I have yet to see a classroom where I have never found a reluctant reader. To gain better insight into reading behaviours, I have developed this reading interest inventory to be used during the first few days of school. I often meet four or five students a day during independent reading. Students gather one at a time at the guided reading table. During this time, I use my inventory to gain better insight into students' reading preferences and attitudes towards reading in general.
This interest inventory is then placed in a binder. The binder is sectioned off alphabetically by students' first names. The inventory stays in the binder for the year. As I perform running records, guided reading sessions and additional check-ins, I place all this information in each child's section.
The reading conference binder was created to gather students’ reading strengths and areas of concern. The key to each conference is to focus on one strategy. The binder includes selected sheets for each conference. Conference sheets include: Retelling, Relating & Reflecting for Fiction and Non Fiction texts, Activating Prior Knowledge Prompts, Monitoring Comprehension Prompts, Sensory Images Prompts, Questioning Prompts, Determining Importance Prompts, Inferring Prompts and Synthesizing Prompts. A binder cover sheet, an Independent Reading Observation as well as a Summary of Reading Observations Form is included.
The binder and reference forms are a great way to see progress of students individually. During this time, I do keep my classroom library stocked with various genres. They are stored in bins and clearly labelled for student use.
Each book has a small sticker labelled in the corner with the genre. That way when books are returned, they go back to the appropriate bin. Coloured stickers are attached to the books. I organize those according to levels. Levels are used according to PM Benchmarks. The small circle stickers start at red, yellow, blue, orange, green and then purple. Red sticker books are easy read alouds and are often picture books with large print. The purple sticker books are often lengthy novels. Students know which colour dots to look for. Each bin contains a range of colour dot books. That way no child is left out.
