Once I have assessed each student, planning instruction is easy. Well, “easy” may be an exaggeration.

• First, if I've assessed a student, then I know what books she or he should be reading during independent reading time, and I have a sense of what strategies I might teach when we're conferring.
• Second, I list all the students, sorted by independent reading level. I use this list to divide students into homogenous groups for guided reading lessons.
• Next, I scan students’ assessments to see which decoding, comprehension and phonics strategies the class needs to learn. For example, if students rarely stop when they’ve said a word which doesn’t make sense, then I know to teach them to stop and think during whole group minilessons.

It took me a while to become familiar with reading strategies. I read books, took a couple of classes, talked with experienced teachers, and spent lots of time thinking about my students. See the Coach's Favorites for resources that will help. The effort paid off, because now I can listen to a child read and know almost automatically what to teach that child next.