Guided Reading Texts

Today, for my fourth post in my guided reading series, I will share some places you can go to locate multiple copies of high-interest leveled texts to use for guided reading. Let’s get started!

1. Work with your school and public library to gather multiple copies.

I live in a different city than I teach, and I take advantage of both libraries. The public library of the school that I teach offers opportunities for teachers to work with the librarians to find multiple copies of books. You can also work with your school librarian, who can help you find copies of books from other school libraries in your district.

2. Get Epic

Have you heard of this awesome website? Oh my, this is one of my (and my students’) ABSOLUTE favorite! the official website is: www.getepic.com/educators

Teachers can sign up for FREE and enter their class list. You will then get a “class code” which your students will use every time they log into the website.

During my reading workshop block, every student reads independently for about 30 minutes. During this time, my only stipulation is that my students are reading. Real reading. They can check out books to read from my classroom library, the school library, or get their Chromebook on log on Get Epic.

To be honest, when given a choice, students choose their Chromebook. And I am ok with that. Students can choose to listen to audiobooks, which is a wonderful option for some books on the website. Every Friday, I allow my students to watch the videos on Get Epic and oh my, do they LOVE them!

To use with guided reading groups, simply have all students log in and then choose the book you are teaching a strategy/skill about.

3.Ebay.

If you type in the phrases “Guided reading sets” or “Level D readers,” you will see a plethora of choices come up. Below is a screenshot that I took from searching Guided Reading Leveled Texts in Ebay.

4.Amazon

I use Amazon for everything. Class sets of books are no exception! When searching for multiple copies of Charlotte’s Web, Amazon is selling 24 used copies from $1.61. That is a pretty good price!

5. Garage Sales/Library Used Book Sales

There have been times when I felt like I won the lottery by finding multiple copies of favorite books at neighborhood garage sales. When I first started teaching, I would go to garage sales in route to my tutoring sessions and although they can be hit or miss, I definitely would recommend this a way to gather quality texts.

6.Volunteer to Pilot any Reading Series

I had the opportunity to pilot many reading series (Benchmark Literacy, Treasures, Lucy Calkins…the list goes on!) simply by volunteering my time to be on my district’s reading committee. By piloting the Treasures series (many years ago!), I not only got my own set of guided reading leveled texts as part of the pilot, but then I also got another set of books when my district adopted the program.

Below is a picture that I posted on Instagram. I (happily!!) volunteered to pilot Lucy Calkins reading series!!!

7. Coworkers

Work with other teachers at your grade level to gather multiple copies of books that you read with your students. My third grade team has class sets of many books that correlate to our social studies and science units, such as Sarah Morton’s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl by Kate Waters. We rotate the books to each classroom so we all have the opportunity to benefit from the class set/multiple copies.

8. NewsELA

I adore NEWSELA. Have you heard this awesome, FREE resource? Oh my! There are high-quality passages that are leveled according to their Lexile Level. (You can determine the guided reading level by using a book leveling correlation chart.) I also love how NEWSELA takes one news article and then adapts the text to three different Lexile levels. You can use this for close reading, read aloud, or of course, guided reading. All the students will have exposure to the same content and ideas, but the language and vocabulary is differentiated.

9. Scholastic Bonus Points

At my Curriculum Night at the beginning of the year, I make sure to TALK UP my classroom library. I make it very clear to the families that when the place an order through Scholastic Book Clubs, I am able to earn bonus points. I then SHOW the families the actual books that I have ordered, using bonus points, through Scholastic. I make it very clear that I do not use my bonus points for a microwave or other teacher-related goodies offered in the bonus points catalog. I have gathered SO MANY leveled texts simply by using my bonus points!!!

10. Teachers Pay Teachers

While I love using Chromebooks for digital literacy, there are also times when I want photocopied leveled passages. For example, when focusing on finding text evidence to answer comprehension questions, I like using a hard copy of a text so my students can mark up a page by highlighting the answers to the questions. This also helps prepare them for our district common assessments.

When selecting texts for my groups of readers, I try to match books that appeal to the time of year, their interests, or what we are learning about in other subject areas.

For example, if we are in the middle of cold, snowy winter weather, I will use my winter snow passage with readers who are reading books at a level E. Or, if our city’s favorite football team (G0 Chicago Bears!) is playing really well, then I will pull out a football passage.

I also correlate the field trips that we go on to our guided reading group passages. For example, we go to the pumpkin patch and visit a farm for two of our field trips. I love to read texts that mirror what we will do on our field trip as a way to build their excitement!

If you are looking for engaging, leveled texts to use for guided reading, please check out my resources listed at the end of this blog post!

10. Super Teacher Worksheets

Although you have to pay an annual fee, I highly recommend Super Teacher Worksheets. I love how there are so many science and social studies themed reading passages, that comes with comprehension questions. I use my membership to download passages about the planets and the solar system and use them for a close read and also reading groups.