The Big Book Center

Big books easily has the chance to become a favorite center! It is one of the easiest to maintain and gives students a high level of reading support since they are books you have completed in shared reading. I do one big book each week as part of my shared reading. At the end of the week, I place the big book in our laundry basket and the students were then allowed to use it as part of their big book center. (Lakeshore and other education companies offer beautiful storage furniture for big books. A cheaper option is to purchase the type of laundry basket that has the very tall sides. It is a cheaper alternative and a great way to store big books. Also, many of them come with wheel which is great perk for moving it when it gets full of books!)

In the big book center I often see students working independently or cooperatively to play “teacher.” They echo teacher talk and even some of the concepts, vocabulary, and ideas I’ve introduced. The fabulous part is as you teach shared reading lessons this was the model for the big book center.  

There are many things students can do in big book center. They can explore concepts about print through one to one matching, return sweep, left – right, top – bottom, or identify parts of the book. A great way to facilitate this is to provide pointers for your students. Pointers can be purchased at almost any teacher store but they can also be made easily from supplies from any craft store. By gluing a cute animal or figure on the end of a dowel rod you have a pointer. Other things that can be used are magic wands, chopsticks, rulers, Halloween witch fingers, or flyswatters.

While students are reading big books, there should be a higher level of fluency and phrasing. This is due to the previous work in shared reading. During shared reading I spend time encouraging students to run the pointer under the words instead of pointing to each one, one at a time. By moving the pointer faster and sweeping their eyes, this can help with their reading pace, fluency, and intonation.

As I mentioned earlier, students will try to model your behavior. They may ask their partners to find high frequency words, ask them questions about the text, correct each others errors, read in “character voices”, highlight key words, cover certain words with post its and write the correct word or synonym on top, discuss their favorite parts of the book, or turn the big book into readers theatre. Students may even carry activities over from the library center. They may mark text connections with sticky notes or share out a book review for the class. Another idea for Big Book activities is to place sticky notes inside each book cover with words from the book. Students can find the words in the book and cover them with the sticky notes and then reread the book. If sticky notes aren’t working, clip a ziplock back to the back cover with index cards with the words already written on them. Highlighter tape, post it notes, and markers can be stored in the bag as well.

There are several key areas to look at in big books before deciding to introduce them in shared reading and then a center. First, is this a picture book that has just been made big? Many publishers take their picture books and blow them up for quick sells. Although these are good for read alouds as they do truly let all students see the pictures, these are not good for shared reading. Shared reading texts should be something that is slightly above the average reading level of the class. Since the teacher provides a high level of support, it is not necessary that students can read it on their own the first time. I look for a book with familiar characters, is enjoyable year after year, read after read, has rhythm, rhyme and repetition, contains several key high frequency words that repeat over and over again, can be turned into a readers theatre piece, and has text large enough to be read by all students. Many of Joy Cowley books emulate these concepts. A personal favorite of mine is Mrs. Wishy-Washy. Through the year kids LOVE this book. They will read it over and over and over again. This book has endless opportunities for readers’ theatre, high frequency words, and class projects. I wrote out this entire story on sentence strips and we would go around to all the Kindergarten classes sharing the story while we acted it out. Another benefit of Mrs. Wishy-Washy is there are series of books with her, her cow, duck, and pig while she constantly tried to keep them clean. An example of a poor choice for shared reading and big book center might be If You Give A Mouse a Cookie or Brave Irene because of the high level of the text. 

Although I will spend time modeling this center throughout the year, I always make an “I Can” chart during shared or interactive writing with what students may do in this center. Mini-lessons on topics such as on book care, use of highlighter tape, post its, taking big books out and putting them away, and pointer use, as there is always someone who wants to turn it into a sword, can go a long way too in helping the center run smoothly.

Remember to include your class-made big books in the center as well. Almost any big book has a component that can be rewritten by your class or continued. By publishing your classes work, you can ensure there is always something for all your readers to read.