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Book Shopping

By Unknown
During our Readers' Workshop, students read from their Just Right Books.  Our district uses the Fountas and Pinnell leveling system for the books that our students read.  Students are frequently administered running records from The Teacher's College to find out our students' just right levels.  Every week the students shop for books to read.  They should be reading books from their reading level or 1 or 2 levels below.  For example, if the student is reading at a level G, then he/she can read level G books, level F books, or level E books to help build fluency, retelling skills, and inferential thinking.  I usually let them pick 3 - 4 books a week to keep in their book boxes that are at their just right level and 1 book for them to look through (look book) where the words may be too hard, but they could practice looking at the pictures and try to tell a story through the pictures.  I created the book shopping chart to keep us organized and ensure that every student gets to shop for new books every week.  I got the idea from The Teacher's College and modified it slightly to work with the materials I could get my hands on.  The kids love the chart.  Everyday, the "special helper" of the day gets to read the names off the chart.
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