TRAINING UPPER GRADE STUDENTS to CHOOSE the RIGHT BOOKS!

Saturday, October 24, 2015
upper grade libraries, choosing just right books, 5th grade library organization
Getting students to read books at their appropriate level is CHALLENGING in the upper grades! Sometimes, I am frustrated as a teacher that students are reading books that look like they are too EASY.  Knowing and familiarizing myself and students with lexile levels has helped me as a teacher realize that some books that may LOOK easy are actually 5th grade books (and vice versa…books that look HARD because they are thick or longer, may actually not be at their grade level!) The first thing I did to show students and parents what the LEXILE scale looks like was post it in my classroom library where the students check out books. (Click on the pic below to print out this chart!)
exile levels chart, lexile level chart, lexile measures
Next, since my library did NOT have books labeled with Lexile levels, I made the LEXILE LOG seen below so students could actually look up the current book they were reading to see if it fell in the range of where they should be reading for 5th grade.  This was VERY eye opening for students.  I had a student kind of CONFESS and ask me if he could choose another book since his book was more of a 3rd grade level. (SUCCESS!!!)
Just Right Books, 5th grade reading, 5th grade library
Another teacher at my school has their ENTIRE library organized by Lexile Level! I knew it would be a LONG PROCESS and something I needed to tackle, so my next step was to get the books labeled. I made the labels below for FICTION and NON-FICTION so I can have the books somewhat labeled by GENRE too.  Click on the picture below to print out the labels. 
(They print on 5160 standard address labels!)
exile level labels
I definitely think it will be easier getting students to choose the right books when they are actually labeled! Using sites such as LEXILE MEASURES or SCHOLASTIC BOOK WIZARD are helping label each book.  I am having early finishers sitting with the IPAD in the library looking up books and writing the lexile level in the inside cover….(of which I added the labels later) which is making the whole process go MUCH faster! Here is what my WHO WAS Collection is starting to look like!
classroom library, 5th grade reading
How do you get your students to read books at their appropriate level?

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