Welcome to XSPURT! We are excited about growing readers and writers this year!  

What does an XSPURT lesson look like and sound like?

Each part of a Guided Reading lesson supports children in learning how to solve problems while they are actually reading and writing connected text:
Familiar reading (re-reading of stories previously read) gives students the opportunity to practice what they already know;
the new book introduction sets students up for success in increasingly challenging texts;
reading the new book allows them to work on meeting new challenges with guidance;
the teaching point focuses them on important strategies to use;
a short spurt of word work supports specific tools to immediately apply in reading or writing;
and writing takes advantage of the powerful reciprocal relationship between learning to read and learning to write.

Including all of these aspects also keeps the lesson moving at a fast pace and doesn’t demand too long an attention span on any one aspect.