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25 Essential High School Reads from the Last Decade

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25 Essential High School Reads from the Last Decade

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Way back in 2016, we asked our community to share what they would consider essential reads for high school students. The final list of 20 recommended books was dominated by what many would consider the classics: John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Shakespeare's Macbeth.

For decades, these works have been required reading in classrooms across the country, but more recently educators like Lorena Germán and advocates for the #DisruptTexts movement -not to mention the millions of students who've come and gone during the era-have challenged the notion of a traditional canon, advocating for a more "inclusive, representative, and equitable language arts curriculum."

"There are problems with teaching only classics-the stories are overwhelmingly told from a white and/or male perspective, and more needs to be done to diversify that," writes eighth-grade English teacher Christina Torres. "In addition, there's merit in introducing our students to more recent literature."

This year, we circled back and asked our community a version of the same question-What novels do you wish you could've read in high school?-but this time we specified that titles must have been published within the last decade. Hundreds of responses flooded in, and the contrast to six years ago was stark. Nominations were diverse, representing a broad range of topics, themes, genres, and author identities, as well as a wide variety of characters and experiences-queer protagonists and protagonists of color, characters with differing abilities, and fictional roles representing a refreshing spectrum of body sizes and shapes.

The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas, was a clear standout, earning the most votes and thus the number one spot on our list. Some authors were multiple winners: Jason Reynolds's Long Way Down and All American Boys made the cut, and Nic Stone's Dear Martin and its sequel Dear Justyce were both favorites, but we selected only one for inclusion in the top 25. While fiction titles represent the lion's share of the final list, a number of memoirs and autobiographies made the grade, including Malala Yousafzai's I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban and the comedian and late-night host Trevor Noah's Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood.

The Top 25 Indispensable High School Reads

5. Long Way Down
Jason Reynolds, author of Ghost and Ain't Burned All the Bright, thrusts readers inside an elevator alongside 15-year-old protagonist Will Hollomon, who has about 60 seconds to make one of the hardest decisions of his life. Primary themes of interest to high school students: justice, grief and loss, family dynamics.

25. The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
Adapted from his podcast of the same name, John Green's humorous collection of 44 essays covers topics ranging from the computer-generated velociraptors in the movie Jurassic Park and sunsets to air conditioners and penguins-rating them all on a five-star scale. Primary themes of interest to high school students: the human condition, mental health, humor and absurdity, the climate crisis.

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25 Essential High School Reads From the Last Decade

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We asked members of our community to share recently published novels they would love to have read in high school. Here are your top picks.

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5 Must Haves for your Middle School Classroom Library

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5 Must Haves for your Middle School Classroom Library

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When students are in elementary school, they are often surrounded by inviting books that help build their interest in and love of reading. Once students get to middle school, many are interacting only with the assigned texts from their English language arts classes, and they quickly forget the concept of reading for pleasure.

Some students find it difficult to connect with the books they are reading, while others struggle to comprehend the material. In both cases, students can become disengaged from reading entirely. To help students rediscover the joy in reading, teachers can create classroom libraries that recognize students' reading levels and interests to spark lifelong reading.

5 Things to Add to Your Classroom Library to Boost Engagement

1. Options for low readers. By middle school, some students have developed themselves into voracious readers, ready to tackle anything from a nine-book fantasy series to young adult (YA) novels addressing topics like police brutality and gender identity. Other students, however, are still struggling to find entry points into books. Whether they are reading slightly below or significantly below grade level, it's crucial that classroom libraries include options that these students can engage with.

When I had students reading significantly below grade level, I relied heavily on graphic novels to provide options for all students. I specifically tried to find graphic novel versions of other books in my classroom library when possible, so that students could participate in discussions with one another about the books regardless of level. A favorite among my students was The Crossover, by Kwame Alexander, which is available as both a novel and a graphic novel.

2. High-interest series. Where possible, look to include a full series of books. Not only does this help individual students when they get invested in the first book, as they don't need to worry about finding their next book, but also it helps students build community around books as more and more students begin the process of reading the series. I saw some of my most reluctant readers suddenly begin to devour book after book once they found a series they loved.

A few favorites in my room were , The Baby-Sitters Club, Shadow and Bone, and . By the end of the school year, every single one of my students had read all eight graphic novels in the Amulet series.

3. Genre labels. As more of my students began to develop their love of reading, they had a better sense of the type of book they liked. In my classroom library, I organized by genre with as much specificity as possible to help students easily find interesting options.

Additionally, the classroom library should help students become lifelong lovers of reading, and organizing clearly by genre helps students build more independence in selecting books and understanding their own preferences for reading. Some of the class favorites under the realistic fiction section of the library are included below.

4. Topical options. One way I tried to keep my library fresh for students was by highlighting topical book options. Whether that was Hispanic Heritage Month in September and October, Black History Month in February, or Women's History Month in March, I would select three to five books that aligned with the topic and highlight them as top picks for that time.

Sometimes this meant buying new books to align with a given topic or theme, but often I could use books I already had and just bring them additional attention at a specific time. Many of my students were eager to read these specially selected titles.

