Get Them Reading!

This year has been a struggle to know exactly how much my students are reading at home.  We sent home all their textbooks and have given them access to use the anthology as an independent reading option - just in case they didn't have anything else.  Our school library has been checking out books every Friday, but families still have to go online to check them out. I do weekly conferences and we are still doing the 40 Book Challenge... basal stories are counting in those as well. No offense to basals - but sometime they are really boring.  Especially when the kids are used to reading full on novels.

My dad usually buys a monthly book for my students.  He's done it for years.  Last year when everything shut down, I still had the spring set of books that I haven't been able to give out yet.  At least the ones for April and May - so about 64 books that were in my classroom, different titles since I had picked up those multipacks from Scholastic. I only had 7 books per title, so I've used those this year.  

I've put 2 titles in our office crate per month - about 14 books. It's been a first come, first grab kind of thing.  I post a picture in Class Dojo and on our TEAM at the beginning of the month. I talk it up big time during class.  Interested kids will motivate their families to get to school. Some kids don't care - they either really don't care or they just don't like those titles.  But the books have flown from our crate.  The deal is when they come they should only grab one book, and if another is still there the next week that they can choose a different title.  

I'm now working through other sets that I've used for Book Clubs - the copies that still look brand new that I just don't need anymore.  I'm glad they are adding to their home libraries, and I hope they always remember these gift books in this crazy year. 

Hope you have a great day!

Book Beads!

This last year my grade level team wanted to switch things up, so we started a grade level 40 Book Challenge.  Our goal was to encourage kids to read multiple genres, then share them with us during our Reading Conferences.  I had read the Book Whisperer and it was important to me to give students some choice, but since they are 10 and 11 year olds I also wanted to give them some direction.  I gave the kids this sheet that outlined the different genres I wanted them to focus on.

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that.  As they read their books, they kept this in their Classwork folder (in a sheet protector) so they could jot down the book titles and dates of completion.  About once a month I would pull out the pony beads and we would update their pipe cleaner with the completed book beads.  

Pipe cleaner?  Yep - a black pipe cleaner with a black pony bead twisted on the end to keep them from sliding off.  The ends of the pipe cleaner had an address label folded in half with their classroom number (since they would all start looking the same).  Each pipe cleaner could hold up to 30ish beads (they needed room at the end to twist the pipe cleaner back around the black bead to make a circle).  This was a quick, easy, and cheap method for the kids to view their book choices of the year.  I stored 5 pipe cleaners per mason jar, total of 6 jars, which really motivated the kids to keep reading throughout the year.  Plus it looked pretty. :)

The colors were added to the spines of my classroom library books via more address labels and a big box of markers.  The students helped me label the books as we were talking about them during our conferences.  During our Reading Conferences we would talk books, what they enjoyed, and I'd ask them some specific (to our unit) questions about their books.  Sometimes I would listen to them read - even big kids love having that one on one attention.  So the kids weren't rushing through their books, we had them write short (key word: SHORT) book recommendations/summaries on index cards that this year I hope to add them to the inside front covers of the books in my library.  

Okay - here's what I have in case anyone wants it:

Reward cards for students to take home

Student Sheet and Color Grid

Hope this helps!

40 Book Challenge {Freebie}

The other day I was going through my computer files for Back to School and was reminded about the Book Whisperer... Remember this book? 

Click the text to head to Amazon to purchase.  

My students have kept a running list of books they have read for the past couple of years, but this coming year I wanted them to get little awards to help with motivation.  It's amazing how little recognition notes go a long way to motivate my reluctant learners.   

The attached freebie is really simple set up, but I hope that it helps someone.  There's the challenge sign, a reading sheet for student tracking, and the recognition notes that range from 5 books to 50 (for those students that pass the challenge).  

It's over on Google Docs. Hope you have a great day!