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https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/barometer-taking-stand-controversial-issues

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Structure an active class discussion in which students express their opinions by standing along a continuum.

Advisory

Civics & Citizenship

English & Language Arts

History

Social Studies

Most teachers are willing to tackle the difficult topics, but we need the tools.

- Gabriela Calderon-Espinal, Bay Shore, NY

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Barometer: Taking a Stand on Controversial Issues

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Structure an active class discussion in which students express their opinions by standing along a continuum.

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Speed Dating books for Middle School students

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Speed Dating books for Middle School students

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https://www.readerpants.net/2019/08/book-speed-dating-how-i-did-it-and-why.html

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Oh, this lesson is awesome! I've wanted to try out book speed dating for awhile now, and I finally went for it last week. I wanted to use a smaller "test" group before trying this with a class of 35 eighth graders, so I tried it with our resource reading classes first. The resource classes' primary focus is to support struggling readers, so they generally have fewer than ten students. Because of the nature of the class, the students do not tend to be readers, nor are they generally intrinsically-motivated to read.

Y'all, this activity went SO. WELL. I had the best results with the eighth grade class, who better-understood all my dating jokes ("sometimes you have to kiss some frogs", "sometimes you have to throw that fish back in", "if at first you don't succeed", etc.). They really enjoyed the lesson, and my eighth grade library assistants, who saw the speed dating as they worked in the library, all asked me to do this with their classes, too.

The best part? The classes I did this with were excellent at reading quietly, even though many of them are struggling readers!

How I implemented Book Speed Dating in my middle school library:

Prep: Decide how you want the tables set up. I had 9 tables with 4 chairs at each table. Each table was a different genre. For the reading resource classes, I chose high-interest genres such as horror, humor, manga, nonfiction, survival, romance, sports, and realistic fiction. I put 10-15 books on each table to represent that genre. Each table had a sign labeling the genre. I also set up a PowerPoint with the directions for the minutes.

Action

Students could sit at any table. As they came in, they noticed the signs and books, and I could already tell they were picking their genres, even though I hadn't said a word about what we were doing. I just told them to sit anywhere and that we would be moving soon enough.

I went through the PowerPoint slides (available in my TPT store-see link below), introducing speed dating and how it relates to our book speed dating activity. We went over the directions thoroughly, and I made absolutely certain everyone knew what to do.

Timing

Time to start! When going over the directions with the students, I talked about book speed dating etiquette, which the students loved. Here's how I timed it:

First minute-Choose a table. Start looking through the books in the stack.

Second minute-The "first impression." This second minute is so important that I added a section just for the second minute below. In the second minute, students should take time to really look through the books at their tables. No reading yet though!

Minutes 3-5-Start reading the book. If the book is short stories, poetry, or nonfiction, you can start at any point that interests you. If it is fiction or otherwise necessary, start with the first chapter. This should be completely silent, and I also compared that to a first date. You have only three minutes to "get to know" this book and see if you want a second date.

Minute 5-If you like your book speed date, keep it with you. You are still going to explore the other books and can always "throw that fish back in" if a better book comes along. Or, you can just check out both of them! It's great if you can give your students a record sheet to write down their thoughts about their book date.

Switch tables!-I allowed my students to choose any table they wanted, but they could not stay at one table for more than two rotations.

The all-important "second minute"

I believe too many students, particularly reluctant readers, choose a book based on the cover or that they've seen the movie. Especially in cases where they are rushed for time and must "pick something," some students base their book selection on nothing at all. I want them to think about what makes them want to read a particular book. Even as a successful reader, I personally never commit to a book without looking at the font size, white space, and the blurb.

This is why I believe the second minute of this activity should never be skipped. In this second minute, the students looked closely at the front and back cover, the condition of the book, read the blurb, open the book and look at white space, illustrations, font size, chapter length, etc. I specifically told them not to read the book at this time.

