SELF-SELECTED READING
Home Made Books
Many teachers make books that are great resources for the Self-Selected Reading block. They are easily to make and
can contain topics that may suit varied student interests.
Suggestions for topics:
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Alphabet books – animals, food, movies, music, famous people
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School activity books - excursion, sports day, work experience,
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Personal interest books - many students are interested in topics that are close to their hearts and are perfect
for making a book.
o
characters from TV, movies, games
o
food
o
family, friends, sports heroes
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Word wall word books – repetitive sentences of weekly words
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Social story books – picture of student’s bus
Guidelines for making books:
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Must be able to be read easily by the intended audience. If the book is too hard you cannot get better at
reading it.
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An easy way to check the Grade Level in any home made book is to:

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Type the text from your book into a Word document.
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locate Spelling and Grammar tool (PC - in Review menu; Mac - in Tools menu)
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Click options button
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Check Set or Show Readability statistics checkbox and click OK
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Run a spell check.
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When its complete a dialogue box appears showing amongst others, grade level
Create books that:
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Contain many high frequency words that may be on the class word wall - words in the first 200
common most words.
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Have repetitive and therefore predictable lines.
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Are not novels. Up to a dozen pages is a good length.
o
Are easily reproduced if they get worn out or wrecked
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Are stored in a clear plastic flip file
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Are made using Powerpoint as these can be made into:
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A4 hard copies
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mini books by printing in Handouts - 2 slides per page is good
stored digitally on iPad bookshelves or on class computers