Monday, April 1, 2013

Reading A-Z is an Awesome Resource

It's late in the school year and you may have already used the majority of your guided reading books. I recommend you look into Reading A-Z.  They have a huge selection of leveled readers and other resources and a year's subscription is only about $80.  Some schools can even reimburse you, or you could post a listing on Donor's Choose. I love using Reading A-Z books because there is so much to choose from and the topics are interesting to students.
Today, I had a group of second graders reading the book pictured below, "Gaggle, Herd and Murder."  I used it to work on fluency, decoding, and comprehension.  We reviewed --er, --ir, and --ur, as well as talking about vocabulary and multiple meaning words, like the word "murder."  The kids loved it because it had neat vocabulary, like "murder" and "smack" and it also talked about animals. It was a great way to work on the skills we really need to focus on and touch on a lot of other skills as well.
Leveled readers from Reading A-Z

I do have to share a couple of incidents that were quite humorous.  One of my students kept misreading "crows" as "cows."  "Cows travel in a group called a murder."  I could just see the Chick-fil-a cows dressed lika a band of marauders.  Another student said, "Wouldn't it be funny if those were cows in the tree instead of crows?"  Too cute!
Also, another student consistently misread the word "wolves" as "werewolves."  He did not understand that one was an actual animal and the other was a fictional creature.  This is why I love teaching! The kids are so much fun!
What are your favorite resources for great leveled readers?

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