We also talked about how sometimes, your "date" looks really great, but when he/she starts talking, you realize she has bad breath or he can't string together a complete sentence without cursing. As with first dates, we must delve beyond a book's front cover.

Some other rules students had to keep in mind

If you are talking, you are being rude to your book date and the book dates going on around you.

Do not switch out your book date before the three minutes is up. This would be the equivalent of talking to another potential date when you've barely spoken to the date you are on!

If you want to meet someone else's book date, wait until your date is over. It's three minutes, not a lifetime!

Tweaks for the next class period

After your speed dating class ends, you'll want to evaluate how it went and tweak it for the next group. Was there a particular table that never got used? Was there a table that was full every time? Did the timing work for the class? Did they have enough time, or not enough? For my classes, I added a second nonfiction table since it was full every time. The romance section was particularly popular, even with the boys, so I added some "non-pink" romances to that table for the boys. Surprisingly, barely anyone was interested in the magazines table.

What Would I Do Differently?

I am excited to add a fun twist for when I do this activity again. After all the "book speed dating" has finished, each student will choose a playing card from the middle of the tables. Students who got a heart or a diamond (red card) get a "kiss" at the end of their date (Hershey's kiss). Students with a spade or club (black card) get a "sour face" at the end of their book date (a warhead candy). They can redeem the cards at the checkout counter.

Overall, this lesson was a great success. Many of the books got checked out, and the students were really engaged and enjoyed it. Next time, we'll get to squeeze in more rotations since I won't have to take time explaining how it works. Best of all, they were introduced to LOTS of new books and genres!

Additional resources:

Love this idea but don't have time to put it all together? I've prepped the PowerPoint and student record sheets in my Book Speed Dating Activity on TPT.

Other ways to speed date with books:

"Book Speed Dating"-The Mighty Little Librarian - This one is very similar to mine, except in this one, the students stay put and move the boxes of books.

"Building Our To-Read Lists: Book Speed Dating" by SharpRead - Same concept with younger students. Simply stated with plenty of photos!

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Book Speed Dating: The Hows and Whys - Mrs. ReaderPants

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I've wanted to try out book speed dating for awhile now, and I finally went for it last week. Here's how I did it and why I'll do it again.

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https://alyssateaches.com/how-to-host-a-book-tasting/

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By 3rd and 4th grade, students generally know what kinds of books they like to read. As teachers, we still want to expose them to different literary genres, authors, and titles. One way to do this is by hosting a book tasting in the classroom or library. This is a great way for students to sample books they may not otherwise come across! And bonus, it's a fun reading activity that gets kids excited about books!

First, what does this mean? A book tasting is an event during which students "taste", or sample, a selection of books that you've chosen ahead of time. They can rotate among tables to sample the books and record notes about the ones that interested them. You can go fancy with a classroom transformation or just put out some stacks on their desks.

Let's dig into a few quick tips for getting started with book tastings.

Step 1: Decide on the Goal

It helps to set a goal for your students before selecting the books. Some options are to -

introduce students to recently published books

expose students to new genres

introduce students to diverse characters or authors

expose students to award winners

have students choose a book for a book club or literature circle

Another thing to consider is if you want students to write anything down during the tasting, such as making a wishlist of book titles they're excited about. Depending on the grade level, they might label books with sticky notes with their names on them or fill out a worksheet or brochure with short book reviews.

Step 2: Pull Books

Book selection is the most challenging part of the book tasting for me. If your classroom library doesn't have what you need, try reaching out to your librarian or reading teacher!

I recommend writing down the titles you choose for each table, or better yet, taking a photo. This will save you a lot of time if you do the same tasting again next year.

Step 3: Set Up

Again, a book tasting can be as fancy or as simple as you like. If you are interested in creating a cafe- or restaurant-themed event, here are some ideas to create a fun atmosphere!

Decorate tables with tablecloths and placemats. (I use these red and white checkered plastic tablecloths.)

Add signs to each table (types of genres, author names, series titles, etc.). I also find it helpful to add table numbers. I like these little sign holders for displaying signs, which I print double-sided.