5. Visible recommendations. Finally, visible book recommendations are probably my favorite part of a classroom library, as they not only encourage students to read but help build community in the classroom and spark conversations about books. At the beginning of the year, I created a list of YA book recommendations from all the teachers on my grade level, and throughout the year I had students add their recommendations to the list.

The physical list was posted on the side of the bookshelf, so students could see what others had recommended before taking their pick. After reading a recommended book, I often saw students talking with the person who had recommended it in the first place.

As educators, we have the potential to generate an incredibly positive impact on students' daily experiences with learning. When we make these small shifts to help students fall in love with reading, we can extend that positive impact far beyond the reaches of a classroom or the length of a school year.

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5 Must-Haves for Your Middle School Classroom Library

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When students are in elementary school, they are often surrounded by inviting books that help build their interest in and love of reading. Once students get to middle school, many are interacting only with the assigned texts from their English language arts classes, and they quickly forget the concept of reading for pleasure.

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To create life-long readers, ditch quotas, calendars, and logs-and replace them with strategies that get students talking about books and keeping track of the joy they experience reading.

We know the many benefits of independent reading outside of the classroom: Research shows that it reinforces early reading skills and improves vocabulary, spelling, and writing. It can also ignite a passion for reading that bears fruit throughout their entire academic career.

It's because of these prospective gains that Kimberly Rues, a librarian in Missouri, believes teachers often resort to daily logs to "hold students accountable" for the time they dedicate to reading outside of school. Writing for Ed Surge, Rues said logs are also fixtures in many elementary school classrooms because teachers earnestly believe they help.

Nonetheless, the research shows that reading logs often backfire, and Rues says that she's seen them firsthand turn reading into a "chore," rather than something students feel motivated to do. "The problem is that if the goal is to help kids develop a love of reading, simply passing the minutes with a book isn't enough," Rues writes.

A recent study agrees, finding that second and third graders assigned to read for at least 20 minutes and fill out a mandatory log saw their interest and attitude toward reading significantly decline, when compared to peers simply encouraged to read as little or as often as they'd like. Researchers concluded that reading logs were "ineffective ways of fostering a love of reading and may even lead to a decrease in children's motivation to read."

Instead of focusing on creating more compliant readers, the research shows, teachers should drop activities like reading logs and explore approaches that help students develop intrinsic motivation to read. Here are four ways to get started:

TRY 'ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNERS'

To get students excited about independent reading, make them feel they're part of a community of readers, Rues writes. She suggests devoting regular instructional time to book discussions, allowing young readers to chat about what they like about a book, what they don't, and even whether they'd recommend the title to others.

To ensure that reading is actually occurring-without resorting to bean-counting-Allie Thrower, a former elementary school teacher, suggests a practice she calls "accountability partners." Teachers set aside 5-10 minutes of class time each day to have students pair up with each other and discuss the reading they did the previous night at home. To get the most out of sessions, Thrower advises teachers to think about student relationships in the classroom and pair students with someone who can challenge them academically and hold them accountable for their reading. "A prerequisite to setting up partners is knowing your students," Thrower confirms.

Once effective pairs have been established, model what productive discussions sound like, and provide students with open-ended questions to kick off conversations: What feelings did this book evoke for you? or, Which character do you most closely relate to, and why? As students share, teachers can float around the room and get a far better understanding of how often and how deeply students are reading than they ever could by relying on reading logs.

LET STUDENTS TRACK JOY, NOT READING TIME

Instead of documenting time spent on task, teachers can ask students to track moments of surprise, delight, inspiration, or even confusion that arise as they read.

The educators Hannah Schneewind and Jennifer Scoggin, authors of Trusting Readers: Powerful Practices for Independent Reading, argue that by tracking moments of "joy" and delight, students are given time to reflect on moments of a story that moved them-while providing plenty of information for teachers who want to know how well, and how often, their students are reading.

Schneewind and Scoggin say that focusing on "joy" might make some teachers think the assignment is too easy. But not the case: "Working through a challenging text is joyful, just as finding yourself in a text is joyful," the authors wrote on Twitter.

Students can keep these sorts of takeaways from a text in a reading diary, writes elementary school literacy coach Gigi McAllister. McAllister encourages students to reflect on favorite characters, scenes, or interesting ideas they've thought more about thanks to the text. To get a sense of how students are progressing, teachers can periodically collect the diaries, view them if they are digital, or eavesdrop when students are discussing books in pairs or small groups.

For some students, the diaries are a living document that can help them identify the kinds of books or genres that engage their own sensibilities the most.

CREATE A CLASSROOM 'GRAFFITI SPACE'

Try designating a bulletin board or part of a chalkboard as a metaphorical graffiti space for students to enshrine some of the inspiring or thought-provoking quotes they have come across in their reading.

The quotes can give you a real-time sense of what is resonating with students, and also be used to start productive conversations in the classroom related to the skills you're teaching. You can ask students: What details are really interesting to you here? What figurative language is the author using in this quote? Are there any words that we need to look up in our dictionaries?

