Reading Cards

Hello,
This week is a special week for a particular group in the library. I realized that I might not have told you about this particular program I do with 3rd and 4th graders. I call it “Reading Cards”.
When I was young, I was a voracious reader. I read nearly everything I could get my hands on – except nonfiction. I had decided that it was automatically boring and just never ventured to that area of the library. Of course, I know better, but I saw many students doing the same thing that I had done and wanted them to know that there are lots of really interesting books in the nonfiction section too.

I looked through my personal teacher library and found some ideas that I then adapted to fit what I needed. I made a reading card. The card has also evolved over the years and is two-sided. One side has ten sections; one for each of the Dewey hundreds. As students read a book from the Dewey hundred, they report in some way (more about this below) and the title of the book is written down, and they continue on until that side is completed. The other side has 14 sections with different kinds of books to read. Some of the sections include “A Book with a picture of a horse on the cover”, “An old, battered book”, “A Short Chapter Book”, “A New book published since 2012”, “An Award Winner”, “A Free Choice book”, and more.

This card is tailored to my particular library. I have some that wouldn’t be understood by others such as “A Green Dot Book”. The picture books are organized into a basic Dewey arrangement and the science and nature books have green dots on the spines. This year I had them read a green dot book to a younger child AND the child could not be in their class. Our third and fourth graders all have times they read with a Kindergarten class or a 1st and 2nd grade class, so it isn’t that difficult to do. Many also have younger siblings they can read to, as well.

Lots of students love to ‘read’ Guinness World Records. However, I have made it clear that the books they choose must be read all the way through. The world record books are just too much for them to read everything. Other books such as “Where’s Waldo?” or “I Spy” aren’t books to read, either, so I have a section for a “Just Looking Book”. Any book they want to check out and just look through without the stress of reading the whole book would fit this category. Other kinds of books in the category would be thick science books, books above their reading level, Lego books, maps, charts, graphs, etc. You get the idea.

This year I also added a Bible Story ‘story’. They read one story from the blue The Bible Story set and give the title of the story they read and the volume it came from. Each story is about three pages long and is not intimidating. Other ideas for sections I have used in the past include a joke book, a magazine, a book with a picture of a cat on it (I change the animal each year), a book of the Bible, a chapter book with fewer than 100 pages.

As each side of the reading card is completed, I let the students choose a small stuffed animal from my stash. (Check out Oriental Trading for these.) In April, I have a celebration party for those who have completed both sides of their reading card. These lucky students get to come to the library for a party. I show a short (30 minute) movie and have given them a small snack such as popcorn or goldfish crackers to eat during the movie. The students who did not complete their card stay in their classroom.

I know it seems like a lot of books to read, but we start at the beginning of school and end in April. This is seven months plus a little. I also help students locate shorter books in the
Dewey section since the idea is to read something from every section, so I don’t worry about reading levels. They get plenty of books on their level in other ways.

Each teacher has a binder I made for them with a card for each student in their classroom. I also have a large binder with a card for each student in it. As each student completes a side, I make a big deal of it and they choose their prize with the other students there. This usually encourages the other students to keep working on their reading card. The teachers bring their binders to library and I copy down the information into my book. I tell the children that MY book is the one that counts. The reason is that sometimes a volunteer parent will put a title in a section that it doesn’t fit. One example is when the parent wrote a science type of a title such as “Dwarf Planets” (500s) in the section for Bible stories (200s). I try to find another place for the science title and quietly tell the student that they still need a book from the 200s.

Once I had a student fill out his Dewey side with just any book he read. We explained that only the teacher or classroom aide was supposed to write in the titles, and that he needed to read certain books for each section. I started him on a new card and we wrote in titles that he had read putting them in their correct places.

Students report in a variety of ways. There is a written report form they can fill out, but most of them tell their teachers or a volunteer aide in the classroom enough about the book so we know they have actually read it. Sometimes I can listen to them tell about a book, but most of the time I am helping others locate books. Occasionally, a teacher has a class set of books that all the students have read, so we write that book down for each student.

If I were doing this in a small school, I would use the same basic card and have the students read the same categories of books but on their own reading level. I would also have the party after everyone had completed their cards.

I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about my reading card program.

Have a great week.

Audrey