Book Hunt

I have been preparing for our next book club, biography/narrative nonfiction, and since this is my school's first year using a balanced literacy framework, finding enough books at specific levels has been a challenge. 

My first step in the hunt for books was to know which levels I needed for the clubs. I know that for nonfiction it is acceptable to go down as much as 2 levels, but I am not sure how this transfers to narrative nonfiction (if you have an answer to this please share in the comments section).

My next step was to check in our school Media Center and see which Guided Reading sets matched my genre and levels.

 

Then I looked on my book shelves to see if I had multiple copies of books that matched my search criteria.

I also looked through the ancillary materials that are part of my Social Studies textbook program. Time for Kids and the Harcourt leveled readers each provided me with a set of books--yay!

Finally, I used the website Reading A-Z since I was not having much luck finding lower level books. Reading A-Z has something called multilevel books which are wonderful because you could have three different groups reading the same book that is three different levels.

 

Now I have an idex card labeled with each Fountas and Pinnell level. I recorded the books I have for each level. Now I can see how many sets I have and how many more I need.  

 

Analyzing Book Club Jottings

I have a variety of methods I use for keeping record of my students' discussions during book clubs, but the following one is my current favorite.  It allows me to organize the students' jottings that they choose to turn in.  I record the book title (or a shortened version), the teaching point I gave in the minilesson, any anecdotal records, and a quick description of what I will discuss during conferencing with the students in that book club.

I make note of behaviors I see or patterns that appear from meeting to meeting. I am able to reflect on my notes and see which students are progressing and which remain stagnant. Sometimes I conference with individual students and other times I might meet with the whole book club together.

 

As I listen in on book club discussions, I often write down phrases or questions students say that I think should be shared with other groups.

I Love New Books

When I was little I used to get excited every time my teacher sent home the Scholastic book order. Some of the books I ordered in elementary school are part of my classroom library today. I received a shipment of books today and found these two new gems!

The story White Water takes place in the 1960's during segregation. A boy envisions that the water from the whites only fountain must taste better than from the colored fountain.  He daydreams about tasting it. One day he stays home from school so he can sneak to the park and drink the white water.  He gets to taste it, but then a white woman yells at him causing him to fall. When he falls down he sees that both fountains are connected by the same pipe. He realizes that all of the water is the same, the fountains just look different.



I hope Tedd Arnold adds more books to this series!  My students love the Fly Guy books and I know they are going to love this new nonfiction addition!  The organization of the book is appealing and informative. It creatively uses nonfiction text features such as cutaways, photographs, captions, highlighted words, and pronunciation keys.

Keeping Jottings Fun with Special Sticky Notes

Happy 100th blog post to me! I thought I would share an idea I use to keep students excited about jottings. They start to get bored of the plain, yellow sticky notes. I like to change it up a little and mix in some fun colors, shapes, and designs. For some reason, the number of jottings increases...but sometimes the quality decreases. Isn't it great to have a problem when students want to write too much?!

So I came up my special bag of teacher sticky notes. When I see a student that makes a wonderfully thoughtful jotting then I tell them they can choose a few special sticky notes from my bag. This way they sort of get rewarded for putting effort into their jottings instead of just grabbing cool sticky notes and writing any old thing on them. By keeping the sticky notes in a certain location, I can can control how many a student uses. This cuts down on the expense.

Here is my special bag ($1 Target bin) and some of my special sticky notes ($1 Target bin too):

Can ALL Students Participate in Book Clubs?

Yes! Absolutely! Of course! I have students in my morning literacy block that range in Fountas and Pinnell levels from A to Q!  The students in my afternoon literacy block range in levels from I to R.  All of my students are participating in book clubs.  I have a student with severe cerebral palsey who has no verbal skills and is in a powerchair.  She uses electronic assistance to communicate and she loves book clubs! It is a challenge to differentiate for all of these learning styles, but it is a welcome challenge because it makes me rethink my strategies. It keeps my ideas fresh and makes my students feel like valued members of the class.

 

My level C reader uses skinny, pointed sticky note tabs to mark the pages he wants to talk about in book clubs. He can write basic three or word sentences, so sometimes he is overwhelmed by jotting.  He does make drawings to show what he envisions in the story, but his sketches are very rudimentary.  By simply marking the pages he wants to talk about he is able to have a discussion with his group.  His group is comprised of himself, an exceptional needs teacher, the student with cerebral palsey, and that student's educational assistant.
The two adults in the group are part of the book club. They have their own folders and books. They prepare their jottings and complete their checklists and self-assessment rubrics just like the students.

Nonfiction Jotting Success

We finished our study of nonfiction in December, but I was preparing for a presentation and I really want to share this student reflection. A student wrote this Stop and Jot in her Reading Notebook during a read aloud I did from a level O book about amphibians and reptiles. Incredible thoughts from a third grader who reads at a level K. It was complex text and she rose to the challenge!

Our Book Club Journey

We are in week 2 of our book club journey and it has been smooth sailing so far. Students are following their contracts and schedules. They are sharing, discussing, questioning, and conversing. Most of all they are enjoying reading. One of my students said they have never had a teacher tell them to just talk and not worrying about working or writing!

 

Students lay out their jottings after they use them for discussion.

Students are referencing the text during their discussions.

Students use active listening skills.

Students synthesize illustrations during discussions.

Students prepare jottings to reference during book club discussions.

All of my students, regardless of ability or level, participate in book club.

Students bring their materials to book club.