Getting organized is a huge step in the guided reading process. How you organize your guided reading area will depend on what works best for you, your students, your classroom space, and your personal organization style. You will find pictures and descriptions of how I've organized my space.
Guided Reading Table
This is my guided reading table. This is where I meet with my small guided reading groups. As you can see, I've just placed three trapezoid tables together to form a horsehoe type space. I would prefer a kidney shaped table, but they had all been claimed.
Student Desk Behind the Table
I placed a student desk behind my guided reading table to house many of the supplies and materials that are used on a daily basis in my guided reading groups. As you can see, I keep my binders, markers, erasers, and stop sign on top of the table. I also keep my expert hats and timer here when they are not being used. In the compartment on the side, I keep white boards, notebook paper, clear plastic sleeves, and other items of this nature.
Storage Bins
This is not my ideal storage space, but it works with the space I have. In the top drawer, I keep pencils, sticky notes, strategy cards, whisper phones, and other miscellaneous supplies. The second and third drawers hold my guided reading books that I use with my groups. Since I have two classes of groups, I place the books for each class in a separate drawer. I often use the same book for groups in both classes that have the same reading level so I just move the books from one drawer to the other when I put them away. If I did not have two classes with groups that shared books I would probably keep the books in a desktop file. Each file would be labeled with the group name and the books would go in the file. Or, you could also use plastic pockets or page protectors in a notebook to hold the books between uses. Again, these are just a few ideas to make your space more organized. As I stated before, this is not my ideal, but it works.
Guided Reading Notebook (a.k.a. Lesson Plans)
Just as I write lesson plans for all of my other subjects, I also write lesson plans for my guided reading groups. Even though I have a total of ten guided reading groups between both of my classes, I still plan lessons for all ten groups each week. (I do have a preformatted lesson plan template so it doesn't take that long. You can find the template under "Lesson Plan Templates.") Instead of keeping two large notebooks at my guided reading table, I have one small (1") notebook. Inside this notebook I have a tab for my homeroom class and my partner's class. Behind these tabs I keep the guided reading plans for that class for that particular week. When the week is over, I place those plans in a larger binder that I keep in the cabinets behind my desk. I also have tabs for anecdotal records, running records, prompts, strategies and skills, and word lists. The prompts, strategies and skills, and word lists are all categorized by reading level so it is easy for me to find the information that I need while teaching guided reading groups.
Sticky Notes
What teacher would be complete without sticky notes? We use a LOT of sticky notes in guided reading. However, I use them to help me organize my books and my guided reading binder. I have a sticky note for each guided reading group that I teach. I color code the sticky notes according to my group colors and write the students' names that are in the group, the guided reading level, and the number of times per week that I see that group. This helps me keep track of which book I checked out of the literacy library for which group. As you can see in the picture below, the particular book shown is used for two groups. Both groups have a reading level of L-M. However, my green group is reading this book in my homeroom class, while the red group is reading it in my partner's class.
I also use sticky notes as group dividers in my reading binder that holds my lesson plans (see reading binder information above). I simply place the sticky note on the edge of the page to create a tab. Since each sticky note is color coded by group color, I can easily find that group's lesson plans.