Level a books printable
Guided Reading — Hubbard's Cupboard
During shared reading in the kindergarten classroom, teachers guide the entire class through stories with a high level of support. It is considered guided reading at this level. In order to continue meeting the needs of beginning or emergent readers, many kindergarten teachers are also incorporating modified aspects of the guided reading used in most first grade classrooms.
Guided reading has many of the same components as shared reading. However, it is conducted with a smaller number of students and focuses more on the individual reading needs of each child. During guided reading, teachers work with students at their instructional level to guide them in using the context, visual, and structure cues within stories to generate meaning. By using instructional level texts that gradually increase in difficulty, students apply strategies in context and feel successful! The end goal, as with any literacy component used in kindergarten, is for students to become confident, proficient readers who LOVE to read!
Guided reading in kindergarten can be conducted one on one or in small groups using books with predictable text, decodable text, books containing a large number of sight words, specially leveled books in a series, or trade books. Teachers in a half day setting may meet with each guided reading group once or twice a week while full day kindergarten classrooms may be able to meet daily.
Below are some resources that should be helpful for starting guided reading in the kindergarten classroom...
Skills and Strategies to Focus On
Leveling Books
Running Records
Where to Find Leveled Sets of Emergent Readers
Blackline Masters for Non Leveled Emergent Readers
Take Home Book Boxes
More Guided Reading Resources and References
Skills and Strategies to Focus On:
These are just a few areas in which to help students with during guided reading...
- tracking print left to right and word by word
- one to one matching
- using picture cues
- applying letter and sound knowledge in context
- activating prior knowledge
- recognizing and reading sight words
- predicting and inferring
- attending to concepts of print (spacing, capitalization, punctuation)
- retelling a story with sequence and story elements (characters, setting, beginning, middle, end)
- self correcting
Reading Cues - P rompts and strategies for 'during reading' to help beginning readers
Leveling Books:
Reading Recovery, Fountas and Pinnell, and different publishers have varying leveling systems.
How do educators compare levels and use books from different sources? How do we level books that currently do not contain a level? Check out the informative links below!
Characteristics for Book Levels - The traits for each book level, as determined by Fountas & Pinnell, are described on page 5 of this PDF document published by CIERA. This is also a great place to refer to when leveling books and booklets that have not been previously leveled.
Scholastic Book Wizard - allows you to search for books by author, title, or keyword and provides information for each book on on interest and grade level
Running Records:
Running records are used to assess and record what cueing systems students are currently using while reading. It also helps to determine the difficulty level of the text they are reading and assists teachers in accurately matching students to instructional level materials.
Running Records - free, printable form
Assessment Tips - From Reading A-Z
Running Record Calculator - from the University of NC
Running Record Calculator
Where to Find Sets of Leveled Emergent Reader Books:
Printable Booklets - some free and some for a fee from Reading a-z
Creative Teaching Press - I especially like CTP's Learn to Read Series (predictable, engaging text for early readers)! The Sight Word Readers and Dr.
Maggie's Phonics Readers (decodable) are also good from CTP.
Scholastic Guided Reading
Wright Group
Take Home Readers - from Keep Books
Black Line Masters for Non Leveled Emergent Reader Booklets:
StarFall On Line Readers - on line decodable books and free booklets for teachers
Printable Booklets for Emergent Readers - booklets to correspond with story lessons, sight words, word families, and concepts (all here at Hubbard's Cupboard!)
Make Your Own Mini Books - printable booklets from DLTK
Single Page Stories for Kindergarten and 1st Graders - from Clark Ness
- 25 Emergent Reader Mini-Books (Grades K-1) by Maria Fleming
- Pocket Charts for Emergent Readers (Grades K-1) by Valerie Schifferdanoff
- 25 Science Mini-Books for Emergent Readers (Grades K-1) by Carol Pugliano-Martin
- 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
- 25 Holiday & Seasonal Emergent Reader Mini-Books (Grades K-1) by Maria Fleming
- Take Home Books: Math by Karen P.
Hall - Take Home Books: Science by Karen P. Hall
- Take Home Books: Social Studies by Karen P. Hall
- Take Home Books: Fun and Fantasy by Karen P. Hall
- Look, Look, I Wrote a Book: Reproducible Little Books for Emergent Readers by Linda Ball
Take Home Book Boxes:
Sample Home Poems and Booklets Letter - a PDF from Hubbard's Cupboard. I sent this letter home with the book boxes that each child made. The boxes were used to store copies of poems, reproducible booklets, and retelling booklets that we read many times in class and corresponded to our shared reading stories. You could send a similar note home with your students' book boxes and use the boxes to store their reproducible leveled readers. Boxes can be made from shoe boxes, dry laundry detergent boxes, bakery boxes, etc.! The goal of the take home book boxes is to provide/extend appropriate reading materials in the home and to encourage reading at home!
