New to Fifth Grade
 

Just found out I'll be working in a fifth grade room for reading. Please share what works best with that age group. Reader's Workshop? Cafe? We don't have a reading series to work from. All suggestions are welcome!

Novel studies
 

Do you have access to class sets of novels? We threw out our reading series and use novels to teach skills. It's a little more work with planning, but so much more fun.

Sounds fun
 

We do... but there is a need to differentiate instruction. Our readers are at all levels and need to read books at their instructional levels.
Which novels do your students enjoy most?
If you have a copy of the skills you teach with a particular book, I would be interested in seeing it.

We are reading Frindle right now. Students are reading at their own pace. I googled the book and came up with a ton of things. They are all working on a summarizing storyboard in groups.

Fifth grade
 

I would suggest finding novels that support learning in other subject areas, such as Science and Social Studies. Reinforcing concepts learned in these content areas is very important to students of this age. They will come to love these interdisciplinary units. I also use Reading Workshop and CAFE to keep track of standards we have learned.