You can also add battery-operated tea lights that look like little candles, vases with flowers, and anything else to set the "mood." Check in your teacher lounge or with your office staff or PTA - they may have some you can borrow.

Write a fun message on a portable chalkboard or dry-erase easel at the door to invite students in!

Dress up! You can wear a chef's apron and hat or server apron. I borrowed an apron from the cafeteria manager at my school!

There's really no wrong way to do it! Just make sure that the books are front and center at each table. I like to put them in the middle with some standing up, but you can also lay them out at each seat.

Step 4: Tasting Time!

A book tasting might take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. Here's an example of a third-grade genre tasting that took 30 minutes. In this tasting, 6 tables were set up featuring different types of fiction genres. Each student got to sample 3 genres during the rotations.

5 minutes - overview and directions

1 minute - choose the first table

4 minutes - round #1

2 minutes - reflect on book #1 and write in brochure

1 minute - choose the second table

4 minutes - round #2

2 minutes - reflect on book #2 and write in brochure

1 minute - choose the third table

4 minutes - round #3

2 minutes - reflect on book #3 and write in brochure

3 minutes - wrap up and share out

Before starting, I explicitly teach how to sample a book. I show students how we can look at the title, front and back cover, table of contents, font type, and illustrations, and then actually read a few pages.

To save time on transitions if you want them to "taste" more than one book, you can have students stay at the same seat and just switch books, or switch seats at the same table. There are lots of ways to make it work for you.

Book Tasting Materials

If you want to save time, you can grab the book tasting materials I've created for 3rd-5th grades! These include table number signs, 12 genre signs, place setting mats, and several different options for brochures students can complete.

I hope you'll consider hosting a book tasting for your students if you haven't before! While it does take some prep, it's such an engaging way to boost excitement about reading and connect students with books from genres they might not have explored. It's definitely a must-try if you're looking for fun reading activities for elementary students!

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How to Host a Book Tasting for Elementary Readers - Alyssa Teaches

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Haven't tried a book tasting with your students yet? This fun reading activity is an awesome way to introduce genres in your elementary classroom or library!

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How to Avoid being a Stressed out Teacher

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How to Avoid being a Stressed out Teacher

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https://smartclassroommanagement.com/2023/08/10/stressed-out-teacher/

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You can't just talk about your teaching-related stress. You have to do something about it.

You have to make changes.

Hoping it's going to be better this year isn't a solution. Only action will yield results. The power is in the doing, not the wanting or wishing.

And now is the time, before the pressure of the new school year takes hold. Waiting until the elephant jumps on your back is too late and too hard to shake loose.

So what follows are 13 ways to keep the heavy gray burden at bay.

1. Follow your plan.

This is by far the most important. Nothing comes close to alleviating stress more effectively than allowing your classroom management plan to do its job curbing misbehavior.

Saying no to anything and everything that draws your focus away from your classroom will save time and lessen your emotional strain. It takes discipline and boldness, but is so worth it.

3. Cut the fat.

You can make your life a lot easier and your teaching more effective by examining everything you do with an eye toward becoming more efficient. Shorten, reduce, remove, and simplify.

4. Limit your talking.

Speaking less saves time and energy, improves listening, and makes you more interesting. It also frees you to observe and supervise closely, which all great teachers do.

If you make a conscious decision every morning before school to keep your cool both inside and out, no matter what happens, amazingly, you will. It's so simple yet so powerful.

Remembering to breathe through your nose while exhaling fully, and nothing else, will keep your stress level and blood pressure down from morning bell to dismissal.

7. Visualize.

Seeing yourself in your mind's eye doing your job calmly, which only takes a minute or so before school, will give you a feeling of relaxation and confidence that will last the whole day.

8. Be only pleasant.

By removing the possibility of ever reacting in anger-striking it from your repertoire entirely-you'll experience an enduring relief that can't otherwise be taken away.