To ensure that your graffiti space remains meaningful to observers, you'll want to discuss the standards for a great quote with your students. You might even integrate this activity into accountability partner sessions by asking students or their partners to nominate quotes that they discuss together.

GIVE STUDENTS AGENCY

While some parts of a curriculum require students to read from the same text together, Rues writes that looking for ways to give students a choice in the books they read at home-and encouraging them to develop their own interests-goes a long way in creating an avid reader.

Some students might love nonfiction books about animals, while others might enjoy graphic novels. The key, Rues writes, is helping young readers identify what they like and "keep up the momentum" by providing them with more recommendations-or space to research their interests further-when they're done with a book.

This can be achieved by taking students to the library in school, but according to Linda Gambrell and Dr. Barbara Marinak, education professors at Clemson University and Penn State Harrisburg respectively, teachers can up their book recommendation game by using other methods to stimulate interest.

Teachers might prominently showcase books upright on a table, like in a bookstore, or read a few pages out loud from a book they know might be a good match based on what they've learned about their students' habits and interests. Teachers can even leave small note cards describing the merits of a book, like many booksellers do, as a way to entice students.

"When you introduce books by instilling in children a desire to find out what's in them, those books fly off the shelves," the professors wrote.

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When Reading Logs Backfire, What Can Teachers Do Instead?

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To create life-long readers, ditch quotas, calendars, and logs-and replace them with strategies that get students talking about books and keeping track of the joy they experience reading.

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When the staff at an elementary school made fostering a love of reading a priority, they used these strategies to meet their goal.

Allison Shelley / American Education

As educators, how do we build literacy-rich environments to grow happy readers? After years of achievement roadblocks, Yorkville Grade School, a Title 1 elementary school in a consolidated unit district 50 miles west of Chicago, made a shared decision to place growing happy readers at the top of the priority list. We refocused on books, and students rediscovered book joy.

This unified centering on books, choice, and voice can transform the way a school lives and breathes. Here are some tips that can help you and your school grow happy readers.

Focusing on Literacy

Money talks: Research shows that a robust, diverse library directly correlates to student achievement. School libraries are a good start, but only a start. In Donalyn Miller and Colby Sharp's book, Game Changer: Book Access for All Kids, the authors cite several respected experts who recommend that a classroom library contain 300 to 1,000 books.

This isn't a project or onetime focus. It's a new mindset that requires breaking ingrained routines. Often, school funds are used for pricey, quick-fix resources that end up in a closet a year later. For example, a boxed program with fluency or comprehension task cards may seem straightforward, but it often fails to cultivate readers on a deeper level. In two years alone, with a modest budget, our elementary school shifted enough money to allocate $15,000 to books and only books.

As a first step, principals should conduct a soft budget audit to review how money is allocated and in what way. Then principals and parent-teacher organizations should designate classroom books as a recurring line item in the budget.

Determine where to spend less in order to allocate more on books. For example, when we shifted our focus to books and technology integration, paper demand decreased. Bigger purchases such as devices or online subscriptions were reallocated to the district level. District-wide purchases of Lexia or DreamBox can save money by reducing the student subscription rate. This also allows us to be consistent across all learning models, so remote learners and in-person students have access to a device and online learning programs. The pandemic is a good time to look at funds that schools are no longer utilizing in the same way and shift that money into other priorities such as books.

Pinch pennies: Once teachers have yearly funds distributed by the school, stretching the dollar is a must. Yorkville school librarian Steph McHugh plays a vital role in our penny-pinching habits. For example, through Scholastic and local vendors, $12 books can be bought in bulk for $1 each. Teachers also take advantage of accumulated points to cash in for heaps of bonus books. In recent years, our school purchased three times the volume of books over years past.

Bulk shopping allows for school principal birthday books and keepsakes to reinforce shared efficacy and book love. On the 100th school day of this school year, the book Ruby Finds a Worry by Tom Percival was gifted to every student. In a year full of worry, this intentionality matters.

Take a closer look: Before shopping for books, teachers need adequate time to conduct a classroom library inventory, which will help them decide if title selections are relevant, diverse, and engaging. Professional learning about this topic can help teachers ensure literacy best practices.

Think creatively. This year, Ramped-Up Read Aloud author Maria Walther collaborated with teachers to select authentic books and instill reading routines.

Hand over the keys: Teachers can create child-friendly surveys to solicit feedback about desired topics, genres, series, and authors. In third grade at our school, the students hold the keys to their classroom libraries. At morning meeting, the class compiles book ideas; then students curate the shopping cart while staying within budget.

Students organize newly arrived books and decorate favorites with a gem sticker. Every Friday, they have book talks on the favorites, and these treasures are put on a rotating display.

Same gift, new package: With districts offering varied learning models, connecting with both in-person and virtual learners is essential. Inspire all students with the same authors-for example, with virtual author visits. Since March 2020, 12 authors and illustrators visited our primary school virtually at little cost. Most recently, students engaged with Bad Kitty author Nick Bruel.

Equal access to books is an important part of the equation. Invite distance and hybrid students to check out school library books using an electronic option with an easy pickup solution. Our students without internet access can come to the school and manually check out books from the curated book cart.

