The Dilemma:

Do you get as frustrated as I do when you send off your Reading Partners with an “Off you go!” and instead of diving right into a good book together, you overhear this:

“But you chose the book last time!”
“It’s my turn to pick how to read the book!”
“You read first last time!”
“You always read first!”
and the dreaded, “You’re not my friend.”

And you wait. You wait for them to solve this dilemma on their own. But soon you find them inching away from one another instead of sitting “elbow to elbow, knee to knee”.

Come on, kids! You are wasting valuable reading time! How are you going to increase your reading level if you Are. Not. Reading? You then remind them of your Reader’s Workshop routine, and attempt to solve the dispute by assigning who will pick the book, and how they will read. But you are then informed that you chose wrong and are then sucked into their Reading Partner drama! More precious instruction time wasted!

Teachers are busy! We need to confer with our readers or begin small group work. Time is valuable and when you find yourself solving Reading Partner disputes instead of getting on with your instruction, we feel ineffective. We WANT to be Super Teacher!

Well, I have the perfect solution to help you manage smooth transitions from your Reader’s Workshop mini lesson into Partner Reading:

Solve their dilemma!

Assign your Reading Buddies a role as either the “Peanut Butter” or “Jelly” in their reading partnerships.
Adhere their picture or write their name on a slice of peanut butter and jelly.
Keep in mind, that partnerships may change, you may wish to tape/velcro their pictures or use a dry erase marker to label them so that you can use this anchor chart year after year.
Display as a visual reminder for your students to start reading right away and build their stamina!

How it works:

At the start of buddy reading during Reader’s Workshop, have a student flip the card for the day.

If you are “peanut butter” you choose the first book.
If you are “jelly”, you choose how to read it!
Tomorrow the card will be flipped once again…jelly picks the book first while peanut butter picks how to read.

Here, one of my students explains it perfectly:

You got this!

If you are as frustrated as I WAS, you need this system to get your readers to transition smoothly during your Reader’s Workshop so you can get your “teach-on”! You can download your own copy of this adorable set right here:

Reading Partners Go Together like Peanut Butter and Jelly

I hope this helps!
Happy Reading!