Characteristics of Emergent text:

    1-2 lines of stories which are familiar

    Strong picture support

    Predictable: repetitive words and sentences

    Each line is a complete sentence

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1. ✴Leveled Books Database ( Guided Reading, Reading Recovery)
   

2. ✴Suggested Books for Very Beginning Readers (Level A-D) A-Z Teacher Stuff
   

3. ★Leveled Literacy Intervention: Little Books/Fountas & Pinnell Excellent Leveled K to 12  levels A to Z
   

1. ★Fountas & Pinnell Leveled Books by Level
   

2. ★Spaghetti Book Clubs: Search by title, reviewer or grade level
   

3. ★Guided Reading Leveled Book List A-Z
   

4. ✴30 of the Best Level 1 Reading Books for Children/Brightly
   

5. ✴Guided Reading Book Lists Scholastic
   

Tip:  Meeting the Needs of                                                       

              Diverse Learners

Literature Anthologies or the Basal readers can not be the sole source of instruction. Book companies’ language arts series serves the average student  well but not the Emergent Readers, At Risk, or the Advanced students. 

I do not want to refer to the “slow” achievers as “Struggling Readers.” No one should struggle; a student can not make progress working on a frustration level which the term “Struggling Reader” implies.

Emergent Readers need a new story each day for numerous and obvious reasons. Students should not be forced to try and cope with material that is on their frustration level. Life long harm may be done; viz.,create a learning disability, poor self-esteem, and/or a defiant bully.

The “little books” which is a component of the adopted reading series need to be scrutinized closely before accepting them as instructional material for the At Risk. Are there numerous titles on each level? Can the students relate to the stories? Is the text directly supported by a picture? Is the reader supported with a text that has rhythm, rhyme and  repetition? Are the little books leveled according to Marie Clay’s standards? Marie Clay’s leveling text focuses on: content, illustrations, length, curriculum, language structure, judgement and format - not just the readability of a text determined by DRP,  Lexile, and “syntax and cohesion.

    A program such as the Wright Group’s with numerous small books on each level is an excellent source of instruction until the students can move into the primer level of the anthology or basal series.

    The advanced students need a structured approach with material that is above grade level.

    Using reading material designed for the next grade level with the advanced is better than keeping them confined to the on level text. The advanced students working on their instructional level could easily score a 99% on their standardized test because they still take the on- grade standard achievement test.

     No student should ever be made to use the same learning tool utilized previously; viz., the year before because of retention. To avoid students being assigned the same text as having used the prior year,  a program from another company should be available for those students- just the text and teacher’s addition, not all the components of another reading series needs to be purchased.

(Hopefully the harmful practice of retention is no longer an option.)

    Some schools have  sets of literature books set aside in the Reading Closet for teachers to use especially with the advanced learners.

A big concern about a purchased program is that the teacher’s guide uses recall questions too often. (Report by Bill Harp in Rdg. T. Oct.’88) As Constructivists theorists maintain: comprehension is a process  of drawing on what we already know to help construct meaning when we read. Too often a  purchased reading series regards comprehension as consisting of a set of thinking skills which can be identified, measured, and taught. Reading is more than those thinking skills; it is a process of interaction between the text and the student’s background knowledge. Students need to constantly predict and confirm. When the prediction is confirmed, we have comprehension. The remedy is for the teachers to go beyond the teacher’s guide.

Retention: Don’t even entertain the harmful practice of retention. No research supports retention. Provide an accelerated program for the At-Risk- those children who were behind before they even began. The classroom teacher and reading specialist should work in tandem- same skills and program- each day, but not the same text.

    The Pull-Out program serves the students the best. They are free to recite aloud, sing and dramatize; the specialist doesn’t have to cart her tools around; and distraction is at a minimum. The walking to the specialist room may be a needed exercise so that students can function better.

    At-Risk students are entitled to the following:   

1. 1.  30-40 min. of small group instruction on their instructional level by classroom teacher and again with the reading specialist each day. Forget about the worksheets- poor use of precious time. Forget about memorizing lists of words. Words have no meaning out of context. Forget about a phonics based program. Engage the students’ thinking skills.
   

2. Phonics is important especially for spelling and writing but the reading program should not be anchored in phonics.
   

2. 2.Appropriate instructional material, material on their instructional reading levels
   

3. 3.Appropriate Take-Home reading material for the students to read to self, to parents, and for parents to read to them is a must.  That is the best homework that can be given and should be the only homework. Research maintains that there is little if any benefit for homework on the primary level.
   

Keep expectations high. 

Personal journey with a second language learner whom teachers as well as the school psychologist believed was mentally challenged:

A second language learner entered our school as second grader.

After the student worked with the ESL teacher and classroom teacher, he was assigned to me to observe. I knew that second language learners go through a quiet period so I took his silence and lack of responses in stride until one day I saw a gleam in his eyes and a one word utterance.

We began from the very beginning. I met with his father who didn’t speak English but with the help of an older sibling translating, I got the message across about how we could help his child.

I started sending home easy read-along books- books with a cassette tape which had a recording of a professional reader, reading the story. He loved them and kept asking for more.  I kept advancing the student from one level to the next. At the end of the school year he was reading the end of the grade level text - last stories of the second grade text with great proficiency. He entered into discussions about stories read. He was excited about learning and in particular about reading. He went from a non reader to a competent reader, reading at the beginning of third grade level.

I asked the principal if she could find the time to listen to him read. Instead of having him read the text prepared she chose a story he hadn’t read yet- to my objection. To my surprise he read it with a little assistance and with comprehension!

Don’t be concerned if a student wants to keep reading the same book over and over. A fifth grade teacher once told me to get an ESL student of his to read something other than Curious George. The student pleaded with me to let him keep the book. The fifth grader was learning to read with that book because it captured his interest.

1. •Damage Done by Retention

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Printable Books

1. ★Sing Little Books by Nellie Edge -Free
   

1. ✤Make Your Own Mini Books - printable booklets from DLTK
   

25 Science Mini-Books for Emergent Readers (Grades K-1) by Carol Pugliano-Martin

1. ★20 Sing-Along Mini-Books for Emergent Readers: Sweet and Simple Stories That Can Be Sung to the Tunes of Favorite Children's Songs by Maria Fleming
   

2. ★Mrs. Kilburn’s Kiddos’s A to Z books to run off
   

3. ✴25 Holiday & Seasonal Emergent Reader Mini-Books Gr. K-1  at Amazon /Used copies available
   

4. ★Printable Concept Books/ K-4 Teacher Resources

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