More Guided Reading Resources and References:
Making Guided Reading Work - a wonderful PDF article written and shared by Lori St.
Amand & Chris Binicki - explains in detail how to introduce literacy centers, how to implement guided reading, and guided reading concepts to focus on in a half day Kindergarten classroom
Guided Reading in First Grade -from eHow
Guided Reading Workshop- for elementary classroom teachers, info, printables, and video
- Guided Reading : Good First Teaching for All Children by Irene C. Fountas, Gay Su Pinnell
- Matching Books to Readers: Using Leveled Books in Guided Reading, K-3 by Gay Su Pinnell, Lois Bridges Bird, Irene C. Fountas
- Guided Reading: Making It Work (Grades K-3) by Mary Browning Schulman, Mary Browning Shulman, Carleen dacruz Payne
- Balancing Literacy: A Balanced Approach to Reading and Writing Instructions Gr. K-2 by Dr. Margaret Allen
- An Observation Survey Of Early Literacy Achievement by Marie M. Clay
- The Teacher's Guide to the Four Blocks by Patricia Cunningham, Dorothy Hall, & Cheryl Sigmon
Printable leveled book list - The Measured Mom
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IMPORTANT UPDATE: As I learn more about the science of reading and how our children learn to read, I have come to the conclusion that leveled books are not the best reading material for brand-new readers. Instead, they need a steady diet of high quality decodable books so they learn to pay attention to the letters and sounds right from the beginning. I will keep this post here, but I wanted to share this important insight.
Today’s post is for the parents who want to support their child’s beginning reading efforts at home – but they visit the library and don’t know where to begin.
Let’s talk easy reader book series.
- My First I Can Read
- Step Into Reading
- Hello Reader
- Ready to Read
- I can Read
And that’s just the beginning! The maddening thing is that each collection of books – and even books within the same series – are wildly different when it comes to reading level.
What’s a parent to do?
The first thing to do is understand guided reading levels. These are the levels that many teachers use when they teach small reading groups.
Level A
Level A books are hard to find at the library, because they’re very, very simple. In fact, teachers usually have to order these books from special publishing companies. But if you hunt, you can find a small collection at your library, such as the books listed above.
Level A books typically have predictable language patterns, high frequency words that are used over and over, and a single line of text per page.
Please note: As stated above, I no longer recommend using these early leveled books with brand new readers. They simply don’t have the phonics knowledge to read the words, and using only leveled books can lead to the bad habit of guessing.
Level B
Level B books are very similar to A books, but they may have two lines of text on a page.
There is a direct correspondence between the text and the pictures; the print is clear and easy to read. Like level A, level B books are in short supply unless you special order them.
Level C
Level C books are longer than level B books, but they still have only a few lines of text per page. The pictures are still very important in supporting meaning. Some level C books use pattern and repetition.
Level D
As you move into level D, you will notice that the stories are slightly more complex. The illustrations support the text, but children will need to pay more attention to the print. Words often contain more inflectional endings, such as ing, ed, and s.
Here I am again! We want all readers to pay attention to print from the very beginning. You can see that these early levels don’t require much of that at all because kids can use pictures and predictable text to “read” many of the books. Contact me via the support tab if you’re looking for quality decodable books.
Level E
As we move to higher levels, the amount of text gradually increases. Level E books have 3-8 lines of text per page. Stories are more complex, and repeating patterns are less frequent. While the illustrations are helpful, students will need to do more problem solving to figure out new words.
Sigh. When I originally wrote this post I wrote that kids would need to do “more” problem solving to figure out new words. Now I understand that they should be sounding out words from the very beginning so they can orthographically map the words. Not sure what that means? Contact me via the support tab.
Level F
Since level F texts are slightly longer than level E, the print is smaller. Text carries more of the meaning, and children need to use sight word knowledge as they read. Unlike lower level books, level F books have a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Level G
These books contain more challenging ideas and vocabulary, and the sentences are longer than lower level books.
Level G books introduce children to new vocabulary.
Level H
Level H books are very similar to level G, but the vocabulary and language continue to get more complex. There is less repetition as the books continue to sound more like stories.
Level I
Level I books have a more complex story structure. Illustrations provide low support, and there are more sentences on each page.
Level J
I have found level J to be a magical level. Many, many wonderful books are written for children at level J. Even better – many come in a series. At this point your child is starting to read fluently and maybe even read in his head. Level J books often have short chapters, include dialogue, and have a clear font with space between the lines.
