1. Choosing Books
How do you decide a
book might be a good
read for you?
2. • In the first tutoring session it is good to find out
what kind of books appeal to the child and if he
or she has any strategies for selecting a book to
read that are not too difficult (frustration level).
• Bring to the first session four or five books that
you predict will be very easy and books at the
child’s current grade level.
3. http://www.brainpopjr.com/readingandwriting/readingskills/choosingabook/grownups.weml
• Tailor your approach to choosing a good book to read to the child’s age, reading level and personality.
• You can practice browsing a book by flipping through the pages to look at the font size and number of
words per page. Do the pictures seem interesting and engaging? After they find a book, the next step is to
determine if the book is the right level.
• The Five Finger Test is a quick way to determine the difficulty of a book. If you child finds five words that
are too difficult for them on one page, then chances are the book is above their level. If your child finds
no difficult words, then there is a good chance that the book is below their level. However, this does not
mean the book is not appropriate. Your child can also read a page aloud to test the reading level. If he or
she can read it smoothly then the book is most likely appropriate. Your child can also test the reading
level by reading a page and trying to retell what happened in his or her own words. If they cannot
summarize the page, the book may be above level.
• Remind your child of the Goldilocks Rule—find a book that is not too hard, not too easy, but just right.
4. Five Finger Rule or Strategy for Finding a Just Right Book to Read.
If your tutee does not have a The Five Finger Rule
way of deciding if a book is Open to a page and try to read.
something he or she can take Count the words you miss.
home to read for pleasure
then teach The Five Finger
Rule.
0 - 1 finger...easy
You Tube Video
“Choosing a Just Right 2 - 3 fingers...just right
Book.wmv
4 - 5 fingers...hard
You Tube Video
Good Fit Books [Classroom
Instruction] Happy reading!
5. Example
I asked Nate if he had ever heard of the Five Finger Strategy. He said
they learned about it in school last year but he could not remember
how to use it. I modeled how to use the strategy and this triggered
his memory. He used the strategy on these five books.
Biscuit by Alyssa Satin Capucilli (Early 1st) Easy
If My Dad were a Dog by Annabel Tellis (Early 1st) Just Right
Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats (Late 1st) Just Right
Annie and the Wild Animals by Jan Brett (Late 1st) Just Right
Harry by the Sea by Gene Zion (2nd grade) Too Hard.
I would like to work on the Five Finger Strategy again during our next tutoring session
because I think it was difficult for Nate to realize when he did not know a word. He did
not realize when he substituted another word for the correct word.
7. What if child does not know he or
she has misread a word?
It is common for children who are experiencing difficulties
with reading not notice when they misread a word.
One tutor explains something that has worked for many
other tutors and children.
One problem that we ran into was that my tutee was not
identifying when he was saying a word incorrectly. For this
reason, we began recording his reading and then listening to it
again (from an audio recording) while looking at the print copy.
This helped tremendously because he was able to identify where
he was making his mistakes. We kept at the forefront of our
conversation the question, “Does this make sense?”