9. Be a referee.

Enforcing consequences can be stressful unless you view yourself as an ever-watchful referee committed to maximum fairness and learning protection for every student in your class.

10. Give yourself less time.

By limiting the time you allow to prepare for class, and thus forcing a heightened level of focus, you'll amaze yourself not only what you accomplish but how much better the quality is.

11. Shift responsibility.

Most teachers take on, at least to some degree, what should be their students' responsibilities. The more you hand over to them, however, the better for them and their progress and less stress for you.

12. Tidy your room.

A tidy classroom is a great stress reliever, for you and your students. It also increases focus, reduces excitability, and reinforces your call for excellence.

Having interests outside of school that are more important to you than teaching-like certain hobbies, faith, or family-keeps your work life in balance, thereby reducing stress.

I've written about each of the stress-lowering strategies above extensively, which is why I didn't include details about why they work.

If you want to read more, I recommend typing "stress" or "calm" into the search bar at the top of the page. You can also check out The Happy Teacher Habits, which offers a complete approach to eliminating stress and enjoying your job.

Teaching with minimal stress is doable. It really is. You don't have to be a martyr for your students. You don't have to count the days to vacation or schedule an appointment with a shiatsu masseuse. But you do have to take action. You do have to use the strategies.

Practice them. Perfect them over time.

The idea, however, isn't to have more things to check off your daily list. It's to turn your new skills into habits you no longer have to think about.

If you haven't done so already, please join us. It's free! Click here and begin receiving classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.

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13 Ways To Avoid Being A Stressed-Out Teacher Smart Classroom Management

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You can't just talk about your teaching-related stress. You have to do something about it. You have to make changes. Hoping it's going to be better this year isn't a solution. Only action will yield results. The power is in the doing, not the ... Read more

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Explore reading basics as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. Watch our PBS Launching Young Readers series and try our self-paced Reading 101 course to deepen your understanding.

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Donalyn Miller is an award-winning teacher, author, and staff development leader who has taught fourth, fifth, and sixth grade language arts and social studies in the Fort Worth, Texas area. Her teaching awards include TCTELA's Elementary Language Arts Teacher of the Year (2011), Keller ISD Elementary Teacher of the Year (2010), ESC Region XI Teacher of the Year (2010), TEA State Finalist Texas Elementary Teacher of the Year (2010), Trinity Meadows Intermediate School Teacher of the Year (2010), and Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented Region XI Rising Star Teacher (2008). In 2018, Donalyn was awarded TCTELA's Edmund J. Farrell Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the language arts teaching profession.

Donalyn is the author or co-author of several books about creating engaging and inclusive reading communities for all children. In her first book, The Book Whisperer (Jossey-Bass, 2009), Donalyn reflects on her journey to become a reading teacher and describes how she inspires and motivates her middle school students to read 40 or more books a year. In a starred review, Library Journal said, "Her approach is simple yet provocative: affirm the reader in every student, allow students to choose their own books, carve out extra reading time, model authentic reading behaviors, discard timeworn reading assignments such as book reports and comprehension worksheets, and develop a classroom library filled with high-interest books." The Book Whisperer has been translated into several languages including French and Chinese.

In her second book, Reading in the Wild (Jossey-Bass, 2013), Donalyn collected survey responses from over 900 adult readers about their reading habits and used this information to explicitly model and teach lifelong reading habits to her students. Donalyn's articles about teaching and reading have appeared in publications such as Gifted Child International, Education Week Teacher, The Reading Teacher, Voices From the Middle, Educational Leadership, Horn Book, and The Washington Post. Donalyn is currently working on a new book with Dr. Teri Lesesne, and has several solo and collaborative writing projects planned for 2018 and 2019.

With her friend and collaborator Colby Sharp, Donalyn co-founded The Nerdy Book Club blog, which provides daily inspiration, book recommendations, resources, and advice about raising and teaching young readers. Since the blog began in 2011, Nerdy Book Club has grown into a podcast, numerous state and national conference presentations, and several Ed Camp-style professional development events including Nerd Camp Michigan and Nerd Camp, Jr. held annually in Parma, Michigan.