Level K
Level K books are simple, but slightly longer than level J books. Chapters are short. The books include illustrations on most pages, but they are not essential to understanding the text.
Layout is still reader-friendly; level K books have a large, clear font with clear spaces between the lines.
Update
As stated many times in the above post, I no longer recommend the early levels (about levels A-G) for early readers because kids really need to sound out words as they learn to read.
It’s all about helping them permanently store the words in their sight vocabulary. Research tells us that this happens when kids match the sounds to the letters (fancy words: phonemes to the graphemes), and it’s hard for them to do this when they’re not looking at the words at all, but rather looking at pictures to solve words.
I know that many teachers still use the early levels with young readers (I certainly did until diving deep into the research led me to reconsider).
But if you are teaching brand new readers, let me encourage you to use decodable text instead. Search “decodable” in the site’s search bar. In the future I’ll be adding free decodable texts to this website.
Free Reading Printables for Pre-K-3rd Grade
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Choosing paper for printing books
Sooner or later in the life of most people there comes a moment when it becomes necessary to print something. This may be the first report at school. First collection of poems. The first wall calendar for your girlfriend. There can be a lot of needs to print something! And where there is a wealth of choice, there are problems. Let's try to figure out what paper to choose for printing. And let's start with the topic of choosing paper for printing books.
The final print result is determined by three factors:
- the printing machine and its settings (be it a home printer or a printing press)
- printing ink or toner (cartridge)
- paper
some other time, but now we will focus on the issue of choosing paper for printing.
We know what we want to print, we know what quality we want to achieve and we are limited by the budget. In order of these requirements and restrictions, we will try to choose the optimal paper that is right for your particular task.
Let's slightly narrow down our initial requirements and try to choose paper for printing the following products: This is a historical fact that may change in the near future. A book is a non-periodical publication in the form of bound paper sheets or notebooks with text or graphic information printed on them, with a volume of more than 48 pages.
Unlike other publications, the book has a hard or soft cover. But it’s not the cover that determines which paper to print on. It is much more important what the book will be: highly artistic, with a lot of illustrations or text.
Highly artistic books
If a book has many illustrations and they must be of high quality, then this is most likely a highly artistic book. Albums of visual products, in which there are many reproductions, are a good example of a highly artistic book.
Paper for art albums
If you are going to publish an art album, choose paper for offset or gravure printing. Weight of 1 square meter from 90 to 240 grams. Whiteness of paper according to Elrefo (ELREPHO) from 85 to 110 percent. Coated paper with a matte or glossy finish works well. At the same time, it must be remembered that high gloss makes it difficult to look at illustrations. With a large format, when the page is bent, the glare of light from the side does not make it possible to see the picture, feel the color gamut, and instead of enjoyment, irritation may occur ... In my opinion, a smooth matte surface is more noble. Pay attention to the gloss of the surface of the selected paper!
Paper for children's books
A very common paper selection request is paper for children's books. Many publishing houses compete among themselves precisely with the quality of paper and illustrations. Buyers are no longer ready to buy children's books on gray and thin paper, quality publications are of interest.
Most children's books are printed in offset. The paper should have a mass of 90 to 240 grams. Whiteness - 80–90%, because higher whiteness adversely affects vision, eyes get tired and it becomes unpleasant for children to read a too “white” book. Preference is most often given to matte paper, not coated or coated - it depends on your desires. Gloss, as in the previous case, can be a hindrance!
Paper for representative literature
Do not confuse representative literature with advertising magazines. Yes, the quality of printing in both cases should be on top. It can be said that representative literature is premium class books. Rolls-Royce in the world of books! Of course, for such a level, the paper must be appropriate. In the case of offset or screen printing, paper weighing 90–240 grams per square meter. Whiteness can be much higher than in other books - 90-100%, or maybe not high, in the case of tinted or colored paper, and also paper with visible effects, for example, the effect of "marbling".
Depending on the design of your book, the paper can be matte or glossy, coated or not. In addition, embossing is allowed, imitating various materials or additional optical effects (dyeing, mother-of-pearl effect, etc.). Sometimes it is very appropriate to have a watermark in the paper locally, in a certain place on the sheet (this is an expensive option). The watermark can be randomly located on the sheet, or it can be regularly located throughout the sheet (this can be cheaper).
Text books
It is worth noting here that, of course, we are talking about mostly text books. These are books in which illustrations may be present, but they are of additional value, and are not the main element of the book. Primarily text books include: fiction, textbooks, dictionaries and reference books, and so on. Let's take a closer look at the main types of paper suitable for such books.
