Monday, October 22, 2012

Classroom Reading Leveled Books!

This year, it is all about data, data, data!  Which has postives and negatives to it, but first grade is just rolling with it.  One of the things we are tracking this year, is my students' reading levels.  My princiapl bought all of us a fountas and pinnell testing kit, and I have been *trying oh-so-hard* to get all my kids testing for their reading levels.  TODAY I FINISHED!!  I rewarded myself with a Diet Coke, of course :)

So, since we are working on moving up the ladder of the reading level world, I decided I needed a reading leveled library in my classroom. Which is expensive!!  I wish I could buy fancy smancy books for my classroom library, but let's be honest...It would be more of a bucket of about 20 books.  At my old school, we used reading a-z.  Which is this *amazing* online source where it has about 20-30 paper books per level!  It does have a year membership fee, but I thought this was totally worth it.  So I took the dive...

I really recommend this website to any teacher trying to motivate students to read.  It has fluency tests, paper books, lesson ideas, etc.  Believe me, I have a strong relationship with these books now.  I spend multiple days a week, printing, cutting, laminating, duct taping, etc. this books, but it's ALL worth it, because my students are beyond excited about it.

Our first grade team decided to try sending home leveled books to read for 20-30 minutes a night instead of worksheets for homework.  We are still trying it out, but I swear...my students can't wait to show me that their parents signed their reading log and what they learned the previous night from their books. And in the month that we have started this little journey, most of my kids have moved up a reading level...uhh, why didn't I start doing this earlier?!!!


Here is the beginning of one of my lovely Friday nights...I printed out about 30 leveled books and laminated the covers to those books, so that the books will last longer.  None of my books have been destroyed yet...not even close, and I'm giving all the thanks to my trusty friend, the laminating machine.


After you fold the pages and cut the laminating, you staple the books together.


Duct tape!!!  The best part of this is that I got to explore multiple stores for the craziest duct tape.  Secret:  for the lower levels, I just did simple colors like red and purple...and as you move up in levels, the duct tape gets crazier and crazier.  This has motivated the students to want to move up levels so that they may get *gasp* Justin Bieber or Mario Bros. duct tape.  Yes, Justin Beiber duct tape really does exist...Why didn't they ever have Hanson duct tape when I was growing up?! :(


This is the finished product!  I will be the first to say that this take a lot of time, but completely worth it!!  Even my low kiddies are so pumped to get new books in their level... When the student moves up a level, they get a pass to the office to go give our principal a high-five.  Getting a high five from the principal is like winning the lottery at my school.  Hey, whatever works!


Lastly, I bought $1 bins at Target and put the reading level's duct tape around the container, and threw all those books in the correct bin...okay, I didnt throw them, because my blood, sweat, and tears went into each and every one of those books.  Since the container is labeled, my students can go "book shopping" on Mondays and Wednesdays for new books in their reading level.  I am hoping to retest their reading level every month.  Let's cross our fingers!

Now, I need to set up my raz-kids account...This is JUST like the paper books I have but it is online.  So, the kids can do it during workstations or at home for homework.  The amazinggggg thing about this is that they listen to the story, read the story outloud, then take a quiz on the story.  If they pass, they move on to the next book, if not (sad day) they read the story again.  AND, the kids earn points for their "spaceship" and once they earn enough, can buy different things to decorate their spaceship.  I know, I'd rather earn a Tory Burch bag or a free dinner, but it doesn't take much to get the little ones excited.

Just wanted to share this idea since it has worked so well in my class!  Congrat, by the way, if you read this entire blog....it was a long one :)  Happy Monday!!

