
Books Inc, in Town & Country Village
Kepler’s Books, 1010 El Camino Real
With only 9 days of school left, we’re in the midst of making plans for summer reading!
Today, I invited my fifth graders to recommend a book to others in class for potential summer reading. They were so excited as they raced through the classroom library to find loved books that they had read previously at some point during their fifth grade year.
While I sat at the front of the room in our meeting area, my students started to stack their recommended books next to the read aloud that we just finished as a class (if you haven’t yet read The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary yet, you must do it soon!).
With nine days remaining, read aloud will be a little different- either I or one of my students will give a book introduction and read the first few pages aloud to the class. Today, we enjoyed the first few pages of The Categorical Universe of Candice Phee, Book one in Keeper of the Lost Cities, and Book one in The Series of Unfortunate Events.
As the pages were read aloud, I heard whispers of, “Oh, I have to read this one!” and “I’m adding this to my list!”
I’m looking forward to continuing our summer reading planning over our final days of fifth grade! This coming Wednesday, I’m going to share my parent summer reading letter and more details about our summer reading planning.
Happy reading, friends!
Christina
I’d venture to guess that no reader ever was excited to jump out of bed after reading to fill in their assigned reading log. I’d also venture to guess that many readers have unhappily left the comfort of their beds to do so. I, for one, would not leap out of the warmth of my bed after finishing a chapter or two to fill out a piece of paper just to prove to someone else that I had, in fact, read the night before!
Rather than requiring students to fill out an at-home reading log to only prove they have read, my fifth graders reflect on their choices as readers by maintaining a personal bookshelf. I first saw this idea when visiting one of my colleague’s classrooms (thank you, Jenna Segall!). The personal bookshelf is a visual representation of books read, books to read, books currently reading, and even books abandoned. Readers may choose to include any book read at home, independently at school, in book clubs, and even class read alouds. They are welcome to add picture books, novels, fiction, nonfiction, magazines- you name it! Once or twice a week, I remind my readers to take a few moments to update their shelves. Some need the reminder while others don’t. It is up to each reader to organize and maintain their shelves in the way they they see fit. Just as the name states, these shelves are personal. The purpose is for each student to reflect on their own reading preferences- to truly learn more about themselves as readers. I do not check their book shelves for completion, rather I confer with each of my readers around their choices and goals.
Steps to Creating and Maintaining a Visual Personal Bookshelf
Now that our school year is coming to a close, each of my fifth graders have a record of what they have read and want to read. Today and tomorrow in class, we’ll be using our personal bookshelves to reflect on our school year as readers and to make summer reading plans.
I am so excited to see how each of my readers choose to continue their journey with books!
Happy Reading Friends,
Christina
Related
Why I Ditched the At-Home Reading Log
My first book for teachers, To Know and Nurture a Reader: Conferring with Confidence and Joy, cowritten with Kari Yates, is now out and available from Stenhouse Publishers. Our goal with this book was to help teachers make the important practice of conferring with readers manageable, effective, and fun!
Welcome to my blog’s new home: Christina Nosek Literacy! A few weeks ago, I decided to retire my beloved blog of six years, The Teacher Triathlete. It was a great run, but now it’s time to move forward. Archived posts from The Teacher Triathlete in addition to some of my other writing is being added to the Literacy Archives. You can follow the blog by using the button on the sidebar to the left.
I’m so excited about what’s to come! Thanks for joining me on this journey of empowering all kids through literacy!
-Christina