I used GoogleBlog to search for blogs that related to the library and struggling readers. I was excited to find a blog that is done by Education and Social Science Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This blog, The School Collection: Children's Literature at the Education and Social Science Library is much broader than my topic, but it does have a posting that goes hand in hand with mine. The rest of the blog is also going to be extrememly useful tool in the Elementary library when helping struggling readers because, as just one of numerous examples, it lists numerous books under certain topics and tells about them. This will be great for getting ideas of books for struggling readers to read.
The following excerpt is from this page:
http://www.library.illinois.edu/blog/esslchildlit/archives/2007/05/high_interest_l.html
Advocates of high interest/low vocabulary books argue that getting reluctant or struggling readers to practice reading is essential for the continued development of reading skill, and that the best way to do so is to provide them with materials that match their interests as well as their current reading level. In creating such materials careful attention must be paid to constructing a work that will not only keep the readers interests (and not appear too babyish) but also present the material in a format that will not further frustrate or confuse a struggling reader. Kenneth Schatmeyer has compiled the following list of essential characteristics of a good high interest/low vocabulary book (Schatmeyer, 2007):
- Compelling storyline and credible characters
- Topics and issues with which readers can make personal or emotional connections
- Supportive formatting that includes illustrations and appropriate text placement on the page
- Careful introduction and reinforcement of difficult vocabulary and concepts
- Straightforward plot development
- Simple sentence structures