In our school district, students electronically select books of interest, which staff distribute through a weekly drive-through pickup. We also send books from our classroom libraries home every week so that all students can extend reading at home. Those with limited internet access get an internet hot spot pack and any needed printed information.

To make a splash during the 2021 summer, try this: Launch a district Bookmobile. Untapped funds and partnership with Scholastic's FACE program can make it possible.

Even in unexpected times, schools can deliver on the gift of reading-just packaged differently.

Passion walks: Growing readers starts with passionate adults walking the talk. Does your school embed time to talk about books? Incorporate Kid Lit coffee chats or professional book clubs picked by teachers for teachers. Our librarian extended ideas into a website for ongoing inspiration. Want to share books on a larger scale? A " Book Ninja " program allows surprise book-giving camaraderie across the district.

Books take us on endless, beautiful journeys, and this couldn't be more needed now. As educators with a shared mission, we can grow happy readers, remotely and in person, by retracing our steps and blazing new trails.

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When the staff at an elementary school made fostering a love of reading a priority, they used these strategies to meet their goal. Allison Shelley / American Education As educators, how do we build literacy-rich environments to grow happy readers?

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Schoolwide Strategies for Promoting a Love of Reading

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Schoolwide Strategies for Promoting a Love of Reading

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A literacy consultant explains how schools can encourage all students to share the joy of reading.

Regular reading is vital to improving students' literacy skills and their overall academic performance. So what can schools do to ensure that students are getting that practice? At Lifelong Literacy, literacy consultant Maria Losee describes strategies for creating a culture of reading across classrooms.

Make sure classroom libraries are engaging: Surround students with diverse and interesting material, and add new titles to your classroom collection with an eye toward a wide range of interests. "I cannot just buy what I like to read, I have to buy what I know will get my readers excited to read," teacher Amy Heno told Losee. Pay close attention to student interests to better match reading selections with topics they enjoy.

Beyond observation, Losee suggests educators consider offering "written or online surveys, asking students to take a quick genre poll, or taking data from an activity such as speed dating with books" to determine what books would be best suited for them. For speed dating, set a timer and let students peruse a stack of books-allowing students to sample books before committing can alleviate pressure and make reading more fun.

Employ visual displays: Design displays for classroom walls or hallways to show the importance and fun of reading. "Keeping reading visible sends an unspoken message that reading is important and valued in a school," Losee writes. Large artistic depictions of books or their contents can offer a hook for students. Teachers at a Chicago school partnered with a photography studio to transform the halls into a "giant motivational tableau to encourage reading."

Model a love of reading: Losee carries multiple books with her wherever she goes to demonstrate her love of reading. She likes to carry the book she just completed, one she is presently reading, and the next one in her queue. It's helpful if students see that their teacher not only reads but is interested in a range of topics or genres.

Let students lead: Turn the tables and ask students for their recommendations for great reads for both teachers and their peers. They can offer their views through book talks-concise presentations that serve as an advertisement for a particular book. Unlike a book report, these quick talks are designed to pique interest rather than summarize the plot. Students, teachers, and other staff can share their thoughts on a book they've read and why they would recommend it to others. More introverted students can try "writing a review on a sticky and leaving it inside the front cover or putting a book on a special shelf with a recommendation."

Highlight individual authors: Use the narratives and biographies of individual authors to promote interest in their work. Losee suggests sharing authors' websites with students. She shared the personal story of popular author Jason Reynolds, who didn't read a book until he was 17 years old, and students were aghast. She used their shock as a springboard to boost interest in Reynolds's work.

Make reading a priority: Time designated for reading should be a non-negotiable in schools, Losee says. For upper elementary, middle, and high school students, she recommends setting aside an hour a week for independent reading. "If we care about reading and we want our students to read more, we have to make time for it," she writes. "It's that simple."

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Schoolwide Strategies for Promoting a Love of Reading

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A literacy consultant explains how schools can encourage all students to share the joy of reading.

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Laura Varlas

English language arts teacher Pernille Ripp, who grew up in Denmark, doesn't remember many rich classroom-reading experiences. "We spent a lot of time with basal readers," she recalls. What she does remember are the bonds created when her mother read to her at home. "Those experiences made me a reader," she says. When she became a teacher, she knew that "read aloud would be how we built community."

Literacy expert Regie Routman agrees. In Literacy Essentials: Engagement, Excellence, and Equity for All Learners, she calls reading aloud an "indispensable first step in reaching and teaching [students]."

"It slows us down, relaxes us, reminds us of the joy and inspiration of a well-crafted story. Being read to puts us in the frame of mind for learning and increases literacy achievement," she writes.

Yet, as students age, they are less likely to be read to at school and at home. Ripp, who teaches 7th grade in Oregon, Wisconsin, explains, "One of the biggest misconceptions is that once kids pass 10 years old, they don't need to be read to-that there's no value in it. That's definitely not true." This misconception is embedded in a narrow understanding of the types of texts that can be read aloud and how reading aloud changes students.

