Just Right Books

I don't spend a ton of time talking about just-right books with my 3rd and 4th graders - just a quick review at the beginning of the year - but it is a topic I probably teach to the point of death with my younger kiddos. I feel justified, though! Choosing books is a HUGE part of our library day and something they NEED to know how to do!!

I spend the 3rd or 4th week in library with first- and second-graders talking about just-right books. (Ks are still choosing from a cart of picture books, so I'm not too concerned about them yet.) This is after one week of book checkout, so we can reflect on our book choices from last week. Was it too hard? Too easy? Did we read it too fast? Did we not read it at all? Was it about something we're interested in? The kids are pretty honest, and there's usually 1-2 (or more!) in each class willing to admit that they didn't choose a just-right book. "Perfect!" I say. "Let's fix that!"

First Grade

First graders are still getting their legs with looking for books in the library, because they spent most of kindergarten choosing from a librarian-curated selection. I introduce the "I PICK" acronym using this colorful poster, which I laminated and put up on the board, and go over the first two: PURPOSE and INTEREST. "Purpose" is the easiest for them to understand; we spent a loooooooooong time in Kindergarten going over Fiction/Non-fiction, so most of them can capture their purpose for reading: Do I want to read to learn, or read for fun? We also briefly discuss Interest; a lot of them like books in a series, or by a certain author, or about a certain topic.

After reviewing the first two letters, we watch the first two sections of BrainPop Jr.'s "Choosing a Book" video, where Annie talks about choosing a book that's right for her. 

Then the most exciting part: We get off the carpet! I march the kids over to the two sections of the library they'll be choosing from in first grade. We start off at the "Read for Fun" (easy fiction) section. After sitting them all down in front of those three shelves, I show them the spine labels on our Everybody, Easy Reader, and Easy Chapter Book shelves, noting that all three have yellow letters, but the books with mostly pictures (Everybody) have no dots; those with some words and some pictures (Easy Readers) have blue dots; and those with mostly words (Easy Chapter Books) have green dots. We also review what the letter on the yellow sticker stands for; even though we talked all about it in Kindergarten, lots of kids still need a reminder that the letter is NOT the book's level. (Wonder where they got that idea.....)

Next we march on to the "Read to Learn" section! This is our easy non-fiction section, which is pretty small and separated from our regular fiction section. I point out a few topics that might interest them, like animals and outer space, and talk about how these books are sorted by a number that represents what they're about so they can more easily find books they're Interested in.

Back to the carpet for the last two letters: C and K! After I read the words that each stands for, we finish watching the BrainPop video, which models the 5-finger rule and retelling a book to make sure you understand it. I ask for a volunteer to demonstrate the 5-finger rule using a way-too-hard and a way-too-easy book to show how it should work.

Now that we know all about "PICK", it's time to PICK our books! Since it's the first day they're going at it in the library, I like to be able to be more hands-on with their choices. So, I give each person a "PICK" bookmark to color while I dismiss tables to check out books. If they don't want to color, I have them just write their name on top and also have KEVA planks on each table as another quiet choice.

Second Grade

If you have never read the book Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians, you need to get it RIGHT NOW. I'm not joking. This is the PERFECT book for teaching just-right books, and my second graders loooove it. I begin by telling them we'll be thinking about just-right books this week and who better to teach us about "just right" than Goldilocks? We do a picture walk through a Goldilocks book from our fairy-tale section, and then I tell them we're actually going to meet someone who is verrry similar to Goldilocks: Goldie SOCKS! We read through the book, stopping when she talks about books that are too big and too small to demonstrate (the "Heroes of Olympus" books are too big; "My Loose Tooth" is too small) and the 5-finger rule. My kids love when we get to the 5-finger rule page, because we have a poster that has the EXACT SAME PICTURE from the book! This is very exciting. I also love this book because it has some gentle reminders about how to put books back (the bears come back to find that Goldie Socks has put books back on the floor! On top of shelves! With the pages showing! Upside down! Gasp!) that are important for second graders to remember.

After reading, we choose books! I also pass out 5-Finger Rule reminder bookmarks for one more visual about how to choose a book.