Will You Take the 40 Book Challenge?

I love to read. Always have. I remember bringing a book with me everywhere I went when I was a kid. Of course, I don't seem to have as much time now that I'm an adult swamped with responsibilities, but I still make time to read for pleasure mostly every day. For the past couple of years, I have taken on the 50 Book Challenge, which is a group of people across the world whose goal it is to read 50 books within the year. Of course, you can set your own individual goals as well (read more non-fiction, only read books that are more than 200 pages, etc). For me, I don't include books I read to or with my students in my personal 50 Book Challenge. Nor do I include short books (under 100 pages) or rereads (I don't do much rereading anyway - I like new reading material!). However, I do include professional reading, as I do read many books related to teaching. As of today, I am on book #36, and I have no doubt that I will achieve my 50 book goal by the end of the 2011.

Now, on to the 40 Book Challenge, which I am planning to introduce to my students next week: The goal of the 40 Book Challenge for young readers is to get students to leave their reading comfort zone and explore new reading genres. Ultimately, I would love to see my students' love of reading flourish, as well as for students to make big academic gains in reading. Let's face it, the best way to become a better reader is to read VORACIOUSLY. And the 40 Book Challenge helps with this!

Although 40 books sounds like a lot, students will only have to average one book a week. This can be accomplished by reading during our independent reading time at school and spending at least 30 minutes reading daily at home. Some books, like shorter non-fiction books, can be read possibly in a day or two. Some books will obviously take longer to finish. By making the right books choices, I am confident that all students will be able to achieve the goal of reading 40 "just right" books in third grade this year.

We will be keeping track of our books on a display in our classroom. Every time a student starts a new book, he or she will record the date, title, and genre on an index card and attach the index card onto their colored paper. Once the student completes the book, he or she will write the date finished on the index card, take it off the display, and add the index card to a little O Ring, which will be hanging on hooks in the classroom.

Here's where things get a little more interesting: in order to expand my students' reading worlds, I will be expecting them to read  a variety of genres, specifically 5 realistic fiction books, 5 informational books, 5 fantasies, 5 mysteries, 4 biographies or autobiographies, 2 historical fiction books, 2 science fiction books, 2 poetry books, and then 10 books of their choice. I will be doing a lot of book talks this year in order to expose my students to new books and genres, so that they can then check out the ones that pique their interest.

Books must be on students' "just right" reading levels in order to qualify, and books over 300 pages will count as two books from that particular genre. Students must have their independent reading books at school every day. We go to the media center to check out books every two weeks, and my classroom library is chock-full of great books available for check out, too:

I can't wait to begin this challenge with my students! Now, get ready...get set...READ!!!


   

The Daily 5(ish)

Last year, I read a great little book called The Daily Five by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. The authors advocate using five stations that students should rotate through every day, as opposed to teacher-created centers, which are often very time-consuming to make and manage. These are the five stations:

1. Listen to Reading
2. Read to Self
3. Read to Someone
4. Word Work
5. Work on Writing

I am planning to take some of the ideas I gathered from the book to use in a way that would best benefit my students within the confines of my schedule. Here's what I'm thinking reader's workshop might look like, while incorporating the Daily 5:

First, I will conduct a shared reading mini-lesson, during which I will teach a strategy or skill that the whole class needs to learn. Next, we'll move into our three "rounds" of stations, each of which will last about 15 minutes. While students are in their assigned station (yes, I will assign stations, even though the authors suggest letting the kids choose - they get to make plenty of choices throughout the day, and things will be much better managed if I assign the stations!), I will be working with guided reading groups at my small group table. Here's what my rotation is going to look like (in my head, it all works out!), with 4-6 students in each group. Remember, I will also be plucking students from their station rotation to do guided reading with me:

Round 1 - A: Word Work (Mountain Language, spelling, vocabulary, etc)
                 B: Listen to Reading  (Tumblebooks on the computer)  
                 C: Work on Writing (cursive, journaling, reading responses)

Round 2 - A: Work on Writing
                 B: Word Work
                 C: Listen to Reading

Round 3 - A: Listen to Reading
                 B: Work on Writing
                 C: Word Work

After the third round, we will do a whole-class share to reflect on the day's learning during reader's workshop. Now, one of the stations in The Daily 5, Read to Self, takes priority above the other stations. Because of this, I did not want to include it in the 15 minute station rotations. Instead, I am devoting a 30 minute period outside the daily 5 time/guided reading time for students to independently read. While they are reading, I will be conducting independent reading conferences, ideally conferring one-on-one with each student once every week to two weeks.

We'll see how my plan works out in terms of practicality! I am always open to tweaking as I go to make things run smoothly.