Paper for textbooks
The requirements for paper for textbooks are quite high, moreover, there is GOST R 54544–2011 for paper for printing school textbooks and manuals.
Printing can be done by offset or typographic method. The mass of one gram of paper for textbooks should be from 65 to 80 grams. Have pity on the students, choose paper that is lighter, but with sufficient opacity! In elementary grades, we grandfathers have to carry backpacks with textbooks! Whiteness - 74-88%. An important characteristic is the opacity, which cannot be less than 87% for textbooks. The smoothness of the paper should be 30-80 seconds Beck or 80-250 calendered.
Paper for popular fiction
Fiction books come in completely unimaginable formats. Of course, the requirements for the paper on which the book will be printed also depend on this. There are three main categories of fiction books, each of which we will consider in more detail.
Durable books
These books are usually printed by offset or typographical methods. They may have illustrations, but the percentage of textual information is still overwhelming. The mass of one square meter of paper should be 65-70 grams.
It is recommended to choose paper with whiteness 78-90% and opacity of at least 91%. A book on such paper will last a long time and will be an adornment of the library of your children and grandchildren! For such books, the paper must be made with the so-called neutral sizing. This means that the water extract from such paper has a neutral or alkaline reaction, but by no means acidic. This ensures the durability of the paper. The pages in books on paper with an acidic reaction in our home library are not only yellowed, but almost brown.
Short life books
Paper in books with a short life must contain wood pulp. Going into any bookstore, we can see that not all publishers adhere to this rule. I think it's wrong! Paper weighing from 55 to 70 grams is suitable for offset and typographic printing. Whiteness is allowed in the range from 65 to 74%. And the opacity should not be less than 85%. As you can see, the paper requirements for such books are much more moderate compared to long-term books.
This affects both the price of paper and its consumer characteristics. It should be noted that progress in the production of new types of wood pulp has significantly improved its quality. Wood pulp with chemical treatment approaches the properties of cellulose in terms of both strength and whiteness. In addition, wood pulp allows you to increase the frame (bending rigidity) of the sheet, increases its bulk and opacity, and this allows you to use paper of a lower mass per square meter. The wood pulp gives the book block manufacturability in relation to the impregnation of the spine with glue. New types of wood pulp can increase the durability of books while reducing their cost.
Pocket size books
Yes, these are the same paperback books that became so popular at the end of the last century. Depending on the budget and your desires, the paper in such books can be either pure pulp or wood pulp. Paperback books are printed by typography or offset printing. The mass of a square meter of paper can be from 55 to 65 grams.
Puffiness - 1.5-1.8 cubic centimeters per gram. Paper opacity is 85% or more. On sale come across editions in soft (and hard) cover, and even reduced formats on paper weighing a square meter over 70 grams. If in a book for children this is still tolerable, then in books for adults it is better not to cross the border of 65 grams. Leafing through such a book is not a great pleasure, the sheets of small format are hard, poorly folded, tend to return to their original state after turning over. Due to the rigidity of the block, it often falls apart when glued together, sorry for the book!
Paper for dictionaries and bibles
Paper for reference books, dictionaries, spiritual literature should be considered separately from other books. Too specific requirements are imposed on such publications.
Dictionaries and Bible
Paper suitable for offset and typographic printing, pure pulp and produced in a neutral environment. The mass of paper is very small: 30 - 50 grams per square meter.
Opacity, at the same time, not less than 85%. Such paper has a high content of pigments to impart opacity, and this leads to a decrease in its frame, which is already small due to the low mass of a square meter. Printing on such paper is a very difficult task.
Handbooks and encyclopedias
Handbooks and encyclopedias can be divided into two classes:
- long-term use
- limited-use
As the name suggests, durable reference books should last for years and not just sit on the shelf. Paper quality requirements are very high. Paper weighing from 70 to 90 grams is made from pure cellulose, in a neutral environment. Very often the surface is pigmented and chalky.
Limited life reference books allow and recommend the use of wood pulp paper. The paper pigmented and easy chalking is possible. SC (supercalendered) and LWC (light coated) papers are good choices.
Conclusion
As you can see, the choice of paper for printing a book is quite a responsible and important moment.
The book market is quite competitive! It is very easy to make a mistake with the choice of paper and lose. I wish you good luck and I am ready to answer your questions about how to choose paper for printing a book.
Among the methods of printing books, magazines, advertising, digital printing is persistently gaining its place. When choosing paper for digital printing devices, you should proceed from the requirements given here, taking into account the characteristics of printing devices. There will be a special post on the site about the specifics of the properties of paper for digital printing.
It is also important to consider the paper requirements of post-printing. Contact!
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