Professional Reading

At our conference with Linda Dorn, she gave us TONS of ideas for professional reading.  Here is your one-stop shop for many of her recommendations. 

Writing to Read

Steve Graham and Michael Hebert

 

 

Text Complexity:  Raising Rigor in Reading

Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, Diane Lapp

 

The Common Core Lesson Book K-5

Gretchen Owocki

 

 

The Vocabulary Book

Michael Graves

 

And, of course, Dorn has written many of her own wonderful professional books.  Here are a couple that would be good to add to your professional library:

 

 

 

 

 

HAPPY READING! :-)

 

 

 

 



Classroom Library Organization

Perhaps the most important part of your reading curriculum is your classroom library! During Linda Dorn's conference in Little Rock, she shared characteristics of an effective classroom library:

* Goal: 300-600 books

* Minimum of 20 books per student

* Wide range of reading difficulty

* Variety of genres

* Variety of interests

* Books with appealing covers (yes, I know...no judging...but they do!)

 

Organizing your classroom library may take some trial and error.  Simply Google or search classroom library on Pinterest and you can spend hours (or, even days!) viewing beautifully decorated and organized classroom libraries.  It can get overwhelming!  The ultimate goal, however, is to make your classroom library inviting and important to students.

 

When you step into your favorite bookstore, how is it organized?  It's not by level...it's categorized in sections based on interest and genre.  Linda Dorn suggested allowing students to classify books and create "sections" for your classroom library at the beginning of the school year.

 

Here are some links (click on the pics) to a few examples of great classroom organization and management:

 



 

 

 

 

This is the link to how one teacher uses an app to organize and maintain her classroom library.

 

 

HAPPY ORGANIZING! :-)





Reading Response Notebooks

Today's Pinterest Picks of the Day include some great examples of reading response notebooks.

 

Please note:  There is no "canned" program that is going to work for your classroom.  Each group of students is different.  Find something that works well for your classroom!  Take a little of this, a little of that, and keep student needs at the center of your focus.

 

Here is an elementary reading response notebook example (click on the pic to go to the website):

 

Using the prompts can really be helpful in keeping those younger kiddos focused!

 

Now, even though this next example is from a junior high classroom, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this site!  It has fantastic information that ANYONE can use.  He discusses his use of mentor texts, vocabulary instruction, mini-lessons...you name it!  It's definitely worth checking out... 

 

 

Some example tabs that Dorn suggested for using in a reading response notebook were:  My Thinking, Author's Craft, Text Structures, and My Strategies.  Again, find what works for you!



Teaching Resources from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock

We were able to spend two weeks in Little Rock with Linda Dorn.  What an amazing opportunity!  During the conferences, Linda shares TONS of resources that can be found on the UALR website.  Put this one on your bookmarks page! :-)

UALR Teaching Resources