Grades
PreK - 5
Inspire your students to think about who they are as readers through engaging books and helpful professional development tools.
Establishing reading goals can set the tone for the kind of reading work you expect from your students—and what they expect from themselves.
As you go through the school year, discover 100 books your students will love or the books in these Super Saver collections, and try the below six smart steps for planning to set reading goals with your class.
Plus, check out these professional development resources to help bring out your class's full potential.
How do you get your students to really understand what they need to work on and set appropriate goals? Start with a question! In order for students to know where they’re going, it’s helpful to ask them, “Who are you as a reader now?” These conversations can be facilitated through surveys, reflections, or in one-on-one or small group discussions.
This is a powerful sneak peek for you to learn how your students view themselves as readers and what barriers they might face.
It can be valuable to begin the conversation about goal setting with a read-aloud. For grades K-2, try using a picture book like Leo the Late Bloomer. This is a great book to start conversations as kids identify with Leo’s struggle to learn to read, write, draw, and speak.
For older students, try initiating the conversation with Thank You, Mr. Falker. It can be helpful to discuss what readers, including your students, struggle with. (Keep tissues close at hand!)
Reading goals are personal and, depending on what students have uncovered about their current identity as readers, many might have unique goals. If a student does not know how to choose a book they’ll like or does not read outside of class, this knowledge can factor into their goals and determining what will challenge them to grow as readers.
Example goals might be to determine what books they do like to read, to discover more books to add to their reading list, or to build up reading stamina in reading longer books.
A goal sheet helps students to record their personal reading goals. For younger students, this can include a space for students to draw how they visualize themselves as successful and happy readers. This example also includes sections to record each student’s unique goal and their plans to reach it.
This process creates a wonderful opportunity to display student goals as a daily reminder in your classroom. Designate a bulletin board or central wall space to feature these goal forms or to track progress towards key milestones.
For classroom materials to prepare your bulletin boards, start here.
Now that your students’ goals are established and proudly displayed in your classroom, there are so many ways to support them throughout the year. Taking stock of the goals of the class will help you to create the right plans to help them achieve (and exceed!) their reading ambitions. This might include:
As students achieve their goals, don’t forget the final, and most important step—celebrating! We love the idea of a book review party when students can mark significant progress and share their favorite books with the class.
Shop books to support your students' reading goals below! You can find all books and activities at The Teacher Store.
Frog does not want to sit on a log! But Cat tells him that's where he belongs. Doing his best to find an alternative place to sit, Frog asks Cat a whole lot of questions. For every answer Cat has, Frog has another question, until he finds out what dogs sit on! A silly read-aloud story with funny rhymes and hilarious illustrations.
A girl in a red hat finds the courage to be kind to the new student in class. Her kindness spreads, until her whole community experiences the magical shift that happens when people understand what it means to be kind, and act on their best impulses!
Beauty is much more than how one looks on the outside. True beauty is found in conquering challenges, showing kindness, and spreading contagious laughter. Beautiful girls are empowered, smart, and really, really strong!
YOU are your ancestors' wildest dreams. How will you express YOUR greatness? Perfect for fans of I Am Every Good Thing, Little Legends, and All Because You Matter.
Katie Honors is a really brave kid. She can go to bed with just one small night light. She can hold her tears in when it's time to say goodbye to her mom at school. But sometimes Katie isn't ready to say goodbye and doesn't feel brave at all. When this happens, she Kaplooms!
This heartfelt celebration of love follows Poppy and Little One as they discuss all the things they need in life like a really good pillow or a roof over their heads but most important of all, love. Despite the challenges they face as a storm sweeps away their home, this duo never lose their optimism because in the end they know that all they truly need is love . . . and each other.
Seals are Lorelei"s favorite animal: they're so cute and cuddly and best buddies with penguins. Well... that"s what she thought before learning the ugly truth -- some seals EAT penguins! She doesn"t want to believe it at first, but she drags Penguin, the classroom guest, and seal whistleblower, to Antarctica to prove Penguin wrong and confront Seal face-to-face. And Seal finally reveals the truth.
With a simple, witty story and free-spirited illustrations, Peter H. Reynolds entices even the stubbornly uncreative among us to make a mark, and to follow where it takes us.
Hardcover Book
Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea: A Graphic Novel (Dog Man #11): From the Creator of Captain Underpants
Piggy has returned, and his newest plot is his most diabolical yet. WHAT other new villains are on the horizon? WHERE are they all coming from? And WHO will step forward to save the city when scoundrels sabotage our Supa Buddies?
Hardcover Book
Cat Kid Comic Club: Influencers: A Graphic Novel (Cat Kid Comic Club #5): From the Creator of Dog Man
The Cat Kid Comic Club is in crisis! After learning that one of their comics will be published, the baby frogs are filled with anxiety and doubt. How will they get their creative groove back? Will Naomi or Melvin emerge as a leader? Will Flippy convince them to finally straighten up and fly right?
To stop the Shadow Dragon from covering the whole world in a sky-shadow, the Dragon Masters must seek out a Light Dragon. So Drake and Darma travel to find a Light Dragon named Lysa. Lysa's Dragon Master, Rune, who is deaf, explains that the Dragon Masters will need a Star Flute in order to summon a Star Dragon and stop the Shadow Dragon. But the flute is hidden within a dangerous labyrinth! Will they be able to make it out of the tricky maze?
First-generation Filipino siblings JJ and Althea struggle to belong at school. JJ wants to fit in with the crowd, while Althea wants to be accepted as she is. But that hope seems like a long shot, for both of them. To make matters worse, they have to help their parents run the family food truck by dressing up as a dancing pig and passing out samples. Ugh! And their mom is always pointing out lessons from Filipino folklore -- annoying tales they've heard again and again. But when witches, ogres, and other creatures from those same stories threaten their family, JJ and Althea realize that the folklore may be more real that they'd suspected. Can they embrace who they really are and save their family?
Brush up on effective reading instruction strategy to instill a love of books in every kind of reader. These popular professional development books are written by experts in the field and will set your students up for reading success!
Dr. Julia B. Lindsey’s evidence-based routines help young readers decode words efficiently so they can spend more energy on comprehending-and enjoying-what they read! You’ll find:
1. Need-to-know essentials of how kids learn to read.
2. Principles of high-quality foundational skills instruction.
3. Teacher-approved instructional "swaps" to improve early reading instruction.
Professional Book
The Power Of Joyful Reading Help Your Young Readers Soar To Success
When young children are immersed in joyful and engaging shared reading experiences throughout the day, something wonderful happens. They learn to love books, enjoy reading, and see themselves as readers. They also gain basic reading skills and knowledge, which prepares them for successful reading instruction.
From kindergarten, students need to be able to decode short words and "big words" to read proficiently. Dr. Mesmer provides a K-5 scope and sequence, and research-backed, do-now strategies.
In this revised edition, Allyn and Morrell address how the 7 Strengths framework is needed more than ever in a post-pandemic world. They show how building on children's strengths while immersing them in a literature-rich classroom community can transform them into "super readers"-avid readers who grow together as they read and share their ideas with a sense of belonging, curiosity, friendship, kindness, confidence, courage, and hope
Literacy specialists Stephanie Harvey and Annie Ward demonstrate how to “table the labels” and use detailed formative assessments to craft targeted, personalized instruction that enable striving readers to do what they need above all - to find books they love and engage in voluminous reading.
