In order to teach reading using a workshop approach, you simply MUST have a classroom library.  Richard Allington recommends at least 500 books, but I think we need even more than that.  If you do not have a well-stocked library, where do you begin acquiring books?  Here are a few suggestions for getting books into your classroom for little or no money:

• Friends of the Library Used Book Sales: Friends of the Library love to give teachers materials for free or at greatly reduced prices.
• Garage sales: Ask if the seller will consider donating unwanted books to your classroom or giving you a discount.
• Bonus Points from Book Orders: As children read more, they purchase more books, contributing more bonus points which can be used to buy more books!
• Ask parents to donate unwanted books. See below for a sample letter.
• Write a grant: Many school districts and community organizations offer grant money for special projects. Take advantage of these opportunities. Check out Donors Choose www.donorschoose.org for grant opportunities.
• Bookstores: Some bookstores will donate damaged books to teachers. Books without covers provide students with a perfect opportunity to show their comprehension of a story by designing their own book covers. Also ask for old book displays and other promotional material.
• Post Offices: Ask your local post office if they will give you any unclaimed magazines.
• Thrift Stores/Salvation Army/Goodwill: These stores will often give teachers materials for free or at greatly reduced prices.
• Local Businesses: Many businesses will donate materials they do not need. Eg: Ask a carpet store for leftover carpet or samples to put into your classroom library.
• Service Organizations (Rotary, Optimists, Lions, American Legion): Some are willing to provide money to purchase books.
• Craig’s List and Ebay:  Especially watch for retiring teacher collections.
• Nonprofit Organizations: A variety of national nonprofit organizations specialize in providing books to teachers and students in need.
  • First Book: www.firstbook.org
  • Wonder of Reading: www.wonderofreading.org
  • BookEnds: www.bookends.org
  • Reading is Fundamental: www.rif.org
  • Rolling Readers: www.rollingreaders.org
  • Reading Recycling Projects: Nonprofit organization distributes new and used books free of charge (recipients pay shipping and handling). 
    http://www.colorcodedbooks.org/lef/readingrecycling.htm

Danny Brassell, author of Readers for Life says there are just 2 rules for acquiring books: 

1) Ask for donations. 
2) Send a class thank you note.

The class thank you note goes a long way.  Often those who have donated will continue to donate to your cause in the future when they run across more books.

This year I have adopted a 4th grade class to pilot Lucy Calkins’ new Units of Study for Teaching Reading. 

The teacher I am co-teaching with has a decent classroom library, but in my opinion, you can never have enough books!  So we decided to solicit her students’ parents for help in acquiring more books.  We sent home a book donation request to parents (download below).

Shortly after sending home the letter, she received the most unexpected response  from one parent in the form of this e-mail: 

“Please provide me a list of books that you would love to have.  I have a certain amount of money that I try to donate each year to charities, and those charities which benefit a family member are best.  Education is definitely important to me so your cause is a worthy one that not only benefits my children, but the potential for 100’s of children. Don’t be shy putting the list together.  If you don’t ask, you will never receive.”

Incredible!  I guess Danny Brassell was right—we need to ask.  Of course, most of us will never receive such a generous offer, but if we don’t ask, we won’t receive any at all.

Do you have any creative ways of acquiring books for your classroom?  I invite you to share them here.

This morning I shared with a group of 4th grade readers that when I read a good book, the very first thing I want to do is tell someone about it.  Well, I just finished reading the most amazing book and I just HAVE to share it with you.  It’s called The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child by Donalyn Miller.

