A Culture and Climate of READERS

All humans can be readers, if they find the right book! Harry Potter opened up the world of reading, magic, and possibilities for me. Being a classroom teacher, spending 30+ hours with young minds, it is my job to expose students to their type of book. 

Read Alouds

With testing and curriculum, how do you find time to do a read-aloud?  Easy, reading aloud is learning and curriculum! Reading together allows GREAT class discussions on important topics in addition to exposure to vocabulary, quality writing, fluent reading, new text structure, genre books, author studies and more. As we read we monitor comprehension, make predictions, and connections! So I ask you, with testing and curriculum, how can you NOT do a read aloud? 

Certain days allow more time to invest into a novel as a class, but when we are doing a class novel we take some time every day to read together. Sometimes this is as they are unpacking in the morning, as  transition from recess, at dismissal, or taking the time to read as we relax to soak up reading. 

My FAVORITE book to read whole class is Wonder by RJ Palaccio, as you can see by my beat up copy. I have read this book with 5th, 6th, and 8th graders in the different classrooms I have taught. Each year and each group of students loved it just as much, if not more, than the class before! Students, and adults alike, are fascinated by the story of Auggie overcoming challenges. It is a great way to start the year with discussions of differences, acceptance, and kindness. It tends to become a motto in our room, "when given the choice between being right or being kind, always choose kind". We take this motto and tie it into character education and take the kindness pledge. 

Welcome to the world of Greek Mythology! The Percy Jackson and the Olympian series is the modern day version of my Harry Potter magical gateway to reading. I usually read this book in tandem with D'Aulaires Book of Greek Mythology. The D'Aulaires book is a work of art alone, but the images and stories combined give such clear stories. Having this background knowledge, they make better inferences and connections to the fictional additions in the Percy Jackson series. Students, in my experience, rarely stumble onto Greek mythology on their own and when they do, they don't realize there is reading out there that includes this type of adventure! We only read book 1, Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief, together as a class, but soon after, our classroom and school library runs out of Rick Riordan books! 

I've noticed some students will read within the comedy genre and never leave it, sticking to Captain Underpants, Diary of a Whimpy Kid, and any joke book, while other students have never picked up this genre. Towards the spring I love reading Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar. It is a quick read, light hearted, and each chapter doesn't necessarily connect to the last, except repeating characters. This book is OFTEN on Scholastic's $1 list, so I purchased a class set so students are holding their own book as we read. 

Flashlight Reading!

Turn off the lights, close the curtains, shut the door, and READ! This is the first year I have tried flashlight reading! The students LOVE it! We usually work to earn this as a reward over the course of a week in our reading blocks. Students can earn minutes towards flashlight reading by meeting our small group expectations (6inch voices, on task, keep teacher time special...). It's so catchy to say flashlight Friday, but our schedule makes it easier to work into on Wednesdays when we don't have RTI reading (Response to Intervention). 

I found affordable flashlights on Amazon. These EverBrite flashlights were sold in a pack of 18 for $16 (at the time) AND they came with batteries! They are miniature and fit in your palm, but provide a great amount of bright light for reading in the dark. 

We have some expectations for our Flashlight Reading time. With the room so dark, students need to stay where they are; so they must have 1-2 books ready to go so that no one has to move. We talk about safety with shining bright things on someone's eyes, so therefore lights have to shine on and only on the books. If we are not able to follow the expectations, the consequence is not having a flashlight to join us. 

My students genuinely love this activity and want to follow the rules and WANT TO READ. They have a book of their choice and are building reading endurance in addition to reading and writing skills!