THEN: A PIONEER IN READERS AND WRITERS WORKSHOP
Twenty years ago when Readers and Writers Workshop and Reading Recovery was in its infancy, Woodside School was a school leader in developing the program in the Bay area. What started with less than 100 teachers nationwide has now progressed and thousands of teachers are being trained through programs like Teachers College Readers and Writers Workshop.

NOW: TEACHERS COLLEGE READERS AND WRITERS WORKSHOP
At least one teacher from grade levels spanning k-6th, our Literacy Specialist and our librarian have all been trained at Columbia University's Readers and Writers Workshop Project, founded by Lucy Calkins. (http://rwproject.tc.columbia.edu/) One of the key elements of this program is to make sure students are reading books at their level. Our Literacy Specialists, Jan Sollish and Laura Symon, and language arts teachers assess students individually to determine their reading levels - several times throughout the school year. Students are then given a letter that corresponds with their developmental reading assessment (DRA) reading level.

Students should read books at their own level ("just right books") as often as possible to improve their reading skills such as decoding, fluency, and comprehension skills so they can readily move to the next level. As the levels progress there are other skills needed such as: making the connection of text to self, text to text, text to life, reflection, inferencing, and retelling, etc.  that also progress in complexity. The documents below will give you very specific insight into the skills needed at each reading level.

CHARACTERISTICS OF LEVELS
Below see notes taken at Readers Workshop that describe bands of text levels along with characteristics and difficulties.
Notes - Bands/Difficulties

Below is a document that identifies specific characteristics of the levels, within their band.
Leveled Book Characteristics by Groupings

LEVELED BOOKS AND THE WOODSIDE SCHOOL LIBRARY
The library staff is developing systems to support the students in finding books at their level.

Fiction books from level A-K are all shelved in one area, and each books has a sticker on the inside cover under the barcode that identifies the level.

Fiction books from level L- and up in the series section contain a sticker on the inside cover under the barcode that identifies the level.

Fiction books from level O and up that are shelved in the main fiction area are in the process of being labeled.

LINKS TO LEVELED BOOK LISTS
These websites can hep you search for books by level and/or by title or author:

McCarthy-Towne School Home Page - Leveled Book Lists
http://home.comcast.net/~ngiansante/

Reading A-Z.com
http://www.readinga-z.com/book/leveled-books.php

Scholastic - type in the title or author in the search box and check the box for Guided Reading for your level system
http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do