How do you motivate your students to read during their free time? I want my students reading all the time! One way I try to promote this is with my classroom library. I stock my library with books from every genre, across the Lexile bands, with popular characters and classics, picture books and chapter books. I ask students what series they like and buy those as often as I can. I order new books from Scholastic almost monthly and have a bin designated just for new books. They are always excited when they see new arrivals-almost as much as me!
Here's how I have set up my classroom library and reading program: First, I want students reading books they can understand at their independent reading level. I assess students with running records and retells. I assign them a Lexile range they can select their books from. I have leveled all my books with color coded stickers on them to represent Lexiles. Those books are organized in bins by their levels. Students are assigned a sticker color and know which bins they can select from. They are allowed to check out one book at a time.
Second, I make sure that all the bins have plenty to choose from. I want students to enjoy what they read! If they check out a book and don't like it, I want them to exchange it for another.
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Close up! |
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Chapter book series |
Third, I encourage an optional reading challenge to hold students accountable for their reading. I don't want to make it burdensome, but I also don't want to just go by students' word that they read their books. What works for me is to have students retell their books to me. It only takes a few minutes. When students come in for the class, they sign their name on the board if they are ready to retell a book to me. This lets me see how much time I need to set aside to listen to retells. Towards the end of class, while other students are working independently, I call a student over to retell his/her book to me. I want it to be low key. I skim through the book while they retell the main points or I ask them some basic comprehension questions from the text. After doing this for three years, I have many books memorized. If students can retell their book well, they get to go put a sticker on our team Read and Retell Challenge board. If they are having trouble retelling or just telling me about the pictures, I ask them to read the book again or switch it out if they would rather.
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The corner of my white board |
I print my Read and Retell Challenge boards on 6 different colors of paper-one to represent each group of ESL students I have throughout each day. The sticker chart is a team effort. No one is singled out for reading or not reading. They love competing with the other groups though.
Once we reach 100, we celebrate our reading with a party! I break out the board games and bring in a fun snack.
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Read and Retell Challenges bulletin board |
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Some completed challenges so far this year! |
A few extra notes on my reading program:
*This is what works for me. It has been tweaked and adjusted over the years.
*I keep a log of who has checked out what books, when they have returned them, and if they could retell it. This keeps up with my books and allows me to keep up with how many books each student has read. It is just a binder with notebook paper and dividers.
*Every Monday, I announce top readers from the previous week. To be a top reader, you have to earn 5 stickers the week before (basically one a day).
*I give one sticker for a standard picture book and multiple stickers for chapter books.
For instance, if they read a chapter book with 90 pages, I would give three stickers.
*Students have a reading folder with a log and pocket to put their book in. Each log has 20 lines. Once a student has completed a log, I reassess their reading with running records to determine if they are ready to move up to the next Lexile (colored sticker) level.
*Even though this is a voluntary program, 95% of my students are engaged and reading on a consistent basis.
**I need more bookshelves for my book addiction.
**I could talk about this all day.
I have updated my Read and Retell Challenge Board. You can download it for free by clicking on the link below.
Happy adventuring,
Heidi