I am moving form kindergarten to second grade this year and am woprking on setting up my classroom library. Does anyone know of the best way to do this? I know about sorting books by author and series, but is there a good website where I can type in a book title and be given a level for that book so that I can place all "level 2" books together, for instance? Thanks for any ideas and suggestions!
Hey -
I don't have any comment about organization, but PLEASE get more than just level 2 books. My son is entering 2nd grade this year and he is reading level 5. Please be ready for some advanced readers!
Thanks,
L.
One suggestion for leveling is to use the colored dot stickers on the binding and put the actual grade level like 2.4 on the inside cover. I never told the kids what level they were reading but told them what color they should be choosing from. I used one color for each grade level so the kids still had to learn how to "just right" books within there color. Then I bought inexpensive plastic baskets and labeled them. My nonfiction books were separated by subject so I wrote on the colored sticker the name of the subject such as animals. To make my books last longer and to keep the stickers from falling off, I put a piece of packing tape on the binding. Parent volunteers are great for helping with taping. : )
Hope this was helpful. I taught 2nd for 8 years and loved it.
Have a great year!
Stephanie
I recommend scholastic.com they have the reading levels of most books. I use it for my daughter for homeschooling. As for organization, I loved having colored tabs on the book binding so that kids can easily spot their color. Then all you have to have is a chart that says Blue=1st grade, etc. Since these are young readers you might put it by half grade levels (1st grade 1.0-1.4, and then upper 1st 1.5-1.9). Then you could have 4th and up be one color since you will only have a few readers that are that advanced. Hope this helps-J. White
I am a second grade teacher and last year was my first year, so I am still learning too. Last year I had the books organized by categories, and this year I will do the same, but I will have more specific categories. Instead of Sea Life, I will break it down even more to some of the specific animals. I considered sorting the books by level, but a huge part of second grade is teaching the students how to pick a "just right book.." That is so hard for them and it takes a lot of modeling and practicing. If you just put them in boxes by levels, they will not learn that so important skill. I do have a box that says beginning readers and it has a lot of levels in it. You will be so surprised at how many levels the kids are reading at.
I hope that helps.
When I taught 2nd grade, we were using the Four Block program which required extensive libraries in our classrooms. We kept them by levels. Have a blessed school year!
Here's a reading leveling correlation chart:
http://www.placonference.org/2008/handouts/1013_125Neef_P...
And here's a leveling search engine/database:
I'm not a teacher, but both of my girls are excellent readers so I do a lot of website searching. Our school district uses Accelerated Reader program. Maybe would like www.arbookfind.com.
