KEEP BOOKS

Small books to unleash boundless potential

With titles across genres in appropriate levels from pre-K through second grade, KEEP BOOKS leverage and expand children's learning potential. KEEP BOOKS align with teaching and learning strategies designed for student growth and success.

Book Sets

Now more than ever

KEEP BOOKS sprang from the desire to provide a sound start for young readers.

Passionate about children's futures, educators at OSU saw the need for quality texts that incorporate the elements proven to help young readers develop early proficiency and secure their literacy futures.

Children's literacy has never been more important. Perhaps especially in a world where print is everywhere, the need for standout texts written with a knowledge of what children really need from early and emergent reading has never been greater.

The KEEP BOOKS Story Continues

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Why Choose KEEP BOOKS

Introduce KEEP BOOKS in the classroom

KEEP BOOKS work in small group and whole group settings. They are leveled and ideal for use in Guided Reading. Our guides explain how to incorporate KEEP BOOKS in your classroom.

GUIDES

Carefully Designed to Support Readers as They Grow

KEEP BOOKS support readers as they progress in their ability to process texts. KEEP BOOKS offer a clear and fun way to develop reading skills for early and emergent readers.

Give KEEP BOOKS to readers and promote school-Home connections

When children take KEEP BOOKS home they have increased access to quality texts. Reading makes readers: with books at home and a strong school-home connection reading increases.

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Purposes of KEEP BOOKS

KEEP BOOKS serve a number of purposes, including the following:-

They provide a great deal of easy reading material, so children get lots of practice.
They include many high-frequency words that children read again and again, so they build up word knowledge.
They provide opportunities for children to notice how words "work" and learn phonics skills.
They make it possible for children to read on their own, rather than always depending on adults.
They motivate children to write.
They build a ready store of books at home that children can access any time.
They help children build confidence in themselves as readers.

How to Use

KEEP BOOKS Provide Added Value

KEEP BOOKS are "extra" reading that begins in the classroom and moves to the home and community. KEEP BOOKS do not take the place of children's literature, which should be included in every classroom library. They do not replace the books that teachers read aloud to children or the leveled book collection that teachers use for small group reading instruction. KEEP BOOKS supplement and expand reading opportunities.

Book Sets

"A home with books as an integral part of the way of life encourages children to read for pleasure and encourages discussion among family members about what they have read, thereby providing children with information, vocabulary, imaginative richness, wide horizons, and skills for discovery and play."

─ Mariah Evans, Jonathan Kelley, and Joanna Sikora.

Children Make KEEP BOOKS Their Own

Coloring

Black and white line drawings are ideal for younger readers to color. Coloring the books cements ownership. With guidance it focuses attention on the illustrations and their link to the text.

My Own KEEP BOOKS for Writing

My Own KEEP BOOKS are blank books that children can use to extend their stories or write new ones. Literacy and learning are boosted when students build on the model of KEEP BOOKS stories they have read to craft their own work for others to read. Thinking about reading and writing, and authoring their own work improve literacy outcomes and places students in a community of learners.

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Talk About KEEP BOOKS

Teachers talk about the power of KEEP BOOKS to change children's lives and instill a love of reading.

Janell Reynolds

Janell talks about KEEP BOOKS' impact on her granddaughter's life.

Mary Taylor

Mary talks about using KEEP BOOKS in a Teacher Based Team Study.

Jamie Barrows

Jamie talks about using KEEP BOOKS to take it to the next level!

Jenny McFerin

The benefits of using KEEP BOOKS at school and at home to promote literacy learning.

School to Home

"Sending books home for students to reread and 'keep' has a positive impact on parents as partners in learning."

Gay Su Pinnell

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Building Competency

"Every reading experience builds on the one before to strengthen the abilities of the reader."

Patricia L. Scharer

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Growth Mindset

"Test scores & measures of achievement tell you where a student is, but they don’t tell you where a student could end up."

Carol Dweck

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More benefits of KEEP BOOKS for young readers and writers

These sets of small books, designed to support readers from PreK to mid-grade 2, will help young readers and writers to:-

know the purpose of reading and writing;
read with understanding and write to communicate;
use reading and writing as tools for learning.

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QUESTIONS? CALL 1-800-678-6484

Responsive Literacy

Responsive Literacy: A Comprehensive Framework is the new text edited by renowned children's literacy expert Dr. Patricia L. Scharer and written by experts associated with OSU's Literacy Collaborative Project. Gay Su Pinnell and John McCarrier have written a powerful chapter about how KEEP BOOKS can support the teaching of reading and writing.

In this book, you'll learn how to create an environment that supports both independent reading and writing as well as interactive, shared, and guided reading and writing. Scharer and her co-authors, among the most knowledgeable and respected literacy educators in the world, share in practical and illuminating detail what it takes to implement exemplary literacy instruction.

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The Must-Have Professional Text

Responsive Literacy: A Comprehensive Framework

SIX COMPONENTS

This seminal text is organized around the six essential components of comrehensive literacy.

In this book, learn how KEEP BOOKS can support all six of these components.

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Professional Learning

"Investing in the development of excellent teachers is the best preparation for our children's future" (Gay Su Pinnell).

Organizing for Learning

With thoughtful planning of classroom routines and time to teach, prompt, and reinforce the behaviors that lead to self-motivation and self-reliance, you can gradually release students to act and think as independent readers.

Reading

"When all the members of the classroom share deep and intimate knowledge of a small collection of books, a new level of communication about reading and writing is possible." (Lester Laminack)

Writing

"Writing can contribute to the building of almost every kind of inner control of literacy learning that is needed by the succcessful reader." (Marie Clay)

Bulding Blocks of Language

"The effective vocabulary teacher builds a word-rich environment in which students are immersed in words for both incidental and intentional learning and the development of 'word awareness.'" (Blackowicz & Fisher)

A Learning Community

"Inquiry ... is an active, lively classroom where children make choices and take responsibility for their learning. Inquiry is backed by research, and it promotes deep student engagement." (Harvey "Smokey" Daniels)

Let's Keep in Touch

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The Joy Of Learning to Read

From children's first experiences at school, we want them to become engaged, voluntary readers who gain information from reading, collect books, find themselves in the texts they read, and experience the real joy of reading.

KEEP BOOKS

Small books to unleash boundless potential