Book Shopping for Read-to-Self {Daily 5}

Happy Weekend!

I hope life in your neck of the woods is as good as it is in mine!  

We are currently working on building our reading stamina for read-to-self and have read for an outstanding 17 minutes!  {15 minutes was our BIG goal}

We like to set small goals for ourselves in Room 8.  One goal was to read for 10 minutes straight and they did it.  Their reward?  First, to feel really good about themselves as readers and second, BOOK NOOKS!  

We talked about where we like to read when we were at home.  Many of our favorite reading spots were in bed, on the couch, in a big chair, under a blanket - lots of cozy places.  So it just makes sense to try and replicate that my classroom.

Since we are reading all over the room it's important to have easy access to our books so that we can spend time reading not getting books.  In our classroom we keep our books in personal "book shelves".  Before we head off to our book nooks we grab our bookshelves and get started right away.

Each Friday we go "book shopping" so that our bookshelves are ready to go each Monday {We do Daily 4 Monday-Thursday and read-to-someone on Fridays; along with our book shopping}.  I've used this system for years and it works perfectly for me.

I've had some teachers ask what book shopping looks like in my classroom so I thought I'd take a minute to share that process.  I introduced it a couple of weeks ago and it's already going  WONDERFULLY!

I know that the whole idea of students finding just right books can be a hot topic but I feel pretty comfortable with how I approach this.  We talk about I-PICK before our first experience with book shopping.  I found a great anchor chart that I love to share with my students {here}.  After I feel like I've adequately modeled how to LOOK for books rather than just grabbing books -  I move on to the logistics of book shopping.

I have a certain area in my classroom that has my leveled books in it {it's the only part of my classroom library that is leveled - the rest of my library is organized by genre, author, theme, etc.}. Each basket is organized by Fountas and Pinell levels as well as reading recovery. Our lending library that we use for guided reading groups uses both levels on many books so I do too.

Each student in my class is assigned a number.  They use this number for everything: mailboxes, lining up, clip chart, etc.  They also have a numbered "book shelf" where they house a whisper phone, pencil, reading folder, handwriting workbook, writing journal, headphones and the books they read for read-to-self.

Here is our leveled library...

I have found each child instructional reading level and give them their "magic number/letter" which is two levels below their instructional level.  This ensures that they'll know 99 if not 100 percent of the words in the books they read during read-to-self.

Once everybody knows their magic number/letter, have their personal bookshelf and have learned about I-PICK - I talk with them about how book shopping looks.  Of course you have to do the whole incorrect/correct model.

Sometimes this process takes a couple of days sometimes it takes a week - it totally depends on the class.  Once all of the pieces are in place it's time to put it all together.

Here's what I do...

*I call one table at a time to get their bookshelf and bring it back to their table spot

*They pull out their five bookshelf books from the week and put them in a pile in front of them

*I pull the two baskets for each level {one at a time} and set them somewhere randomly in our room

*The students who shop from that basket carry their five books over and place them back in the basket

*They go back at get their bookshelf and bring it over to their leveled bins

*They use IPICK to choose 5 new books for the following week

*As they are shopping, I'm quietly saying reminders "I'm taking a picture walk, not reading", "I'm looking to see if I'm interested in this story", "I'm choosing books I think I will comprehend", etc.

{I also have my I-Pick poster up on the SmartBoard}

*After they have chosen their five books, they put their bookshelf back on the counter and find something smart/quiet to do at their tables - waiting for everyone to finish

Eventually, we'll talk about finding good fit books using the "five finger rule". I know that books are not always leveled {library, bookstore, etc.} so I do want my kiddos to have the opportunity to choose books that are at their reading level - so I will soon have them choose two "dessert books" from our un-leveled portion of our class library.  

I pinned a helpful {and cute} Five Finger Rule poster on my Daily 5 Pinterest Board

I've heard that book shopping can be chaotic and overwhelming for some teachers.  I hope this post helped - just keep in mind that how I do it may not work for you. Sometimes it's all trial and error and eventually you find what works.  Good luck and HAPPY SHOPPING!