Options Off The Traditional Bookshelf

 

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    It is the end of February, and I wanted to wrap up Black History Month with a great book that I could do some close reading of with my 4th grade group.  I also felt I needed try someone else's example of close reading and compare it to how I have been doing close reading with my students.  Also, I craved something that I haven't read before and I needed more than 1 copy.  Where can I get more than 1 copy of a book that I haven't read or the students haven't read from my school's Book Room?  There are many options.
    To start, I went to readworks.org to view some of the book lesson units that they have provided on the website.  There are a variety of lesson units for each grade level.  I chose a grade level lower than what my students are at because my students are reading at a 3rd grade reading levels.  As, I was going through the list of lesson units, I noticed I didn't have most of the books that were listed.  I decided I would start browsing the digital world for the books that were listed.  I hopped over to one of my favorite websites called wegivebooks.org.  We Give Books has a splendid amount of books to choose from that parents, teachers, and students can read for free online.  I have use this website in the past do read books as a whole group with a large class and a small group with my students with learning disabilities.  I have read the book from the Promethean Board to reading books from iPads with the students.  We Give Books also has lessons and activities to go with some of their books.  A book that interested me from ReadWorks lesson units was The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind By William Kamkwamba.  I got lucky because We Give Books had that on their bookshelf.  Yay!
    To help students saffold before reading the book, I will be using Padlet for students to reflect on what they think life would be like without electricity and running clean water.  That question was apart of step 1 in the lesson from ReadWorks.  I thought it would be a great way for students to be engaged with the book and reflect at the end of the book on what they thought before reading and how they felt about it now.
    Now, I had a plan, a lesson and a book that my students would find interested.  My students and I will be reading a great book this week to wrap up Black History Month.  The students really enjoy the change of reading books on digitally on the iPad.