Donalyn is the founder of the annual summer #bookaday challenge and co-hosts (along with Colby Sharp) the monthly Twitter chat #titletalk, a monthly chat about reading and books.

From 2014 to 2019, Donalyn served as Scholastic Book Fairs' Ambassador of Independent Reading Advocacy. In this role, Donalyn traveled to conferences and schools as a reading ambassador, sat on several Scholastic advisory boards, and hosted the web-based teaching tips and book talk show- The Book Whisperer: Back to the Books. With her colleague and friend, John Schumacher, Donalyn co-edited the Reader Leader blog and co-hosted Scholastic Book Fairs' annual Reading Summits.

Through her international conference presentations, workshops, school visits, published works, and online collaborations with colleagues, Donalyn shares the importance of self-selected independent reading and provides suggestions and resources that foster children's love of reading and the development of positive reading identities. Presentations include current and timeless research, classroom rituals and routines that support engaging reading communities, classroom and home library development, book recommendations, practical reading and writing workshop strategies and instructional moves, and personal stories about the power of independent reading and student choice.

Donalyn and her husband, Don, have two grown daughters and three grandchildren. They live in Colleyville, Texas in a house full of bookcases.

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Donalyn Miller is an award-winning teacher, author, and staff development leader who has taught fourth, fifth, and sixth grade language arts and social studies in the Fort Worth, Texas area. Her teaching awards include TCTELA's Elementary Language Arts Teacher of the Year (2011), Keller ISD Elementary Teacher of the Year (2010), ESC Region XI Teacher...

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Author: Patricia Averette Summary: This protocol is designed for participants to clarify and deepen thinking about readings groups may engage with as part of an institute, teacher study group, or p...

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This is the second entry in the Education Leader's Guide to Reading Growth, a 7-part series about the relationship between reading practice, reading growth, and overall student achievement.

In our last post, we examined how reading practice characteristics differ between persistently struggling students and students who start out struggling but end up succeeding-and how strong reading skills are linked to high school graduation rates and college enrollment rates.

However, it's not just struggling readers who could benefit from more reading practice. A study of the reading practices of more than 9.9 million students over the 2015-2016 school year found that more than half of the students read less than 15 minutes per day on average. ¹

Fewer than one in five students averaged a half-hour or more of reading per day, and fewer than one in three read between 15 and 29 minutes on a daily basis.

The problem is that 15 minutes seems to be the "magic number" at which students start seeing substantial positive gains in reading achievement, yet less than half of our students are reading for that amount of time.

An analysis comparing the engaged reading time and reading scores of more than 2.2 million students found that students who read less than five minutes per day saw the lowest levels of growth, well below the national average. ² Even students who read 5-14 minutes per day saw sluggish gains that were below the national average.

Only students who read 15 minutes or more a day saw accelerated reading gains -that is, gains higher than the national average-and students who read just over a half-hour to an hour per day saw the greatest gains of all.

Although many other factors-such as quality of instruction, equitable access to reading materials, and family background-also play a role in achievement, the consistent connection between time spent reading per day and reading growth cannot be ignored.

Moreover, if reading practice is linked to reading growth and achievement, then it follows that low levels of reading practice should correlate to low levels of reading performance and high levels of reading practice should connect to high levels of reading performance. This pattern is precisely what we see in student test data.

Strong connections between reading practice and achievement

An analysis of more than 174,000 students' Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores revealed that connection between reading engagement and reading performance was "moderately strong and meaningful" in all 32 countries examined, including the United States. ³ On average, students who spent more time reading, read more diverse texts, and saw reading as a valuable activity scored higher on the PISA's combined reading literacy scale.

The study also found a student's level of reading engagement was more highly correlated with their reading achievement than their socioeconomic status, gender, family structure, or time spent on homework. In fact, students with the lowest socioeconomic background but high reading engagement scored better than students with the highest socioeconomic background but low reading engagement.

