If you teach children younger than third grade, you will need to go slower with this process, and do tons of modeling to show what you expect.  If you teach third grade or older, your students should be entering their fourth year of reading groups and should know the basic process- they just need to learn YOUR routines:

- Start with independent work.  Give a 20 minute assignment the students can work on without assistance and explain that they cannot talk or ask for help because they are practicing for reading groups. Repeat as often as needed.

- Once they've got that down, work on introducing centers Explain where centers are kept, used, and clean up procedures. 

- Be extremely detailed and assume students have no knowledge of centers.  For example, if you have a sandwich bag with pieces in it for one of your centers, model putting the bag back and ask if you forgot anything.  Someone will notice you did not shut the bag, and can explain to the class why it is so important to always close the bag.  If you skip this step, you will pay for it later.  I have taken the lazy way out before and been very upset when materials were not used properly. However, I had no one to blame but myself because I never took the time to teach my kids how to care for the centers.

- Introduce each center individually.  This takes forever but will save you from having to answer the same questions repeatedly.  It will take several days, and it will leave the kids dying to try them out!  In HeadStart, we called this the Guided Discovery process.  Think about it as guiding them through the proper way to discover and explore the materials, since you'll be teaching reading groups later and won't be able to do this for each child while they're at centers.

- When students have been familiarized each center, tell them it is finally time to try them out with your monitoring.  Explain that when they use centers, you will be teaching small groups, and you will not be able to help them.  Tell them that because they are still learning, for the rest of the week (or so), you will be walking around to answer questions, but once small groups start, they'll be on their own.  Allow the whole class to go to centers simultaneously so that you can give your full attention to monitoring.  Look to see if the materials are being used correctly, and if the children are on task.

- After a few days (once the class has demonstrated their ability to use centers), discuss procedures for when they have questions at centers (and independent work) but you are teaching small group.   As a class, we decided that our rule would be to 1) re-read the directions to yourself, 2) ask your partner or someone near you in a whisper voice, 3) if you still don't understand, just do the best you can.  That was our center mantra.  I repeatedly emphasized that it was okay if they were not using the center exactly as the directions said (our centers are very open-ended)- as long as they were working and practicing literacy skills, they were doing the right thing.  That's the truth- if they are reading and writing, then they are making good use of their time, as far as I'm concerned. 

- Next, have half the class practice centers and the other half practice independent work, with NO QUESTIONS or help from you.  After 20 minutes, discuss how well they worked and reinforce your rules.  Have the class switch, again with no questions.  Debrief once more, and thank them for working so independently.  Tell the class you think they are ready for reading groups and you believe you can trust them to stay on task, work quietly, and respect your small group instruction. 

- It's important for your students to understand how precious your reading group time is- you absoutely cannot afford to discipline the class when you are teaching reading.  You wouldn't tolerate it during whole class instruction, so don't allow it during small groups, either.  My class knew that every time I had to interrupt my small group to speak to someone else, I noted it on my clipboard, and after 3 chances, that person could not go to centers for a week.  If they could not stay on task during independent work, they would have to sit by themselves, by me, or lose privileges in the classroom.  This was seldom a problem, and when I was able to meet with 3 twenty-minute small groups without having to discipline anyone, they would be thanked profusely for their maturity and I might even give them a token of appreciation, such as 5 extra minutes of recess, or partner reading outdoors.  I think mutual respect is what sometimes inspires kids to stay on task.

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