How often should we be reading in our classrooms?

How often should we be reading in our classrooms?

In many special education classrooms it can be challenging to have the same demands as a mainstream classroom would. My students need regular movement breaks which takes time away from the classroom. My students cannot cope with a typical classroom timetable however i try to implement as many literacy opportunities as i can. It has taken 2 years to be able to put this many demands on our timetable and as you can see our day is split into "mini-lessons" to weave literacy throughout the day. Other classrooms at Sommerville have fewer reading opportunities because the needs in their classroom are much higher or they have different reading goals related to concepts about print.
I have included a timetable of all reading based activities (not including other curriculum areas) as one of the many questions i have been asked is how often i read with my students. Below is a brief explanation about what each activities looks like in my classroom.

Time	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8.30 – 9.15 9.30 9.45 – 9.55 9.55 – 10.30	Morning work box Morning Message Word wall games	Morning work box Morning Message Word wall games	Morning work box Morning Message	Morning work box Morning Message Word wall games Individual literacy skills	Morning work box Morning Message Word wall games Library
MORNING TEA AND PLAYGROUND
11.20 – 11.35	Shared reading	Shared reading	Shared reading		Shared reading
LUNCH AND PLAYGROUND
1.40 – 1.50 1.50 – 2.10	Self-Selected Reading 1:1 reading	Self-Selected Reading 1:1 reading	Self-Selected Reading 1:1 reading	Self-Selected Reading 1:1 reading

- Morning work box: a TEACCH inspired workstation where children work completely independent with activities they have learnt to master
- Morning message: Each morning i write a message to my students including words from the word wall
- Word Wall games: different whole class games, each student works on different skills
- Individual Literacy skills: a block focusing on making words, grammer etc
- Library : reading to and with the students with books they engage in
- Shared reading: one book a week with a different focus/activity each day eg, "read the book to find the main characters in the story"
- Self-selected reading : completely independent reading, they choose books from the computer, library or i-pad
- 1:1 reading: students read 1x book a week with a different activity/focus each day. I make up reading packs for each student (see previous post)

I try to make sure that students get the opportunity to...
Be read to - morning message, shared reading, library
Read with - 1:1 reading, individual literacy skills
Read independently - SSR, morning work box, library

Word Wall - is it worth it?

I first set up my word wall last year, however my students were not able to attend for long enough periods to make it worthwhile.
This year however my word wall is going strong and i can vouch for its success with the noticeable changes in my students sight word recognition. I am now a converted word wall advocate.
Dr Sally Clendon uses a word wall to "teach words that you don't want students to have to work to decode or spell." Sally recommends adding 5 new words a week however in my classroom i add 2 new words a week. Sally Recommends cutting around the shape of the word and having a different colored background on each word.

Above slide is an exert from Dr Sally Clendon's workshop notes. 

We play a different word wall game each day and each student focuses on different skills within our session. My students love our word wall so much they like to play our games as a reward for completing work!