Overall, students with high reading engagement scored significantly above the international average on the combined reading literacy scale, regardless of their family background. The opposite was also true, with students with low reading engagement scoring significantly below the international average, no matter their socioeconomic status.

The authors suggested that reading practice can play an "important role" in closing achievement gaps between different socioeconomic groups. Frequent high-quality reading practice may help children compensate for-and even overcome-the challenges of being socially or economically disadvantaged, while a lack of reading practice may erase or potentially reverse the advantages of a more privileged background. In short, reading practice matters for kids from all walks of life.

For students within the United States, reading practice may not simply be more important than socioeconomic status-it may also be more important than many school factors.

Looking at only American students' PISA scores, we see that reading engagement had a higher correlation with reading literacy achievement than time spent on homework, relationships with teachers, a sense of belonging, classroom environment, or even pressure to achieve (which had a negative correlation). In addition, a regression analysis showed achievement went up across all measures of reading literacy performance when reading engagement increased.

Although the PISA only assesses 15-year-olds, similar patterns can be seen in both younger and older American students. In 2013, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) compared students' National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading scores with their reading habits. ⁴ For all age groups, they found a clear correlation between the frequency with which students read for fun and their average NAEP scores: The more frequently students read, the higher their scores were.

What is especially interesting about the NAEP results is that the correlation between reading frequency and reading scores was true for all age groups and the score gaps increased across the years. Among 9-year-olds, there was only an 18-point difference between children who reported reading "never or hardly ever" and those who read "almost every day." By age 13, the gap widened to 27 points. At age 17, it further increased to 30 points.

This seems to run contrary to the commonly held wisdom that reading practice is most important when children are learning how to read but less essential once fundamental reading skills have been acquired. Indeed, we might even hypothesize the opposite-that reading practice may grow more important as students move from grade to grade and encounter more challenging reading tasks. Until more research either confirms or disproves this possible explanation, it is nothing more than a guess, but an interesting one to consider nonetheless.

However, what is clear is that reading practice is decreasing among all age groups, with the most dramatic decreases among the very students who may need it the most.

Troubling declines in reading practice

Over the last three decades, reading rates have dramatically declined in the United States. In 1984, NAEP results showed the vast majority of 9-year-olds read for fun once or more per week, with more than half reporting reading almost every day. Only one in five reported reading two or fewer times per month. By 2012, 25% of all 9-year-olds were reading for pleasure fewer than 25 days per year. ⁵

For older students, the drop is even more precipitous. In 1984, 35% of 13-year-olds read for fun almost every day, and another 35% read one or two times per week-in total, more than two-thirds of 13-year-olds reported reading at least once a week. In 2012, nearly half read less than once a week.

Among 17-year-olds, the percentage reading almost every day dropped from 31% in 1984 to only 19% in 2012, while the percentage who read for fun less than once a week rose from 36% to 61%. The number of 17-year-olds reporting reading "never or hardly ever" actually tripled.

And the decline in reading is not due to students spending more time on homework in 2012 than in 1984. During the same time period, the percentage of students who reported spending more than an hour on homework actually declined.

In 1984, 19% of 9-year-olds, 38% of 13-year-olds, and 40% of 17-year-olds reported spending an hour or more on homework the day prior to the NAEP. In 2012, those numbers had dropped to 17% for 9-year-olds, 30% for 13-year-olds, and 36% for 17-year-olds.

Why are we seeing the greatest gaps and the greatest declines in the oldest students? Although many different factors are likely at play, one of them might be that the effects of reading practice are cumulative over a student's schooling, especially when it comes to vocabulary.

