Organizing Mentor Text {Reading Edition}

Oh-kay.  Let's just say this year I have not been timely consistent. It just wasn't in the cards this year. Despite all my attempts to make it to the computer life just had other plans for me. It has been one CR-A-Z-Y year, especially this last month. I have to admit that I didn't think life was going to get any more hectic than moving... and then it DID! It totally did. Sadly my husband hurt his back which meant I took on another role hat. So recently I was wife, teacher, mover, organizer, cook, cleaner, blogger and then rehabilitator. I was an emotional mess! The first two hats I am used to but the others only come out sometimes. Lately I have had all these hats stacked on, making me feel a little bogged down. Thankfully, God has helped us get through this and Mark is almost 100% better.

With the end of the school year behind me and new chances in the horizon I am eager and a little anxious for the future. Yes, I did say changes. Next year I am going to loop up to third grade with me students. I am so excited to see them grow another year. However, taking on a new grade, moving classrooms, and leaving my teammates was and still is challenging. Professionally I am ready to take on new experiences to help me grow as an educator. It's like a double-edged sword. New opportunities with content are exciting but the pressure of state testing is not. But I don't back down from challenges and I do have my partner in crime looping up with me! So let's just say two heads are always better than one and these two heads are ready for third!

With all this moving going on (my home and now my classroom) I am determined to be organized! So I am linking up with Ladybug's Teacher Files! I love her blog and now that I am moving into an intermediate grade I am obsessed with her blog and Ideas! I mean, just look at her cute little button! You can click on it to check out her blog!

One area that I am reorganizing is my classroom library. With a new grade level I need some new texts and new organization. So I purchased Hope King's Reading Workshop Unit. It's pretty great, even though I am not new to the reading workshop and feel pretty comfortable in my instruction here, the unit offers other ideas and organization tips. I am not done organizing yet, so when I have pictures I will post them! I promise!! You can check it out by clicking on her unit cover.

Now that all my resources for the classroom library are taken care of, that left my mentor texts. These are the texts that I go to when I model reading skills and strategies as well as teach writing crafts and elaboration techniques. These texts I usually keep on a special shelf and I don't allow the kids to put in their bag of books. They are my "special" texts. I use them over and over for different subjects. However, you would think I would have them organized right? WRONG! They are a HOT mess. You think I am joking well take a look at my spare bedroom! It is a collection of my mentor "teacher" texts and my classroom library texts for the kids. H-O-T mess!

So my mission this summer was to provide organization that would cut down my planning time as well as optimize the texts I have to use in my instruction. So I have created resources for Mentor Text Organization! I am so excited to show you want I have done. Here is a look at the resources I have made.

So far I have finished the reading edition to this organizational tool! I plan on making one for writing, science and possibly math. I don't have as many math texts so that one isn't as much a priority.

First I took a look at my text mess! Then I thought about how I would want to use them when I was planning. Once I considered that I decided to make a mentor text list! The lists are grouped by skill or strategy. Then within each sheet I have included title, author and page numbers. Really thinking about saving time, I wanted to write the page numbers I use in my think aloud! Talk about remember what works and modifying what didn't!

Here is a close up of the lists I created!

Now that I addressed my planning needs I wanted to tackle organizing the texts! Nothing a few labels can't fix! I organized them by color and skill or strategy! I used the address labels by Avery. With 30 per sheet I will be able to organize and be able to store more labels for future mentor text purchases! I don't know about you but I love buying a new text!

Once you have all your materials organized you can label your text. I like the Address labels for this because they are small. This means you can have more than one label per book. I don't know about all of you but I usually reuse a text for multiple skills and strategies. For example you can use it to teach inferring but then revisit it to teach attributes in writing!  The size of label is great! Now I decided to stick the labels on the back cover. I did this because I wanted to have the color seen from the edge of the book as well as the back. Also I like the location of the back cover because I don't like to obstruct the cover or title.  Another Idea that I considered was to put it in the inside and cut the label in half. If you did it that way you would have double the labels (60 instead of 30)! It is really up to you.

I am almost done! I still needed a way to organize the texts as well as my new organizing materials! So I wanted to stay cheap but organized. So I thought 3-ring binder and sheet protectors! That allowed me to keep the list of texts I have and the matching labels to be in the same spot! Then I put them in the binder in ABC order so I could quickly find the reading skill or strategy!

Last I made labels for bins. I ordered magazine bins from Really Good Stuff. I love their colors, price and quality. That way all my mentor texts have a home.

I think that does it! I haven't posted the unit yet! I am still formatting all those address labels! It is SOOO time-consuming! As soon as it is done I will upload the unit! My goal is to have it done by Friday..... I did include 21 reading skills and strategies. They are:

Authors Purpose, Cause & Effect, Character Traits, Clarifying, Compare & Contrast, Connections, Determine Importance, Evaluate, Fact & Opinion, Genres, Inferring, Main Idea, Metacognition, Predicting, Questioning, Retelling, Sequencing, Story Elements, Summarizing, Synthesizing and Visualizing

If there is a strategy or skill that you want and don't see, just leave me a comment and I will add it before I post the unit!

Well I am off to get this unit finished! I hope all of you are either enjoying your summer off or just enjoying some sun!