The Swiss Army Knife of Literacy

Unlike shared reading-where students have text copies in hand and the reading is frequently interrupted for instruction or skill practice-a classroom read aloud involves one person (often a teacher) reading and pausing minimally to clarify a tricky term, make a connection, or ask questions related to a big idea. Most people have experienced a read aloud through a picture book or a novel, but any interesting text can be read aloud for a variety of objectives.

Teachers can use read alouds to create a class bond; promote a love of reading; preview information, themes, or text structures; model effective reading; show how texts connect with one another (intertextuality); or provide an exemplar for a genre of writing. The read aloud is like the Swiss Army knife of literacy; it has multiple uses at every age and in every content area.

Read alouds also create a bridge to more complex texts. A 1984 study by Thomas Sticht showed that a child's reading level doesn't catch up to their listening level until around 8th grade. That makes the read aloud a perfect opportunity to expose students to texts they can't yet decode for themselves. "While I'm reading aloud to my students, I'm doing the heavy lifting with vocabulary and decoding so that they can experience the joy of the text," explains Valentina Gonzalez, a professional development specialist for elementary English language learners (ELLs) in the Katy Independent School District in Texas. Hearing stories provides an oral language foundation and can improve acquisition of academic vocabulary, especially for ELLs.

Read alouds provide a scaffold to the reading and writing that students do on their own, adds Barbara Moss, a literacy expert and education professor at San Diego State University. And data show that children of any age who regularly have books read to them score higher on state and national literacy tests.

Don't Wreck the Read Aloud

Moss believes the strategic use of read alouds can help students achieve many of the goals of the standards, but she cautions: "Don't wreck the read aloud with too many instructional interruptions." Keep it simple and fun.

For example, don't have kids doing a lot of tasks during the reading. "I used to Post-it my students to death," recalls Ripp. "Write down or draw every thought that you have!" Then she realized she was losing students who were distracted by all the tasks. Now, she might have a couple of cues for students, but ultimately, her goal is to get to "where we're just so deeply immersed in the story that they beg for another page."

"Don't worry about kids understanding every word," says Routman. "Just find a great story. They will get it." Preread the text on your own, and then pull out all the stops as you read it in class. And remember, you're never too old to get something out of a great picture book, she adds. (See " Regie Routman's Top Read Alouds" for a list of picture books to read aloud to learners of any age.)

Consider, too, how images, illustrative gestures, or a slower rate of speech can help ELLs overcome language barriers, says Gonzalez. Are there terms to preteach so that ELLs can access the text? How will all students, but ELLs especially, process the text during or after the reading?

Don't be afraid to scrap a book if kids just aren't into it. Moss recalls an excellent student teacher who made the fatal flaw of reading aloud a long, complicated passage on the water cycle. "It went on for a half an hour and the kids were dying."

That doesn't mean informational texts are read-aloud kryptonite. Moss remembers a 1st grader who told her, "I don't want to read stories about bears with clothes on. I want to read about real stuff." From coverage of current events to discoveries in STEM, short, engaging articles abound and make great sources for read alouds. An inspiring New York Times article on Chef José Andrés feeding thousands in Puerto Rico could initiate a discussion of what makes a hero, suggests Routman.

Priority, Purpose, Process

Amanda Zieba, who teaches middle school English language arts and reading in La Crosse, Wisconsin, has been reading aloud to her students for a decade. Although she has refined her methods and expanded her bookshelf to include everything from picture books to obituaries, her guiding principle has remained constant: "I want my students to like reading."

She's found that starting class with a read aloud, followed by 10 minutes to write in journals, provides a predictable structure that helps kids settle into the day's lesson. Having a set process also prevents the read aloud from getting scrapped because of time constraints.

To make the case for read alouds as a worthy use of class time, Routman encourages teachers to be knowledgeable about the research-based rationale and then "invite your principal into your classroom during a read aloud so [that] they can listen to the level of conversation that takes place and see how engaged kids are."

Your Best Book Club

Successful read alouds have a clear purpose that you plan toward, says Tanya Friedman, an educator and coach with the ATAPE Group in New York City. Last year, she worked with a team of 2nd grade teachers at Young Leaders Elementary (P.S. 369) in the South Bronx to help them make read alouds more rigorous and culturally relevant.

Teachers at P.S. 369 wanted to give their students, a large portion of whom are ELLs, more tools to discuss the high-level ideas within the texts they were reading. The questions and cues teachers had been using during the read aloud, however, focused students on literal comprehension, which, in turn, reinforced low expectations for student thinking. It also drained the life out of the read aloud. "What's the conversation in a good book club? Rarely is it recounting what happened in the book," says Friedman.

By videotaping student discussions, teachers at P.S. 369 could see that students didn't have the skills to have dynamic conversations. Working backward from this goal, they developed a read-aloud planning guide that incorporated Bloom's Taxonomy and Webb's Depth of Knowledge to fine-tune the types of questions teachers ask.

"If we stop and say, 'Who remembers where the mother is going?', that's what we're prepping them to talk about," explains Friedman. "But if we stop and say, 'Why do we think the mother had that look on her face? What other experiences might she have had that made her not trust this person?', then we are prepping students to have a different type of conversation."