The long-term effects of reading practice

What's the difference between kids who read more than 30 minutes per day and those who read less than 15 minutes per day?
Twelve million.
Between kindergarten and twelfth grade, students with an average daily reading time of 30+ minutes are projected to encounter 13.7 million words. At graduation, their peers who averaged less than 15 minutes of reading per day are likely to be exposed to only 1.5 million words. The difference is more than 12 million words. Children in between, who read 15-29 minutes per day, will encounter an average of 5.7 million words-less than half of the high-reading group but nearly four times that of the low-reading group. ¹

Some researchers estimate students learn one new word of vocabulary for every thousand words read. ⁶ Using this ratio, a student who reads only 1.5 million words would learn only 1,500 new vocabulary words from reading, while a student who reads 13.7 million words would learn 13,700 new vocabulary terms-more than nine times the amount of vocabulary growth.

This is especially important when we consider that students can learn far more words from reading than from direct instruction: Even an aggressive schedule of 20 new words taught each week will result in only 520 new words by the end of the typical 36-week school year. This does not mean that reading practice is "better" than direct instruction for building vocabulary-direction instruction is key, but teachers can only do so much of it. Instead, we ask educators to imagine the potential for vocabulary growth if direct instruction, structural analysis strategies, and reading practice are all used to reinforce one another.

Vocabulary plays a critical role in reading achievement. Research has shown that more than half the variance in students' reading comprehension scores can be explained by the depth and breadth of their vocabulary knowledge-and these two vocabulary factors can even be used to predict a student's reading performance. ⁷

We can see the relationship between vocabulary and reading achievement clearly in NAEP scores, where the students who had the highest average vocabulary scores were the students performing in the top quarter (above the 75th percentile) of reading comprehension. Similarly, students with the lowest vocabulary scores were those who were in the bottom quarter (at or below the 25th percentile) in reading comprehension. ⁸ This means those additional 12 million words could potentially have a huge impact on student success.

So what are we to do, when reading practice is so clearly connected to both vocabulary exposure and reading achievement, but not enough students are getting enough reading practice to drive substantial growth?

The answer seems clear. We need to make increasing reading practice a top priority for all students in all schools. Making reading practice a system-wide objective may be one of the most important things we can do for our students' long-term outcomes, especially when we combine it with high-quality instruction and effective reading curricula. It is time to put as much focus on reading practice as we do on school culture, student-educator relationships, and socioeconomic factors.

However, not all reading practice is built the same. Quantity matters, but so does quality. In the next post in this series, we explore how you can ensure your students are getting the most out of every minute of reading practice.
To read the next post in this series, click the banner below.

References

¹ Renaissance Learning. (2016). What kids are reading: And how they grow. Wisconsin Rapids, WI: Author.
² Renaissance Learning. (2015). The research foundation for Accelerated Reader 360. Wisconsin Rapids, WI: Author.
³ Kirsch, I., de Jong, J., Lafontaine, D., McQueen, J., Mendelovits, J., & Monseur, C. (2002). Reading for change: Performance and engagement across countries: Results from PISA 2000. Paris, France: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
⁴ National Center for Education Statistics. (2013). The nation's report card: Trends in academic progress 2012 (NCES 2013 456). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences.
⁵ National Center for Education Statistics. (2013). Table 221.30: Average National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading scale score and percentage distribution of students, by age, amount of reading for school and for fun, and time spent on homework and watching TV/video: Selected years, 1984 through 2012. Digest of Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved from: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d15/tables/dt15_221.30.asp
⁶ Mason, J.M., Stahl, S. A. , Au, K. H. , & Herman, P. A. (2003). Reading: Children's developing knowledge of words. In J. Flood, D. Lapp, J. R. Squire, & J. M. Jensen (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching the English language arts (2nd ed., pp. 914-930). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
⁷ Qian, D. D. (2002). Investigating the Relationship Between Vocabulary Knowledge and Academic Reading Performance: An Assessment Perspective. Language Learning, 52(3), 513-536.
⁸ National Center for Education Statistics. (2013). 2013 Vocabulary report. 2013 Reading assessment. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences.

