Personalised books

Reading should be highly engaging, especially for new and emergent readers. Often the language used in Magenta readers are simple to encourage high frequency word recognition at an early stage. Many of my new students that arrive at school are unable to attend for long periods of time let alone taking part in a shared reading experience at mat time.

To overcome this challenge I have split my class into two groups. 

- One group reads 1:1 with an adult on their individual reading which includes activities i have shared on this blog. Activities include; responding to visuals, identifying high frequency words, matching visuals to the pictures/words and colorful semantics. 

- One group to work on foundation reading tasks such as turning the page, pointing to the words, looking at the book, pointing to pictures and engaging in a story. For this group i have had to adapt my resources to suit their interests. 

At the beginning of the year I always send home a questionnaire  to ask about the students and their interest. Using this information I made lots of books that the students would be interested in so they can choose a book for silent reading. I have had a breakthrough with one of my students who has taken much longer to settle this year. She is now choosing to read a book to read and turning the pages on her own. 

Engaging students in reading

Since introducing personalised books into my class library i have seen an increase of independent reading by a student who otherwise would have refused to read.
By engaging her in books about topics that she is interested I have been able to assess her pre-reading skills. I know that she is able to hold the book correctly and turn the page. When looking at the book she can look at the pictures and words on the left and then on the right which shows me she knows the left to right direction that text is read.

I download most of my individualised books from a website called Taheel Reader (link is supplied). Taheel Reader is a fantastic resource where people make books and upload them online. They are switch adaptable if you have a student with limited mobility who uses switches and they can also be used on a touch screen. I download and print them out to put in my library however last year my students were able to access them on the computer during independent reading time. I usually always have books in my library printed that are based on my topic as well.

How often should we be reading in our classrooms?

How often should we be reading in our classrooms?

In many special education classrooms it can be challenging to have the same demands as a mainstream classroom would. My students need regular movement breaks which takes time away from the classroom. My students cannot cope with a typical classroom timetable however i try to implement as many literacy opportunities as i can. It has taken 2 years to be able to put this many demands on our timetable and as you can see our day is split into "mini-lessons" to weave literacy throughout the day. Other classrooms at Sommerville have fewer reading opportunities because the needs in their classroom are much higher or they have different reading goals related to concepts about print.
I have included a timetable of all reading based activities (not including other curriculum areas) as one of the many questions i have been asked is how often i read with my students. Below is a brief explanation about what each activities looks like in my classroom.

Time	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8.30 – 9.15 9.30 9.45 – 9.55 9.55 – 10.30	Morning work box Morning Message Word wall games	Morning work box Morning Message Word wall games	Morning work box Morning Message	Morning work box Morning Message Word wall games Individual literacy skills	Morning work box Morning Message Word wall games Library
MORNING TEA AND PLAYGROUND
11.20 – 11.35	Shared reading	Shared reading	Shared reading		Shared reading
LUNCH AND PLAYGROUND
1.40 – 1.50 1.50 – 2.10	Self-Selected Reading 1:1 reading	Self-Selected Reading 1:1 reading	Self-Selected Reading 1:1 reading	Self-Selected Reading 1:1 reading

- Morning work box: a TEACCH inspired workstation where children work completely independent with activities they have learnt to master
- Morning message: Each morning i write a message to my students including words from the word wall
- Word Wall games: different whole class games, each student works on different skills
- Individual Literacy skills: a block focusing on making words, grammer etc
- Library : reading to and with the students with books they engage in
- Shared reading: one book a week with a different focus/activity each day eg, "read the book to find the main characters in the story"
- Self-selected reading : completely independent reading, they choose books from the computer, library or i-pad
- 1:1 reading: students read 1x book a week with a different activity/focus each day. I make up reading packs for each student (see previous post)

I try to make sure that students get the opportunity to...
Be read to - morning message, shared reading, library
Read with - 1:1 reading, individual literacy skills
Read independently - SSR, morning work box, library

Making the Library Accessible

Evidence suggests that there is positive relationship between reading frequency, reading enjoyment and attainment (Clark 2011; Clark and Douglas 2011).
As with most mainstream classes, my classroom also have time set aside for them to read by themselves. The library corner is not just some old books found in the resource room. It is filled with familiar texts from their guided reading sessions, big books they enjoyed during shared reading and personalized books i have created.
One of my students is fascinated with tools and rubbish bins, another student is a keen fisherman in the weekend so i made books based around their interests. I now have tonnes of well used personalised books that they actively engage with during silent reading.
There are also loads of books on the website (https://tarheelreader.org/) which are able to be printed off and bound easily. I usually make my books on powerpoint and introduce them to the class first before adding them to the library corner.