That doesn't mean literal comprehension gets tossed. If teachers notice student comprehension is shaky, they can recap events or make that a focus of small-group work. "We have to teach literal comprehension, but to me, that's not what [a] read aloud is for," says Friedman. Kids need to practice comprehension in small groups, at their level. But higher-order thinking? "All kids can do that, so that's what should be happening during a read aloud."

Relevant and Rigorous

Making lively, academic conversations the goal of a read aloud also changed how teachers at P.S. 369 select books to read. Friedman says the new approach considers what's on students' minds, their experiences, and what they're talking about. (Get tips on text selection in " How to Pick a Good Read-Aloud Text".)

For example, they read Mama's Nightingale by Edwidge Danticat, a book about deportation that would've previously been considered too heavy for 2nd graders. With the new lens of rigor and relevance, however, Friedman says, "we could see that it would lead to really amazing conversations." Teachers were surprised by how much their students already knew about detention centers and fear of immigration police.

"Read aloud is a way to honor students' culture and interests, as well as build background and vocabulary," notes Routman. A culturally relevant read aloud creates a self-propelling cycle of engagement where students not only want to learn more, but also want to do something with their new knowledge. "They're like, 'Let's write letters. What else is unfair? What can we do about it?'," says Friedman. "That's what we want school to be-connected to kids' real lives."

We Speak Books

A few years into her teaching career, Ripp decided to take her experiments with read aloud to a world stage. She created the Global Read Aloud, a monthlong event that brings classrooms around the world together over books. What started with 300 students and one book ( The Little Prince), has grown in its 8th year to include more than 2.2 million students in 80 different countries, four books, and an author study. Like her classroom read alouds, Global Read Aloud "brings us together and makes us speak books," says Ripp. It's a lot like learning a new language together, she continues.

That's because read alouds sensitize students to the language and structures of texts-not just stories, but informational texts, too, says Moss. It creates a shared signpost in students' minds, pointing out the connection between what they heard and the learning that follows. For example, in 7th grade, Zieba reads aloud The Boy in the Striped Pajamas as a bridge to a historical unit on the Holocaust. "It's not complex in terms of the level of text, but it is helping my students understand a complex topic."

"Stories lean on other stories," Moss quotes author Jane Yolen. As students begin to notice elements of plot, style, and language, they start to draw comparisons between what they hear in the read aloud to what they read on their own. "These connections, or intertextualities, fuel not only comprehension but also a vibrant community around reading."

A New Relationship to Reading

Since the shifts at P.S. 369, students are eager for read alouds and engaged in discussion. When asked about books, students are more likely to talk about big meanings, rather than small details. In general, their disposition to reading has changed. "They want to read more; they want to find more books like that one," notes Friedman.

"Many of my kids come in as proudly resistant readers," says Ripp. "When we say, 'OK, listen to this,' all of a sudden, they start to wonder, 'Maybe that book is not a fluke? Maybe there are others like it?'"

Kids have a lot of choices for how they spend their time, notes Moss. "We want reading to be one of the things they choose." Reading aloud can motivate that choice, and that alone makes it a valuable use of class time. It can also add life to lessons: "Read aloud is a reset, a way to bring the joy back to teaching," says Routman.

Ripp says she hasn't found anything that binds her classes together like read alouds. "Read alouds become part of who we are; [they] become part of our memories."

Laura Varlas is the managing editor of ASCD Express and a contributor to Education Update.

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Laura Varlas English language arts teacher Pernille Ripp, who grew up in Denmark, doesn't remember many rich classroom-reading experiences. "We spent a lot of time with basal readers," she recalls. What she does remember are the bonds created when her mother read to her at home. "Those experiences made me a reader," she says.

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10 Steps that Don’t Involve Points, Pizza, or Prizes to Create a School Wide Culture of Reading

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10 Steps that Don’t Involve Points, Pizza, or Prizes to Create a School Wide Culture of Reading

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I was recently approached by a school that I partner with in consultancy and asked for advice about how I might lead for developing a school culture of independent reading. Let's start with the elephant in the room. When I talk about a school wide culture of reading, what I'm NOT talking about are reading programs that require students to read leveled books, take computerized tests for points, and get rewarded with pizza, parties, or prizes for the most points earned. This isn't a practice that I believe in. I won't go into that here though. That's for another day and another blog post. The purpose of this post is to offer advice based on practices I do believe in and recommend to schools and districts where I consult.

Creating a school wide culture of reading requires an intentional plan for taking several actionable steps. But first let's ask, with limited resources, why should schools invest time and finances in taking the steps I'm about to recommend? Simply stated, volume matters. Survey results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed that in reading for eighth and twelfth graders, students who read become better readers than students who don't (U.S. Department of Education 2009b). Additionally, students that reported having time in school to talk about reading also scored higher on state achievement tests.

High stakes tests certainly shouldn't be our only reason for working towards a culture of reading. The act of reading has many benefits far greater than academic achievement measured by a state test. For one, readers are more empathetic towards their fellow man and more willing to be curious and open toward others that may look or live differently than themselves. Additionally, readers are better able to cope with stress and trauma by finding stories similar to their own in the pages of a book. There are many life long benefits to reading, too many to list here. You get the point. Reading matters.

