Big 5 Reading

How many books are in your classroom?

• Fewer than the number of shoes in my closet.
• None. Books are shelved in the school library.
• Approaching the number of books in the children's section of our public library.

How much independent reading time do your students get per day?

• Less than 10 minutes.
• Between 11 and 20 minutes.
• More than 20 minutes.

If you have a student who only wants to read or look at comic books, what would you do?

• Say no and encourage a quality book instead.
• Say, "Great!" and only give her comics to read.
• Encourage her to keep reading, and introduce a few graphic novels or more challenging books.

What do you do when your student picks out books that are too difficult?

• Explain that the book is too advanced and put it back on the shelf.
• Read the book quickly to my student, skimming over hard words and advanced concepts, and then move on to easier books.
• Encourage students to partner read.  This will allow lower readers to gain access to higher level texts with support from their peers.

If your student wants to read the same book over and over again, what do you do?

• Pretend to lose the book.
• Allow the student to read it as often as they want to but suggest other books as well.
• Tell your student they can read the book only once a week.

If your student doesn't feel like reading, what do you do?

• Require at least 30 minutes of reading a night, no matter what.
• Guide the student and help them choose books that are of interest to them.  Have a wide variety of texts in the classroom library.
• Let it go and figure the problem will take care of itself.

How do your students share their favorite books?

• They talk to each other during independent reading and show their books.
• They write book reviews and give presentations on their favorites.
• My children don’t share what they are reading with each other.

How often do you read to your class?

• Once a week or less.
• Once a day or more.
• We don’t have time to do read books out loud.