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The magic of 15 minutes: Daily reading practice and reading growth

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Multiple studies show the connection between time and frequency of reading practice, reading growth, and reading test scores-but students are reading less and less. Explore the importance of reading practice in the Education Leader's Guide to Reading Growth, a series about strategies for improving literacy achievement.

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Linda Rief: Keeping a Notebook Makes Me Pay Attention

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Notebook Shelf Don Murray used to carry around laminated cards about the size of a bookmark, that said, “Nulla Dies Sine Linea—Ne...

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LITERACY CONNECTION DECEMBER 2020 LET'S TALK BOOKS

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12 Stunning Ice Skating Rinks in Chicago

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Find the best ice skating rinks in Chicago to show off your skills, including outdoor rinks in local parks.

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Writing About Reading: Gorgeous Notebook Pages and Summer Stacks

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The end of the school year is here and all I can think about is curling up on a picnic blanket under the trees while my kids play around me so I can read. Nothing feels better than losing myself in…

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You can fill in your own verbiage of what you want them to rank:
(rank characters in a story in order of power, goodness, threat, who you would want for a friend, etc.)
(rank favorite books, activities, moments of the year)
(rank severity of problems, conflict in a book)
(rank social issues, pictures of families, superheroes, foods, etc. etc.)

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Long gone are the days of the traditional book talks. The ones where the students simply recite the same script: introduce themselves, state the book title, tell a fact about a book, and encourage the audience to check it out. Our students are way too creative for that, so we need to give them a chance to let their creativity shine through their book talks! I created a FREE book talk template for you to use to help your students plan more engaging book talks!

Dr. Brad Gustafson, an elementary principal in Minnesota, encourages students to "Bring the Heat" to their book talks. His strategy moves students beyond using the same old script in order to create more engaging book talks. Isn't the purpose of a book talk to spark interest and make someone want to read the book?

Check out Dr. Gustafson explaining the concept of bringing the HEAT to book talks.

Book Talks Strategy: Bring the Heat

Let's take a quick look at each of the elements of the HEAT method.

Hook

Grab the attention of the audience to make them want to know more about your book. Some ways to do that include: asking a question, stating an interesting fact, or getting the audience to imagine something. I've even had students have a snowball fight to hook in the audience!

Energy

How will you show energy in your book talk? Can you change your volume, talk with an accent, use props, or add emotion? This helps create an engaging book talk for your audience.

Audience

Consider who is your audience and how can you connect with them. Why should they care about your book? It is helpful to make a connection by mentioning a place they might have been, things they might have done, or people they might know.

Time

Keep it short! The ideal book talk is less than a minute long. Teach your students the art of adding a cliffhanger to leave the audience wanting to know more.

The FREE Book Talk Template

In order to support my students with creating their own book talks, I created graphic organizers based on Dr. Brad Gustafson's Bringing the HEAT method. This free book talk template walks the students through the process in order to create more engaging book talks.

Book Talks Planning Guide

Book Talk Rough Draft

Book Talk Final Draft

Finalizing the Book Talk

Students can perform their book talks for their classmates, but I highly recommend making it into a video. My students used iPads to record their own book talks and edited them using WeVideo. Our school also has our own YouTube channel where we can post the videos. You can even create QR codes for students to view the videos. It just adds an extra level of excitement for the students.

Examples of Engaging Book Talks

Dr. Brad Gustafson is hosts a yearly Book Talk Tournament featuring 30 second Book Talks from 8 Lead Learners and 8 Literacy Legends. Check them out for some inspiring book talks to get you and your students excited to start creating your own!

Download the FREE Book Talk Template!

Do you want to download this FREE resource to use with your students? Complete the form below to receive the file!

Have you implemented book talks before? What tips and strategies have you found beneficial in helping your students create engaging book talks? You might also be interested in finding out about another way I build excitement about reading with Special Delivery Books!

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Free Templates to Create Engaging Book Talks

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Do you want to help your students create more engaging book talks? Use these FREE simple templates to get your students excited about sharing books!