Friday Freebies....and a Linky Party!

Happy Friday everyone.  I think I may be breaking a blogging rule, but I am linking my post up to TWO linky parties. First, I am linking up with Lindsay from My Life as a Third Grade teacher for her Reader's and Writer's Workshop Must-Have's Linky Party. 

Secondly, I am linking this post up to TBA's Freebie Friday- because I have a few Freebies in here.  This is my last Friday of summer vacation, so I wanted to be sure to celebrate with a few freebies for you!

1.) Reading Essentials by Regie Routman: This book is my BIBLE for teaching reading.  So many wonderful ideas, but her in depth look at the gradual release of responsibility really focused my Reader's Workshop. Its an easy read and well worth the money!

The rest of the items have to do with Independent Reading because that is where my thinking has been this past few weeks. If  we don't spend the first several weeks launching and practicing this aspect of the workshop, nothing else will be able to occur.

2.) A well stocked and organized library. In my district, this is a NON-NEGOTIABLE. If we want kids to read, we need to give them access to books. If we want them to choose appropriate books, we need to make our library appealing to them.  And....most importantly, if we teach with a sense of urgency, our students should never have the opportunity to say " I don't have anything to read!" 

3.) Book Shopping lists: I also believe that another way to avoid "I don't have anything to read!" statement we should give our students an opportunity for book shopping and to keep lists of books they want to read so that when they need to select a book they have already thought about what they would like read.  Click on the pic to get a copy of the book shopping form that we use. I hope you can make use of it in your classrooms.

4.)  Reading Response Journals: Our journals are the place where the children keep track of their book shopping lists, reading logs, and responses to reading.  I've worked on developing these over the years. Our responses are done in the form of a letter (inspired by Fountas and Pinnell) but also tweaked to be sued as a connection to our whole group lessons and the standards we are addressing. This tweak came in the form of careful consideration of the questions that are posed for the students to answer. You can get a copy of the display I use for our response journals by clicking on the image below. Get it for FREE this weekend only!

So, what are your must-have's. Click on the links above to head on over to Lindsay's linky party and link up or read posts from others, and to grab some FREEBIES from TBA's linky party.

HAPPY FRIDAY!