify how you will model and display the co-created charts. One way to do this is by using an easel with chart paper. It is large so all students can see what you are writing and add it to their notebooks. When you are finished with the chart, you can peel it off of the chart paper pad and stick it to the wall for students to reference later. Another way to do this, if you do not have access to chart paper and an easel, is to build the charts along with students in your own composition book, displaying what you are doing under a document camera for them to copy. This is not as ideal since you can't permanently display the co-created charts on the walls.

3. Display the Turn & Talk share and response stems for students to see. The share stems change daily. Find a place to display these where you can rewrite them each day.

• written on the blackboard or whiteboard
• written on an interactive smartboard

The response stems will stay the same all year long. These can be permanently displayed.

• sentence strips
• pocket chart
• tagboard poster

4. Display the C.I.A. & Genre posters. Display all 4 of the C.I.A. posters and the Plot Line Poster in the meeting area. You have 9 genre posters. Display the genre poster for the unit that you are currently in.

5. Make the vocabulary visible for students. This can be done by creating a word wall, putting words in a pocket chart, or writing words on a large piece of chart or butcher paper as they are introduced. Making them visible encourages students to use them in their turn and talk as well as in their writing.

6. Designate who the Turn & Talk partners are. Once you have thoughtfully assigned turn & talk partners to each other it is important to display them for students.

• Turn & Talk partners should be color coded, a color for the higher partner and a color for the lower partner. These colors can match the magnets for the turn and talk stems so each partner knows what their role is each time.
• Rotate which students sit in each row each day to facilitate monitoring and assessment during the read-aloud. Shift rows back each day, bringing the back row to the front. Designate who sits in the back row on the turn and talk list using sticky notes, clothespins, or magnets.
• Groups of 3 should be created and used sparingly. If you have an odd number of students create a group of 3. The third member of the group could be someone who is frequently absent or tardy, missing out on reading instruction, a student whose first language is not English, a student who receives extra services in reading or who simply needs more support and scaffolding.