Leveled Books in First Grade
Personalized Book Bins Increase Independence in Young Readers (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 1: Beginning LiteracyStage 2: Consolidation / Fluency
Ages:
5-8
Grade Range:
K 1st 2ndFood Groups:
Primary: Classroom Tips, Motivation for Literacy Secondary: Reading Fluency & Expression, Reading Comprehension Strategies
Transcript
I created this section here of leveled books. I have books that go from A-Z. They are leveled books and students know their levels. I assess them and tell them your level is A, or B, or C, or E, or whatever level it is. So they get a card like this with their name, and then they start collecting stickers and every sticker is a level. Throughout the year, they start moving on and moving on. When they get to the end of the First Grade, they are expected to be around this area here. The idea with this is that they don't need the teacher to tell them, what am I going to read today? They come over here. They get their book holders from the bottom, which contain books that are at their level. They choose that once a week, put them there, and when it's time to do read to self, they come and get their book holders, go to their desk or whatever part of the classroom they want to sit to read. They don't need to move around to look for more books because they already have five books there that are at their level. Every student has their own book holder. For example, this student, on Mondays, because that's her color, she gets to come and exchange books. She's a level H, so all those books are marked. From here, she chooses the books that she wants to read and she puts them here in her book holder. I think one of the most important things about this system is that it allows students to be independent and to avoid spending so much time trying to decide which books to read. Because they might understand very well what a Good Fit book is, but if the books are everywhere in the classroom or in different bins, they will spend time just trying to find a Good Fit book. That will take them a lot of time. When I say it's time to tidy up, they never got to read anything because they spend all the time trying to do what they thought was a good thing, which is trying to find a Good Fit book. In this case, it's just saving time. They just get to their bins, sit down and the most important thing is they don't need the teacher to tell them what book to read that day.
Related References
Additional Links:
Guided and Independent Reading: Browsing Bins: /Recipe/50195/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR3NrCo1Ur8
Activity Objective
The goal of Leveled Books in First Grade: Personalized Book Bins Increase Independence in Young Readers (Virtual Tour) is to provide students with books that are organized by level, as well as a well-designed system for exchanging those books. This allows students to be independent and helps them get to reading faster as it's much easier to find a good fit book.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- A well-organized leveling system increases student independence and frees up a teacher's time for teaching or targeted support. - Organizing and implementing a leveled book system initially involves a lot of teacher time, but after the students have been taught how the system works and understand the book exchange routine, the system saves a lot of teacher time and it also considerably increases the amount of on-task reading time students have in class.
Other Recipes by this Teacher
What are We Doing in Class Today?: Motivating Beginning Readers with a Daily Schedule (Virtual Tour)
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Literacy CAFE in First Grade: Fostering Independence using a Menu of Strategies (Virtual Tour)
1st - 3rd
The Daily 5 in First Grade: Engaging Students with a Balanced Literacy Approach (Virtual Tour)
1st - 3rd
Predicting and Inferring: Scaffolding Comprehension Strategies using an Explicit Framework (Virtual Tour)
1st - 3rd
Revising and Editing in First Grade: Using Success Criteria to Focus the Writing Process (Virtual Tour)
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