21 comments:

  1. Hi Kaitlyn- I'm your newest follower and I just saw this post and I LOVE the idea of using fun duct tape to keep those reading a-z books together and to make them look more inviting since they are boring black and white. We use both the Reading A-Z books and raz kids online books in my school too and both are perfect for leveled reading! I'm going to go out and find some fun duct tape now...thanks for sharing!
    Aylin
    Learning to the Core

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  2. Hi Kaitlyn, I found you blog through Pinterest. This is a great blog post. Thanks for sharing the way you use the A to Z leveled books. We were just given a subscription and I haven't had a chance to investigate it a lot yet. We were focusing on use them with our RTI students, but I love the idea of putting them out in my classroom library. The duct tape motivation is very creative. Love it! Thanks!
    -Susan Hardin
    3rd Grade Grapevine

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  3. What a fantastic idea!! Thank you so much for sharing! I never thought about just laminating the covers. I really like the duct tape edges. It would protect their fingers from my crazy stapler!

    PS - I have that same space monster duct tape - my kids LOVE it!! :)

    Abby
    Third Grade Bookworm

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  4. What a great idea! I use the A-Z readers as well. These will looks so much cuter than just stapled. I wish I could afford to print them out in color. Hmm may-be a color cover and the rest black and white. Then it would look just like the expensive ones.

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  5. Great idea about the duct tape getting crazier as the kiddos progress thru the levels! Thanks for the inspiration :-)

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  6. Love this idea :)
    I too also wondered where the Hanson duct tape was when I saw they made Bieber duct tape. :D

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  7. You've given me a summer project :) We have a pretty good selection of leveled books (from previous reading series that we no longer use) but I'm definitely looking into this website! And it's exciting to meet another Ms. French who teaches 1st grade!

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  8. I did a trial with reading A-Z and made quite a few books :-) Next year I will splurge and get the year subscription so my kiddos will have access to the read alouds and the quizzes. Thanks for the idea :-) My duct taped books look great.

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  9. I just found your blog thru a post on Polka Dot Palace. She had pinned your idea for Reading A-Z books. Can't wait to try this with my class! We love using Reading A to Z books and razkids too!!

    Carrie
    Table Talk with C & C

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  10. What an amazing idea! Thank you so much, I don't even have my own classroom yet, but will definitely be taking the time to start this project now. I linked your blog to my post at http://teachingwithheartandhumor.blogspot.com/2013/05/reading-z-with-style.html

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  11. I love your "leveling" books by duct tape. So much so, that I went out and bought some duct tape today!! I know what I will be doing this summer!!!
    I have been using Raz-Kids for quite a while. The kids love it! If they have computers at home (most of mine do not) they can continue reading at home AND record their reading on the computer for you to listen to later. My students' reading really improved using Raz-Kids. Well, worth the expense.
    Thanks for the awesome idea.
    Patricia

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  12. Love your idea of the laminating and duct tape. Can't wait to do it. I am teaching summer school right now and will be using A-Z books. I love Raz-Kids. So do the kids.

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  13. I have reading A to Z as well! What is the trick to copying and folding? It has been taking me FOREVER because I have to cut my pages apart.

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    1. You have to print double sided books and switch every other page upside down...it shows you somewhere on the website how to print for each type of book

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  14. Hi Kaitlyn, these books look great, are you still blogging? I found something that you might find useful, I downloaded them on Adobe, then went to view ---- page display ---- then, two-up and printed them double-sided landscape. This way, when I assemble the books, all I have to do is stick the pages together, fold it in half, and staple. No cutting or taping needed. Hope this helps.

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  15. Love your books! One question...do you only laminate the front and back cover?

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  16. Reading A-Z is one of the greatest things ever and I love, love, love, LOVE the duct tape idea! On my list for next year!! Going to print out a bunch of books in the last week of school and spend all summer building my library!!

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  17. Very nice and informative article here. Thanks for the sharing, I also found a useful service for forms filling. I just filled out DS-1950 with an online software. It looked much better typed than hand-written. I used https://goo.gl/yQfVyP and it's very easy to use.

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  18. Did anyone find a way to level your classroom library to reading az? Or did you just use the leveled readers.

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    1. There is a Level Correlation Chart on Reading A-Z's website that will tell you the equivalent levels from several different places such as: Ages, Grade, ATOS, Fountas & Pinnell, Reading Recovery, DRA, PM Readers, and Lexile. Hope this helps!

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