Do you have a source for used Graded Readers?

zteacher62 · Post by **zteacher62** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 3:31 am

I work in a cash poor ESL program, and am seeking graded readers for my students.

I've tried searching and searching online, and can't come up with anything! Have you got any suggestions for finding sets of graded readers? I'm paying out of my own cash poor pocket so that my students have something fun to read independently.

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 6:31 pm

I suspect that you will be disappointed with any graded readers. You have to start at the beginning to get all the vocabulary necessay and they are stilted reading in the main. My friends sent me a series of the current rock, pop and movie stars which I thought would be a huge hit but after the students looked at the pictures, the books stayed on the shelf in the English Room untouched. They preferred the magazines that people sent and those were much better used because we could cut them up after we saw the pictures and have them write their own stories which they understood. I think that is always a better answer - writiing tons and tons of stories, and illustrating them in some way from drawings to cut out and photos. You can build up quite a library and make nice covers with laminating them with packing tape. The kids love to read each other's stories and they will be closer in language level than anything you can buy. If the student doesn't understand a word they can go to the author for explanation. The subjects are always interesting and usually culturally acceptable.
Use your money to buy packng tape and good quality book cover material.