How to Use a Leveled Set of Books
A collection of leveled books consists of books that are organized by their level of reading difficulty. Most leveled book sets utilize a lettering system, with "A" books being the easiest, and "Z" books being the most difficult. Through observation of children reading orally, and through standardized reading assessments, teachers ascertain the level at which an individual student is reading. Leveled books are primarily useful for two aspects of reading instruction: independent reading and small group guided reading. Once a teacher determines the level at which a student is reading, he can design instruction to meet that student's needs, and guide students to appropriate reading materials.
Instructions
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Independent Reading
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Organize your leveled books into bins that are at student height. Label each bin with the reading level letter. Early childhood teachers should consider labeling their book bins with pictures as well as letters.
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Assess students and determine what reading level they are. Your school district may have standardized reading assessments, or you can design your own. Assign each student his or her reading level.
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Prepare and teach a lesson on how to use the book bins. Model for students how to select the correct book level, and how to return books to the proper bin.
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Plan a short amount of time each day for students to engage in independent reading. Provide high interest leveled readers in many different genres, to help build students' skills across different types of literature.
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Reassess students throughout the year to see if their reading level has changed. Students who are incorrectly assigned to a higher reading level may become frustrated, and students who are reading material that is too easy for them may become bored.
Planning for Small Group Guided Reading
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Collect multiple copies of books at each leveled book level. Many schools have resource or book rooms that contain multiple copies of leveled books.
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Assign students to groups with other students of the same reading level. Your groups might include some with students who are reading at slightly higher or lower reading levels than other students, but there should not be a large discrepancy in reading levels.
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Establish a schedule for guided reading groups. Consider working with groups with lower level readers more often than groups with higher readers.
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Plan activities for other groups to work on while you will be working with a guided reading group. Independent center activities are great, and groups of students can rotate through centers on a daily basis. You can also create differentiated activities based on the needs of student groups -- students with higher reading levels can be given enrichment activities.
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Create an assessment to be used with each text that will be used in a guided reading group. Try to vary assessment formats to encompass students' differing assessment needs, strengths and weaknesses.
Conducting a Small Group Guided Reading Lesson
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Give each student a copy of the book. Read the title together, and make predictions about the story. You can also take a "picture walk" through a story in primary grades, looking at all the pictures in the book and making predictions afterwards.
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Read the book aloud, with students taking turns reading. Focus on improving students' word recognition and fluency. This is a good time to work on decoding skills and phonics.
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Complete a comprehension activity as a group. This can include creating a graphic organizer, completing a worksheet, or writing a summary.
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Read the story aloud again. This time, have students focus on reading with expression and understanding the elements of the story, such as plot, setting and characters.
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Administer the student assessment you created. Make sure that your assessment includes items that assess students' comprehension of the story.
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Tips & Warnings
If your school does not have formal reading assessments, a quick way to determine a child's reading level is the "five finger test." Have students read a page of a book. If a student makes five or more errors while reading, the book is too difficult.
Consider appointing a weekly class librarian to help keep leveled books organized into their proper bins.
References
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