Organizing a Reading Program - Teacher Tip Tuesday

Today's Teacher Tip is:

Organizing Your Reading Curriculum

We recently adopted Treasures as our reading curriculum.  I like it a lot.  It's comprehensive and our Curriculum Director has let us know that it is a tool in our instruction and that we have some professional flexibility in picking and choosing from it's many components.

This was wonderful news because it is a bit overwhelming at first.

Our district had also looked at Reading Street and way back when I used Scott Foresman.  They are all similar so hopefully these tips will help you organize whichever program you use.

When the materials arrived in the fall of 2008 my head was spinning.  There was so much stuff. Since my focus was on implementing the curriculum, I developed a quick fix to the issue of organizing the books, resources, etc.  The program is broken down to six units at the third grade level.  I sorted all of the leveled readers by unit and stored everything from each unit in a large plastic drawer.  This worked, but I knew I needed something better.

This year I did a complete overhaul and LOVE my system.  Here's what I did.

I gathered 36 sturdy magazine holders and printed a label for each.  I assigned a different color for each unit and printed that unit's labels onto colored cardstock.  My labels include the unit #, week # and the title of the main selection.

I gathered a two pocket folder for each unit as well (try to keep them color-coded to match the label) and included the same info on the outside.

I sorted all of the leveled readers by week and slid them into a large Ziploc bag.

I then printed a master for each of the pages that I use each week.  This became my master.  I draw a line across the top of all my masters using a highlighter.  This lets me know that it is my master and the line doesn't show up on a photocopy.  I place the masters into the left side of the folder so that I can easily make copies.

On the left side of the folder I put my transparencies, vocabulary and spelling cards and the folded up poster.

All of these items go into the box along with any centers or game cards that I create.

I usually have my aide make copies for the entire unit at one time.  To do so, I simply need to give her my folders.  I place all of the copies into the box.  

This system is working great for me.  Everything is well-organized and I always feel prepared.