Reading A-Z

May 28, 2014

I fell in love with Reading A-Z materials this year.  When I received my  class’scumulative folders in August, I was taken aback by the fact that two-thirds of my class were below grade level, and out of that two-thirds, half were significantly below grade level.  The first thought that popped into my mind was, “I don’t have nearly enough leveled texts that are sixes, eights, tens, or twelves.” I downloaded as many free texts from the website as I could until it denied me further access.  Anyone who knows anything about this profession understands that teachers cannot just sign up and pay for membership to every educator website out there, or we’d really have diminished funds! So, I contacted my principal and he informed me that we had access as a school through our reading consultant’s log-in.  From that day on, my grade-level partner and I emailed our lists of desired leveled texts to be printed, and how many of each, to a friend in the administrative office (once again, we couldn’t afford to print them using our own ink, what with the cost of ink these days…). Having access to these materials made my teaching life much easier this school year as I planned my guided reading lessons for groups of students reading at and below level 14.  I also borrowed many text sets from our “reading room” and a few from the first grade teachers.  However, it was definitely the Reading A-Z texts and the variety from which to choose that helped me teach engaging small group lessons and fill my students’ reading bins with texts they could actually read with ease.