Guest Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Hi, I'm the new Literacy coordinator in school and have finally been given permission to get some new reading books (home/school reading books) to rejuvinate our shelves (we had books that had been there since the late 1960s!!). This is a great job, as we've been needing them for a long time! We use the book band colours. I am unsure which books to buy. The members of staff would like to go with a scheme to help with progression, but the head doesn't like the idea of a scheme. She would rather have 'real' books (ie not a scheme), so the children can just choose from the book band. Obviously I will have to go with the head's final decision, but I was just wondering what your thoughts were, what other schools do and what you think works. Thanks in advance, Lizzi! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 We have been trying to do the same thing. We were using cliff moon not book bands and have decided to order real books to put in in the hopes of making our own school banding and colour system. I ordered lots of books from badger book packs which are lovely and good quality. It has been a bit tricky though fitting them into our system as I couldnt find anyway of finding out where they go so ended up with the massive job of deciding where each book should go. Also found that I ended up with not a lot of books for the lower bands even though I was ordered some for 3 to 5 year olds. Can anyone suggest where to find easy reads that are real books? Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kittycat1279 Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 I don't what they are like for banding but they do have good value book packs at the book people. As for the real book v reading scheme debate, I think both have advantages/disadvantages. I think if you go down the scheme route it is a good idea not to rely on one scheme so that get to see a wide range of books. We have at least 6 different scheme books in our home readers and alongside that they experience real books through the books they take home from the library. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tinkerbell Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Hi A mix of both might be the way forward? When the Rose Report on reading came out I asked my HT for a phonic reading scheme for the books the children take home.We boughtthe Jelly and Bean scheme which the children love and it can be book banded. I use songbirds for group reading and othe 'real' books that we have bought. We have just had a Scholastic book club which was great as the commission was £140 each class so we could buy whatever we wanted Tinkerbell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest eagleeye Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 We have a mixture of both at our school which works well. We use a few different reading schemes and then real books too! Some children love the scheme books and some don't so it's good to cater for all tastes. It is hard to find real books though for emergent readers in Reception, we use more of the real books once they are more fluent readers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Have a look at Collins Big Cat as they are lovely books, book banded but written by the well known childrens authors so very much like Real Books. Big Cat phonics books are also lovely but only 24 of them all told so not really a scheme! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kittycat1279 Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Have a look at Collins Big Cat as they are lovely books, book banded but written by the well known childrens authors so very much like Real Books. Big Cat phonics books are also lovely but only 24 of them all told so not really a scheme! I really like Collins Big Cat books too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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