It is sort of a professional book, but it reads more like a fast-moving novel. It’s written by a sixth grade teacher from Texas, but it’s applicable for teachers of all grade levels.  As I read this book, I felt as though I were reading my own life story as a reading teacher.  I could have written almost every word (except not nearly as well as Donalyn).  Some of you may recall my blog posts called Breaking the Cycle and Breaking the Cycle Part II in which I shared my frustration with the way I was teaching reading.  Donalyn had a similar experience when she began her teaching career.  In this book she shares her journey as a reading teacher.  She takes you inside her classroom as she describes how she turns virtually every student she meets into a reader who reads an average of 40 books during their year with her, who passes the state reading exam, AND becomes a lifelong reader.  Be prepared to be totally inspired and maybe even shed a few tears.  It’s the only “professional book” that has ever had this effect on me.  Once you read it, I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

This week I had the opportunity to spend a whole day listening to Lucy Calkins talk about the teaching of reading.  It was such a rich day that I left with 11 pages of handwritten notes and a mind full of even more thoughts and ideas.  I often say that if I get one great idea at a workshop, it is worth attending.  This day left me with too many ideas to count.  I wanted to try to convey some of them to you, but as I look over my notes, I don’t even know where to start.  So I am going to just pick one thing to share today and save the others for some future blog posts.

Partway through the day Lucy asked if there was an accomplished musician and an accomplished athlete in the room of several hundred people.  Two male teachers came forward and Lucy proceeded to interview them.  She asked questions such as, “How did you get good at your music/sport?”  “Who helped you get good?”  “Did anyone ever give you feedback?”  “What did you do after you were given feedback?”  “What kind of feedback helped you get better?”  What came through loud and clear during the interviews was that both the musician and the athlete spent incredible amounts of time practicing and that they received specific, targeted feedback from an expert (music teacher/coach) about their performance. After receiving this feedback, they went back and practiced some more.

The point was that we don’t get good at something without spending time on it.  Reading is no different from any other skill—if children are to become expert readers, they need to spend large quantities of time reading, and they need specific, targeted feedback from their teachers.  There is nothing we can do from the front of the room that can ever take the place of time spent reading.  Lucy said that children should be spending at least 90 minutes of their school day reading.  This 90-minute recommendation is for time spent actually reading, however—not on reading-related activities.  In her book A Guide to the Reading Workshop, she writes, “the single most important thing we can do to turn schools around, making them into places where youngsters thrive as readers, is to clear out the time and space so that children can learn to read by reading.”  Richard Allington warns that we need to be careful that we aren’t replacing real reading with what he calls “crap.”  He says, “Crap is the technical term reserved for all the non-reading and non-writing activities that fill kids’ days—the dittos, dioramas, papier-mache maps…all that chases real reading and real writing out of the school day.”  In addition to the 90-minute in-school reading, children should spend additional time reading for pleasure at home daily.

Are you not yet convinced that kids need to spend this much time just reading?  Let me share some statistics with you.  Here is a table that shows the results of a study which examined how amount of reading affected achievement scores of fifth-graders:

Reading Volume of Fifth-Grade Students
of Different Levels of Achievement

Source:  Anderson, R.C., P. Wilson, and L. Fielding. 1988. “Growth in Reading and How Children Spend Their Time Outside of School.” Reading Research Quarterly. 23 (3), 285-303.

Clearly, children who read more attain higher levels of achievement in reading.

In my past two blog posts, I have mentioned Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study for Teaching Reading.  This is a brand new yearlong curriculum for grades 3-5.  Yesterday I received an e-mail from a reader asking if there is anything for the primary grades.  I haven’t heard yet if the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project is working on publishing units of study for K-2, but I hope so!  Until they do, however, there are some wonderful materials that primary teachers can use to help them set up and implement a very effective reading workshop. 

Many teachers are familiar with Debbie Miller’s book Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades.  It is most known for its lessons on the comprehension strategies, but it also includes a good overview of what reading workshop looks like in the younger grades.  Another book that I highly recommend is Kathy Collins’ Growing Readers: Units of Study in the Primary Classroom. This book not only gives a general overview of reading workshop, but it also provide five actual units of study to get you started.  From there you can go on to develop additional units for your students.  Collins has another book called Reading for Real: Teaching Children to Read with Power, Intention, and Joy in K-3 Classrooms.  This book focuses on using book clubs in a primary reading workshop.  I have not read this one yet, but it looks very good.

Another resource that I recommend to all grade level teachers is this website: http://www.wrsd.net/literacy/.  You can spend hours at this site.  It includes units of study, minilessons, templates, curriculum maps, and more for literacy teachers of grades K and up.  Check it out and let me know what you think!

