In Beyond Leveled Books, Second Edition, Franki Sibberson, Karen Szymusiak, and Lisa Koch provide even more resources to help teachers understand and meet the needs of transitional readers. The key topic of series books has been revised and enlarged, with charts outlining new series with the challenges they pose and supports readers need. New lessons have been added, and most chapters now include a related article from a literacy expert. Some of the contributors include Kathy Collins, Larry Swartz, and Mary Lee Hahn.Leveled books are an indispensable tool for teaching children to read, especially for emergent readers, but the authors of Beyond Leveled Books are sounding the alarm about the overuse and misuse of leveling and the way it restricts teacher autonomy and undermines student choice and reading engagement. The authors lay out a blueprint for using leveled books effectively within a student-centered and differentiated approach that is designed to motivate all readers, particularly transitional ones. Teaching Transitional Readers: Beyond Leveled Books is packed with resources to help teachers understand and meet the needs of transitional readers, including examples of classroom instruction, sample mini-lessons, strategies for small-group instruction, assessment techniques, and articles by literacy experts Resources for K-5 Classrooms: The book explores the uses and limitations of leveled texts in primary reading instruction, including ideas for how to organize your classroom library and a list of great books and series to use alongside leveled text in supporting new readers Gateway to Independent Reading: The authors provide explicit tools for helping students consolidate their skills and reading strategies, to read widely and deeply, to increase their vocabulary, and build critical thinking Making Reading Fun: Teach students to experience joy from reading through deeper comprehension and application Beyond Leveled Books is an essential resource for K-5 teachers looking to help all readers, including budding readers, struggling readers, transitional readers, and readers who have plateaued.

What is special about Beyond? In Grammar • Covering the main topics assigned to this level • Presenting the topics simply, clearly, and sufficiently • Providing ample graded practice activities • Enhancing oral and written communication skills In Composition • Focusing on the writing process as an appropriate means to effective writing • Introducing the basic types of writing: expository, descriptive, narrative, and persuasive • Providing guided and semi-guided practice to ensure mastery of basic writing skills • Enhancing competency in writing freely and effectively Beyond is all that you need!

Try counting how many different types of texts you read each day. Now count how few your students read in class. Michael Opitz, Michael Ford, and Matthew Zbaracki argue that if we want children to meet our literacy expectations, we must do more than supplement basal reading or anthologies with a few books here and there. What kids need to grow into lifelong readers is true variety in a print-rich classroom, teaching that values their out-of-school literacy as well as their in-school literacy, and an emphasis on what works, instead of what's mandated. Books and Beyond is a book of big ideas and smart, useful strategies. Opitz, Ford, and Zbaracki suggest ways to model literate behaviors so that students come to understand that reading is not reserved for the classroom but permeates everything adults do. They describe step by step how to use ten distinct types of outside-world text in your reading program, including a wide range of genres and media. They offer specific advice and instructional alternatives for each kind of text and answer key instructional questions about it such as: Why use it? How can it be used in the classroom? How does it work with different age groups? What are examples that are appropriate for students? What websites are good for researching it? Books and Beyond has everything you need to create a reading program that truly offers students choice alongside a strong sense of how and why we use reading in our everyday lives. And with tips for working around the obstacles of basals, suggestions for reforming the attitudes that have left many real-world texts undervalued, ignored, or even banned from classroom use, as well as methods for using alternative texts to increase student interest and motivation, it's got enough savvy to help you make the transition to a balanced reading program without making waves. If you or your students struggle with banal basal programs, or if you'd simply like to open children's eyes to a wider world of genres, texts, and literature, read Books and Beyond. You'll find a whole new world of reading instruction at your fingertips.

What is special about Beyond? In Grammar • Covering the main topics assigned to this level • Presenting the topics simply, clearly, and sufficiently • Providing ample graded practice activities • Enhancing oral and written communication skills In Composition • Focusing on the writing process as an appropriate means to effective writing • Introducing the basic types of writing: expository, descriptive, narrative, and persuasive • Providing guided and semi-guided practice to ensure mastery of basic writing skills • Enhancing competency in writing freely and effectively Beyond is all that you need!

What is special about Beyond? • Motivating themes • Real-world issues • Cultural exposure • Communicative spirit • Interactive procedure Beyond is all that you need! Components • Student’s multi-skill course book • Student’s composition and grammar course book • Student’s activity CD • Teacher’s guide • Teacher’s audio input CD

What is special about Beyond? • Motivating themes • Real-world issues • Cultural exposure • Communicative spirit • Interactive procedure Beyond is all that you need! Components • Student’s multi-skill course book • Student’s composition and grammar course book • Student’s activity CD • Teacher’s guide • Teacher’s audio input CD

For ten years and in two classic books, Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell have described how to analyze the characteristics of texts and select just-right books to use for guided reading instruction. Now, for the first time, all of their thinking and research has been updated and brought together into Leveled Books, K-8 to form the ultimate guide to choosing and using books from kindergarten through middle school. Fountas and Pinnell take you through every aspect of leveled books, describing how to select and use them for different purposes in your literacy program and offering prototype descriptions of fiction and nonfiction books at each level. They share advice on: the role of leveled books in reading instruction, analyzing the characteristics of fiction and nonfiction texts, using benchmark books to assess instructional levels for guided reading, selecting books for both guided and independent reading, organizing high-quality classroom libraries, acquiring books and writing proposals to fund classroom-library purchases, creating a school book room. In addition, Fountas and Pinnell explain the leveling process in detail so that you can tentatively level any appropriate book that you want to use in your instruction. Best of all, Leveled Books, K-8 is one half of a new duo of resources that will change how you look at leveled books. Its companion-www.FountasandPinnellLeveledBooks.com-is a searchable and frequently updated website that includes more than 18,000 titles. With Leveled Books, K-8 you'll know how and why to choose books for your readers, and with www.FountasandPinnellLeveledBooks.com, you'll have the ideal tool at your fingertips for finding appropriate books for guided reading. Book jacket.