So let's get started. How do we go about creating a school culture in which more students are reading by choice? Here are ten actions schools can take to develop a climate and culture of reading. These steps are not necessarily in order, however building diverse and enticing classroom libraries is typically where I recommend starting.

Sacramento, CA Teacher, Amy Heno's Classroom Library
Amy has over 1000 titles in her library that she keeps organized into a variety of categories.

1. Create Diverse and Enticing Classroom Libraries If we want students to read, we must literally wrap them in books that they will actually want to read. Sacramento, CA teacher, Amy Heno, used a variety of resources to put together her extensive library. She's gotten two Donor's Choose grants, three mini-grants from local organizations, she's used her an annual $100 classroom supply budget, and she often frequents places where she knows she can pick up books for a fraction of their original cost. Amy labels her books using Avery labels and keeps track of check-in and out with the Book Buddy app. When I asked Amy what makes her library so successful in terms of students checking out books and reading, she had this to say, "Diversity of books and organization keep my library working. Every year I need to add new titles based on popularity, new releases, and the kind of readers in my room. A wide variety of genres allow me to meet the needs of each unique class of readers. One year it might be YA, then sports and poetry books the next. This year it's books with social justice themes and mystery thrillers. I cannot just buy what I like to read, I have to buy what I know will get my readers excited to read."

2. Give Book Talks Book talks are like a movie trailer for a book. And I would say they are just as effective in getting students to want to read a book. When first launching a shift toward more independent reading in a school, teachers and other adults should give book talks. Notice I didn't just say teachers, I said other adults too. Book talks shouldn't be limited to the ELA teachers. School leaders and other adults in the building should visit classrooms and give book talks as well. Book talks create a sense of excitement and FOMO (fear of missing out) around reading. If you want to know more about the guidelines and procedures for book talks, here's a great website.

3. Make Reading Visible Create classroom and school displays that feature books and reading. With the help of AP art students, Woodland, CA teacher, Janice Rose, created this beautiful tree from To Kill a Mockingbird, outside her classroom. She adds pictures of books that students have read on a regular basis. Keeping reading visible sends an unspoken message that reading is important and valued in a school. Many schools I visit display photos of books teachers have read on classroom doors or bulletin boards in the school. Jane Addams Middle School in Seattle, WA has baskets of books in the front office where students and parents wait to meet with staff. They also have bulletin boards featuring the newest award winners and a little lending library in one of their hallways. Yes, you read that right. A little lending library. In addition to a beautiful school library and rich classroom libraries, JAMS doesn't miss a chance for a student to meet a just right book by having books easily accessible all over the school.

The Little Lending Library at Jane Addams Middle School in Seattle

4. Get to Know Students and Their Interests It won't matter how many books are in a classroom library if they aren't books that match the interests of students. There are many ways to survey readers. It can be in the form of written or online surveys, asking students to take a quick genre poll, or taking data from an activity such as speed dating with books. (More on that to come.) The important thing is to get to know your readers and what they want to read. It's also important to note that students may not be able to tell you what they like until you start giving book talks and they actually start reading. Be vigilant in watching and listening to what students say about the books they love and don't love.

5. Be a Teacher or Leader that Reads When I visit schools (actually where ever I go), I carry at least two to three books with me. I carry the book I'm reading, the book I've just finished, and the book I'm going to read next. In the book 180 Days: Two Teachers and the Question to Engage and Empower Adolescents, Kelly Gallagher says, " Modeling the range of reading we do honors the diversity of texts and the purposes for reading that, of course, vary by reader. Students enjoy recommending books to us, sometimes stacking them next to our whiteboards. We often read what students recommend to us. Why? It deepens conversations we have with them and helps us know new titles to recommend to others." I can't count how many times I've had teachers and leaders message me and thank me for reigniting their reading life by the sheer act of carrying around my current books and giving spontaneous book talks. Walking our talk is powerful.

Here's the stack I'm taking with me this week. I just finished The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni. (SOOO GOOD!)

6. Provide Opportunities for Students to Recommend Books In addition to teachers giving book talks, students should also pitch books to each other. At Grant Jr. High School, in Central Louisiana, students sign up to travel to core classes every Friday and give book talks. Because there's a climate and culture around reading, the math, science, and SS teachers don't mind giving up five to seven minutes of class time once a week for book talks. In other schools, I've seen a variety of ways students can recommend books. Ideas include writing a review on a sticky and leaving it inside the front cover or putting a book on a special shelf with a recommendation. This practice is similar to what Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon does.

7. Feature Specific Authors in Your Classroom Displays and Book Talks Many authors have their own websites that make it easy to quickly access background information that will add to the excitement of reading a particular author's works. I found this to be true when I was giving book talks all over the country on Jason Reynolds' book Long Way Down . When I shared that Jason Reynolds found inspiration in rap and started writing poetry at nine years old, but didn't read his first book until he was seventeen, students were shocked. By visiting Reynolds's website and showing students a photo of the author and other works he's written, students became excited to check out his books. Of course I recommend you have a stack of an author's work on hand to check out immediately while enthusiasm is aflame.