Status of the class is a technique that I borrowed from Nancie Atwell.  When I first read about this technique in her book In the Middle, I wasn’t convinced that it was one I wanted to adopt.  But after trying the technique for just one week, I realized how much valuable assessment information it allowed me to gather.  Here is how status of the class works:

1.  Photocopy the status of the class form.   
    

2.  Record each student’s name on the form, duplicate multiple copies, and place on a clipboard or in a 3-ring binder.  Click to enlarge pictures.

I keep mine in my assessment notebook.

3.  At the beginning of Reading Workshop I have all of my students assembled in front of me for a a whole group minilesson.  At the end of the minilesson my students begin reading their independent reading books while I begin taking the status.  I begin by asking who is writing in their response log today, dismiss those students first, and record “RL” by their names. Then I begin at the top of the list, quietly saying the student’s name…“Caitlyn”.  Caitlyn quietly states the title of the book she is reading and the page number she is on.  She then gets up and finds a reading spot somewhere in the classroom.  I continue downthe list until I have checked the status of each student.  The next day I start with the second student on the list, rotating down each day.

4.  Once I have taken the status for all students, I begin conducting individual reading conferences. 

What I Have Noticed About Using Status of the Class

I cannot meet with every students every day or even every week, but by taking a “status of the class” each day at the beginning of reading workshop, it is as if I am having a mini “touch base” conference with every child every day.  Through this five-minute activity, I am able to gather valuable information including:  who is finishing and abandoning books, patterns in readers’ book preferences, who needs help selecting  “just right” books, who is forgetting their reading folder at home, and much more.  I highly recommend using this technique!

At the end of each grading period I ask students to reflect on their own reading and self-evaluate. This self-evaluation is then added to their portfolios.

Click on picture to enlarge. Download Reading Self-Evaluations

These reflections are used to help students set personal reading goals for the following grading period.  See Goal Setting Ideas.

It is just as important for students to recommend books to their peers as it as for teachers to recommend books. Book chats are not oral book reports.  Rather, they have the feel of a book commercial.  I have found student-led book chats to be the perfect vehicle for students to “sell” books to their peers. The book chats consist of a brief oral presentation in which the presenter tells the title, author, and genre of the book, gives a brief summary without spoiling the ending, includes some personal response to the book, and makes a recommendation about who should read this book.  Students also have the option of creating a visual aid to accompany the oral presentation.

1. I introduce the book chats by showing some “book commercial” clips from Reading Rainbow (the last few minutes of each show).
2. Next I post a calendar of available book chat slots–I like to do 3 per week.  Students sign up for a date, but they do not need to indicate the title of the book yet.
3. A week before their assigned book chats, students take home the following packet to help them prepare:             Included in the packet is a list of suggestions for performing a satisfactory book chat, a booklet of directions for creating an optional book chat project to accompany the oral presentation, and a video/DVD of some Reading Rainbow book commercials.
   

   Download Book Chat forms

4. The book chat project directions are ideas I pulled from these two sources:
   

   I photocopied about 20 projects, laminated them, and bound them into a booklet.

5. Students prepare for their book chats at home.  This includes practicing the oral presentation and creating the project (if they choose to do one). They may present a book chat on a book they have just finished reading, one they read earlier in the year, or even a book their parents have read aloud to them.  The main criteria is that it must be a book they love!
6. On the student’s assigned presentation day, he sits in the reading rocking chair and presents the book commercial to his classmates who are gathered around on the floor.  Click on the video below to see a sample book chat.
   
7. After the student present his book chat, classmates respond with feedback.  We call it “warm feedback” and “cool feedback”.  Warm feedback is positive comments and cool feedback is constructive criticism that is worded in a positive way.  I post the following chart on the wall to scaffold students’ feedback and prevent comments such as “I liked your book chat because it was good.”  Usually, at least one student will respond with “Can I read that book next?” or “Where did you get that book?”  That is the exact response that the book chats are meant to provoke!  I want reading to become contagious in my classroom.

   

   Download Feedback

8. While the student is presenting his book chat, I record comments and observations in my assessment notebook.

   

   Reading Assessment Form
9. After the student presents his book chat and receives feedback, he completes a self-evaluation on this Book Chat Rubric and then places it on my desk for me to evaluate.

