Shared Reading Center

Every teacher has favorite picture books that they always read aloud to their students (or if you are like me you have an entire spare bedroom of them!). Why not turn them into a literacy station? My fab reading coach, Amy, told me about this station idea and we are calling it the Shared Reading Center. I am positive my creative bloggy friends can come up with a better name for it. Here is what you do, simply attach a library pocket into the back of the cherished book. Then write a few questions related to the story or reading skill on index cards and put them in the back of the book. Next find a cute basket or bin to hold all the books( I am still working on this part). When students come to the station, they read a book of their choice with their partner and then answer one of the questions in their literacy logs (notebooks my students carry to every station and use to record their work and thinking). I think it is important to have read the book aloud to your class before placing it in the center so the students will have some experience with it and won't struggle as much with new words. This station can easily be updated throughout the year by adding new read alouds so students will not get bored. You could even differentiate this station by color coding the index cards for different reading levels. 

I created a list of general questions you could use for this center.  Each book could use a more specfic question and each book will lend itself to a different reading skill or strategy.  If you come up with any more questions for this center please share!