“Where can I find books for guided reading?” I get asked this all the time! You get excited to implement guided reading as part of a balanced literacy program, but then the issue is finding leveled sets of books (usually six per title) to use with your little readers. The struggle is real friends. If your school has a beautifully stocked literacy library, be thankful! I have worked in schools that had them and schools that did not. Even though two schools had one, sometimes it still didn’t have exactly what I needed for each group. I haven’t found a free database of books to download, but I put together some ideas for you to check out as you hunt for leveled readers for guided reading!
If your school happens to have money to spend to purchase sets of books, there are many websites that have them ready to go! Fountas and Pinnell have excellent sets of books that coordinate with their guided reading levels HERE. Some other places that have book sets worth comparing are Perfection Learning, Pioneer Valley Books, and Lakeshore. While they are convenient and come in six-packs, they will cost $3-$5 per book. This could be something you encourage PTO to fundraise for. Another idea is to do a Donor’s Choose project!
A more affordable option would be www.readinga-z.com. You can print the books in color or grayscale and begin creating your own bookroom. You can also preview each book before printing to make sure it’s the right fit for each of your groups. It costs about $110 per year for an individual subscription, but it comes with over 1,000 titles at 29 different reading levels. You can try a free 14 day trial to see if it might be a good fit for your classroom.
If you use Scholastic Book Club orders, you can use points to get some free guided reading books (or purchase them with money). They have lots of different boxed sets of leveled books like these science ones HERE (great integration opportunity!). I love that they also have sets that include five copies of each text like this set HERE for guided reading levels A-D. Get those magazine book orders sent home with your students!
When your district begins the textbook adoption process, take a close look at the reading components that are presented before you vote. Some companies include leveled literacy books, including kits for each individual classroom. You also may want to look for out of adoption kits that might have leveled readers in them from past years.
I know how difficult it can be to find high-interest books with great quality that are affordable, so I decided to create my own! I know our learners need engaging books, and teachers need kits that are easily organized, user-friendly, and meet students where they are. I designed them with you and your students in mind. In my guided reading kits, I also included essential items like running record forms, parent involvement notes and tips, teaching posters, word work activities, and lesson plans for each text in the kit. I’ve got you covered for levels A-J. Click HERE to check them out! I hope they’ll be a game changer for you!
Once you’ve started building a library, you’ll need to keep it organized so you can use your time efficiently. I’ve got a few tips for you in this post HERE on how to keep guided reading materials organized.
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Want to use the latest research to boost your readers during small groups? This FREE guide is packed with engaging ideas to help them grow!
I’m a K-1 teacher who is passionate about making lessons your students love and that are easy to implement for teachers. Helping teachers like you navigate their way through their literacy block brings me great joy. I am a lifelong learner who loves staying on top of current literacy learning and practices. Here, you’ll find the tools you need to move your K-2 students forward!
2 Responses
I love your blog tips and various learning materials! I am currently the Volunteer Chair of Education with a locally (Gainesville, FL) founded 501 (c)(3) NGO: Sustainable Cambodia. I have been providing onsite teacher training in our Cambodian supplemental school programs for the past 5 years. Prior to leaving my full time K/1 classroom teaching job, my students were pen-pals with some of our Cambodian students, and I also served as an educational consultant with them. After traveling there multiple times, despite my decades of classroom experience, the challenges of finding appropriate materials at an appropriate level for teachers with limited teaching methodology training (and limited English/Literacy Skills) remains somewhat daunting, at best. Your materials are the closest I have found to be useable (with some modification) within that unique cultural setting. Most of our students are first generation in their families to attend school, since the era of the Khmer Rouge, when an estimated 90+% of all educators and educated people were executed or starved to death, from 1975-79. Our Sustainable Cambodia students have access to their local State Schools at this time because of donations and Rotary grant funding. We provide them with bikes for transportation into town from their rural rice field areas, along with uniforms, school supplies and extra support classes. I love your free downloads, and I wanted to express my sincere gratitude for all that you offer free of charge!!! I am attempting to secure some donors to help with the purchase of some of your TpT materials. For example, many of your level readers appear to be close to their range of background knowledge, but I’m not sure of all of the titles. I have found the Scholastic Non-Fiction Guided Readers (A-D) to be the most effective thus far, but they are pricey, and need to be hand carried in luggage. It is not yet possible to ship items into (mostly landlocked) Cambodia, despite the impressive development of their neighboring countries, Thailand and Vietnam. Our students are honestly mostly within that A-D reading range (Including some of our Teachers…). I noticed that some of your fonts within your guides are cursive fonts–Cambodian schools don’t introduce any teaching of English until 7th grade, and everyone really struggles with anything in cursive. I am writing mostly to express my appreciation and admiration of your work, and to make that comment about the cursive font as a possible suggestion–I know that fewer and fewer US schools seem to teaching cursive these days as well. Their Khmer language is known as one of the most difficult languages to learn, yet it is about 95% phonetic! However, there are over 50 different vowel sounds, and they have only BEGUN introducing “phonics” within the past few years, thanks to “Room to Read” and other large international organizations.
The follow Khmer letters represent: “Thank-you very much.” អរគុណច្រើន
Wishing you all the best! I always look forward to your emails. Julie
http://www.sustainablecambodia.org
By SC’s founding principles, only native Cambodians are employed as paid staff, and all international officers, directors and consultants are unpaid volunteers, ensuring that 100% of funding goes directly into the rural village programs. Please explore more at http://www.SustainableCambodia.org about our work helping the residents of rural Cambodian villages create a sustainable quality of life through wells, irrigation systems, schools, training and empowerment.