Where do you begin if you lack enough books to organize a classroom library?  There are many creative ways to acquire more books at reasonable prices and often even for free.  Here are a few to get you started:

Write a grant: Many school districts and community organizations offer grant money for special projects.  Take advantage of these opportunities. Check out Donors Choose, a United States based nonprofit organization that provides a way for people to donate directly to specific projects at public schools (sometimes known as peer-to-peer philanthropy).

Friends of the Library Used Book Sales: Friends of the Library love to give teacher materials for free or at greatly reduced prices.

Garage sales: Ask if the seller will consider donating unwanted books to your classroom or giving you a discount.

Bonus Points from Book Orders: As children read more, they purchase more books, contributing more bonus points which can be used to buy more books!

Ask parents to donate unwanted books.

Bookstores: Some bookstores will donate damaged books to teachers.  Books without covers provide students with a perfect opportunity to show their comprehension of a story by designing their own book covers.  Also ask for old book displays and other promotional material.

Post Offices: Ask your local post office if they will give you any unclaimed magazines.

Thrift Stores/Salvation Army/Goodwill: These stores will often give teachers materials for free or at greatly reduced prices.

Local Businesses: Many businesses will donate materials they do not need.  Eg:  Ask a carpet store for leftover carpet or samples to put into your classroom library.

Service Organizations (Rotary, Optimists, Lions, American Legion):  Some are willing to provide money to purchase books.

Nonprofit Organizations: A variety of national nonprofits organization specialize in providing books to teachers and students in need.

• First Book
• Wonder of Reading
• Bookends
• Reading is Fundamental
• Rolling Readers
• Reading Recycling Projects: Nonprofit organization distributes new and used books free of charge (recipients pay shipping and handling).

Two basic rules in acquiring books for your classroom:

• Ask for donations.
• Send a class thank you note with a photo of your class.

At the end of each grading period, I ask students to select 2 reading goals for the following grading period.  As part of a whole class mini-lesson, we brainstorm ideas for possible goals. After they have written their goals,  I meet with each child during an individual conference to review goals and check for appropriateness. I reserve the option to add a third goal if I see fit.

See Reading Folders to download forms

The following are some possible goals which students may set on their own or with teacher guidance:

• Read ___ fictional books.
• Read at least ___ nonfiction books.
• Finish at least ___ books.
• Return all borrowed books.
• Meet the minimum requirements for weekly reading at home .
• Try to abandon no more than ___ books this grading period.
• Pick out all “just right” books this grading period.
• Enter all books read on the weekly reading log.
• Remember to bring book to class each day.
• Increase weekly home reading to ___ minutes ___ nights a week.
• Try reading a new genre (name the genre).
• Try a new author.
• Remember to write in response log each week.
• Reread response log letters from the teacher before beginning to write a new letter.
• Answer the teacher’s questions in response log letters.
• Write more personal response instead of just summaries.
• Use correct letter writing format in response log.

I have found that using reading folders helps with the management aspects of reading workshop.  I purchase 2-pocket folders with grommets from Target or Wal Mart when they sell for a few pennies during the summer.  I color-code my folders for various subjects.  We use red for our reading folders. The following are the contents included in my reading folders:  

Reading Goals and Goal-Setting Ideas

Click to enlarge.

Rules for Reading Workshop

I introduce the rules for reading workshop during procedural mini-lessons during the launching unit of my reading workshop.

Reading Log

I photocopy one of these for each week of the school year.  Students record titles they read both at school and at home in the appropriate box–"S" for school "H" for home.  Students highlight complete books.

Books I Want to Read

I encourage students to always be on the lookout for books they want to read in the future.  If a book from one of my book talks or a student-led book chat piques their interests, they record the title on this form in their reading folders.

Genre List

Throughout the year I introduce various genres through our read-alouds, and we study the characteristics of each genre.  I expect my students to expand their reading diets throughout the year and read from a variety of genres during their independent reading as well.  They use this list of genre abbreviations when they record the books they have read on their daily reading logs.