Beyond Leveled Books: Supporting Transitional Readers in Grades 2-5

by Franki Sibberson, Franki Sibberson

Leveled books are now recognized as an essential tool in helping beginning readers learn to read. But once students have mastered many basic decoding and comprehension strategies, they move into a period of transition as readers. Transitional readers, with their diverse needs, have always challenged and delighted teachers in the upper-elementary grades. These readers have mastered many skills but are not yet able to choose books and sustain reading independently in a wide variety of genres. This book takes a close look at the way classroom routines, small-group instruction, mini-lessons, and conversations can help students move toward independence.

Text levels are an effective tool for helping teachers match books with readers, but transitional readers can also benefit from the additional perspective that enables teachers to recognize the supports that texts have to offer. Beyond Leveled Books asks teachers to explore beyond levels and to look closely at the "supports" in the books they are reading with their students. These text supports include the way chapters are organized, text layout, dialogue, and more. Series books, chapter books, and picture books will take on new roles in upper-elementary reading instruction. Organized in charts and bibliographies, Beyond Leveled Books includes many examples of text supports from books commonly used by grades 2.

This book provides teachers with:

examples of classroom instruction for transitional readers; sample mini-lessons; strategies for grouping students for small-group instruction; assessment techniques; samples of student work; resources for working withparents; lists of suggested books for instruction. Beyond Leveled Books invites teachers to examine the characteristics and needs of transitional readers and provides instructional tools that will help students become strategic, independent readers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Professional Development

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the elementary hallways you can often hear it said that in Kindergarten through third-grade children are learning to read; but starting in fourth-grade, they are reading to learn. I’ve always held that to be somewhat true – until now. Szymusiak & Sibberson turn this popular notion on its head and prove it to be mostly erroneous.

Sure, kids in K-3 are mastering the basics of phonemic awareness (identifying sounds) and phonics (identifying the letters and blends that represent sounds) – with some additional work with suffixes, prefixes, and roots in the later grades to build and extend vocabulary. (Not to mention specialized vocabulary that is specific to all the many content areas such as history/social studies, science, music, art, health, etc. that will be continually added to through all levels of schooling.)

But this is about where the truth of that adage comes to an abrupt halt. Why? Because transitional readers – those moving beyond decodables (the "See Spot Run" or "Dick and Jane" type), but not fully independent in their reading habits – need instructional support to gain greater confidence as well as to become more skillful in their use of the myriad reading strategies. Once phonemic awareness and phonics is for the most part finished – misunderstandings can and do remain for some readers, and can be easily corrected – the hardest work is ahead for us teachers. Not just in the intermediate grades, but even up through middle and high school, young adults need continual assistance learning to select appropriate books, sustaining comprehension, maintaining an interest over an entire book, understanding many genres, and using text features.

My own personal experience with being an awkward transitional reader: Attempting to read Tolkien’s "The Lord of the Rings" one fine summer day right after fourth-grade – probably because my brother, older by two years, had just started the series. Although I could read the words, my comprehension wasn’t quite there. Nor was my stamina to keep going. Literally pages would go by, and I’d have little inkling what was really going on. (My enthusiasm for the story from playing Dungeons & Dragons and having just seen Ralph Bakshi’s animated treatment of LOTR notwithstanding.)

In short, Szymusiak & Sibberson are right on the mark that transitional readers need a lot of support – even up to and through secondary school. Weighing in at just a tad over 100 pages, this is a quick read – unlike heavy-weight tomes by Fountas & Pinnell -- packed with enough food for thought to keep the intermediate reading teacher energized to help intermediate students become life-long readers. Hear! Hear!

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for one of my Reading Grad School classes and it was so amazing. It showed that children's reading should never be reduced to a level. And it gives lists of amazing books to use that are real and are GREAT for instruction.

[Nicole C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reread this book before the beginning of every school year.

[Jen Munnerlyn]

This book has been ordered for the 2009-10 school year for our work in Reader's Workshop.