My son's class has a reading book that is a fourth grade reading book that the whole class gets reading instruction from (vocabulary, literary analysis, etc.) and there are additional readers from that publisher for small group instruction (each group has a different reader if they are English language learners, below level, on level or above level). So in the book they might read a fictional story about a topic together and then the small groups get the readers that might be non fiction on the same topic for small group instruction...I assume they don't have a group of readers above level enough to actually make a difference for my son. I think when they do the small groups they rotate to centers and one of the centers they do is have free time to read the book they have selected from the library (the ar book) and take the ar test if they are ready. The ar books he reads are the only time he is reading close to his instructional level.
