STAR Readers

I have been doing reading homework with my kiddos for a few years now and last year it seemed that some of my kids were getting bored with it.  I would send home these white take home readers that we had read in class.  I even had some parents say they were bored with them.  And I think it made sense, I mean really, they aren't in color, they (the parents) had to listen to the same stories quite a bit and well I guess I would get bored too.  SO I wrote a grant to purchase real books and the materials to start my STAR (Sit Together And Read) reading homework.  I also began going through my personal library of books and pulling books I thought would be good for homework or ones I had 2 copies of. I then used Scholastics Book Wizard and leveled them according to DRA levels.  Then I added library pockets to the inside front cover of books and an index card with the title's name, level and my name (I also put a label on the outside cover of the books). I really think this had improved my students wanting to read AND they get to chose 2 new books every week.  I still send home the take home readers so they have more than just 2 books but I'm sure they aren't read as much.  Here are some pictures of what my STAR homework looks like.

 The red bin on top is where they turn them in on Fridays.  (the other stuff is for a center)

The pocket chart with all their names-it's like a check out system at a library and I put the cards in their pocket so I know which books they have.

 This is the front of their envelope they take home.  It has a letter regarding the program and if they lose books how much it costs.  Also I added a cheat sheet on strategies for parents.

This is the back of their envelope-each month I add the calendar and parents are to initial each night their child reads. On Friday, when their envelope is due, I put a sticker on Friday if they read all the nights that week (usually it's four nights M-Th) If they don't read or don't have it signed or it's late, I put a sad face on Friday.