Unit of Study: How Does a Good Reader Select a Book?

Unit of Study: How does a good reader select a book?

Lyon Terry
2nd Grade Teacher Lawton Elementary
lyterry@seattleschools.org

2nd Grade Lesson Progression to introduce a classroom leveled library and “Just Right” Books. This is by no means an all-inclusive set of lessons, but it will get kids to understand how to use a classroom leveled library.

Throughout all of these lessons I am furiously trying to conference with individual kids to get them into a level that is just right for them.

Mini-Lesson 1: Tour of the classroom library.
Take students on a tour of the class library. Show them how each shelf is organized and how in each basket is a certain type of book with a level on the inside front cover. Also, next to each leveled basket is a theme or series basket that also has books on that level.

Model directly how to choose a book, place it in a book bag to take home, and how to return a book to the classroom library. Model how to use the “Oops I forgot where this book goes” basket along with an explanation of where to find a bookmark.

For now they can choose any book they are interested in, but tell them that eventually they will be assigned a level to read from, but that they will definitely have a chance to read all of the books as they become better readers throughout the year.

Mini-Lesson 2: Reading Lines and reading conferences
Introduce the concept that all readers including the teacher are somewhere on a learning line in reading. An infant has very little concept of reading. A teacher is an excellent reader, but there are some books that s/he cannot read either. Everybody’s goal as a reader is to get to be a better reader by moving up the learning line.
To help each student move up the learning line the teacher will conduct individual reading conferences with each student to see what level of books will be best help each student move up the learning line. These books will be your just right books. Show the students a conference...