I've often found that when I send kids to the book baskets to select books, they waste at least a fourth of this time while they are up out of their seats, either talking or just meandering aimlessly through the book baskets. How can I fix this? I was just looking at Beth Newingham's web site and saw where she has kids pick books to put in an individual book box to have them last throughout the week - but then these boxes are stored on a bookshelf - so when would kids have access to them - only during guided reading time? What are some other ways that you manage kids being up out of their seats to choose books?
Every morning, my students have a list of things to accomplish, such as turn in homework, sharpen pencils, go book shopping for the day, and get started on morning work. They are allowed to have 3 books in their box at a time (2 books on their level and 1 free choice book), and are expected to only trade out the books they are done with or no longer want. This means that several students are only changing books once a week, if that, and I only ever have no more than 3 or 4 students at a time trading books -- usually my lower readers are trading more regularly since they're going through their books more quickly. We use the book boxes and they stay on the floor along the wall. I allow my students to go collect their books anytime they finish work early or during SSR. It is done quietly and since students finish their work at different times, they're up out of their seats collecting their books at different times. They put the box back wherever there is a spot when I'm ready to start something else, so it's also done quickly and quietly... never really had a problem with it. Although I don't see why you couldn't allow them to keep their box on the floor by their desks for the day either.
I started out this year with an assigned morning when kids would pick out their independent reading books and replace them in their reading book bags, but I found that this wasn't as effective because a lot of kids weren't finished or were finished earlier than that. So, I did A LOT of mini lessons on how to know when you are ready to exchange and HOW to exchange and the kids could do it when they were ready. I think it was good to start second graders off with an assigned day and as they got better at stamina etc, switch to them picking when they need to . We talked a lot about what bookstores and libraries are like etc. I think it was great!!!!
my kids also only pick once per week- one table of kids at a time. So about 4-5 kids are picking- the rest of the class has their books that they picked last time in their bins already. They have access to their book bins at independent reading time. I confer actively with my students so they know which basket to choose from so it should not take long at all for them to pick a few new ones out of the recommended basket.