Jason Reynolds has recently been named National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.

8. Allow Students to Explore Books Before Choosing I first read about book speed dating on the School Library Connection website. It's just what it sounds like. Book speed dating is easy to prepare for and is an expedient way of exposing students to multiple titles within a short amount of time. In short, set up by putting out stacks of books on each table, either give students something to write on, or I prefer they use their reader's notebook, and set a timer for browsing. If the student shows an interest in wanting to read the book, he/she writes the title and author in their "Want to Read" section of the reader's notebook.

9. Book Clubs Outside the Classroom Kayla Courville, instructional coach at Grant High School in Central Louisiana, formed a book club for high school students when she noticed that students wanted to hang out and talk to her and other classmates after the bell had rung about what they were reading. The club started out small and has grown over the years. Once word got out that being in the club didn't mean you had to do anything other than read the book and show up ready to talk about your thinking and feelings about the book, students were eager to join. Courville allows for students to suggest possible titles and they vote on what they want to read next. This year, they've been especially into titles with a strong lens on social justice.

10. Provide Time to Read My pastor, Adam Smith, once said that we must quit saying we don't have time for certain things. He pointed out that we all in fact have the same amount of time, twenty-four hours every day, and what we care about is what we make time for. At the time, this struck me as being so simple and yet such a revolutionary idea. So if we care about reading and we want our students to read more, we have to make time for it. It's that simple. I recommend that upper elementary, middle school, and high school students have at least one hour a week, across the school week, reserved for independent reading. That could include listening to an audio book while holding the book. It could be reading on a phone. It could be holding an actual book and reading the old fashioned way. Whatever it looks like, make time and protect it. Hold it a sacred. In the professional text The Book Whisperer, by Donalyn Miller, Miller says, "I express to my students that reading is not an add-on to the class. It is the cornerstone." I would agree. If we really want to develop a culture of reading at our schools, we have to provide time to read and not see that time as wasted. It is perhaps the most important use of time we have.

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10 Steps that Don't Involve Points, Pizza, or Prizes to Create a School Wide Culture of Reading

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I was recently approached by a school that I partner with in consultancy and asked for advice about how I might lead for developing a school culture of independent reading. Let's start with the elephant in the room. When I talk about a school wide culture of reading, what I'm NOT talking about...

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How to Audit Your Classroom Library for Diversity

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How to Audit Your Classroom Library for Diversity

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A bingo card can tell teachers a lot about the people and genres that are represented in their class library-and the ones that are missing.

Aron Vellekoop León / Ikon Images

We know that representation matters, that in order for our classrooms to be spaces where everyone is affirmed and included, young people must see themselves and their lived experiences in our curricula. Do our classroom libraries reflect this knowledge? Bookshelves offer a powerful litmus test of the experiences and identities we honor and include in our classrooms.

Books as Windows and Mirrors

"She's from Pakistan, just like me."

"He has dark skin like mine."

"I'm adopted, too."

"Look, that main character uses a wheelchair like mine."

What happens to students' self-efficacy and self-concept when they see their lives positively reflected in the curriculum? Even very young children recognize the importance and delight in finding themselves in a book:

Books become transformative when they shift our perspectives, alter our worldviews, and deepen our relationships with others. Let's implement practices that make reading from many different experiences, worldviews, and cultures part of the social fabric of our schools.

To build on this idea, I created a simple bingo card that educators complete with book titles. I hoped it would challenge teacher groups to think more critically about representation and diversity in their classroom libraries and foster new conversations about reading. It did that and more.

The Bookshelf Equity Audit

A key objective of this exercise is to foster school conversations about the books we read and teach. I have used this activity in professional development workshops. I think it also has the potential to be used as a faculty or school-wide reading challenge.

Rules of the exercise: Everyone needs their own bingo card (there's a downloadable pdf below). While you may be tempted to start with the books you teach, resist that and start instead with the books you read. Like friendship, literature is a powerful entry point for exposure to diverse experiences. What and whom we read matters.

Round 1: Using a black pen, fill out the bingo card with books you have recently read, putting one title in each box. You can start with classic bingo, looking for five in a row, but consider eventually challenging yourself to complete the whole card. Filling it out will likely be more difficult than you expected.

Round 2: Using blue ink, continue filling out the bingo card with books you have recently taught. This means you could have two titles in each box: one for a book you have recently read and another for a book you have recently taught. It's very rare that someone can fill out the bingo card so completely.

Teachers often have one or two books in their curricula that fit several of the categories on the card, but each title can appear only once.

Round 3: Once we start listing titles, we can see more clearly what we're missing. Get up and talk to your peers about books. Write down new recommendations for the empty squares on your card in red ink, and make sure to read them.

The bingo exercise reveals some gaps in our reading and teaching, but it also shows us that collectively we have the resources and knowledge to start addressing these gaps. What if a copy of the book that might change your teaching practice is already waiting for you in the classroom down the hall?

Teachers have frequently told me that this activity taught them to pay attention to the lived experiences of the authors they read and teach. Considering background information and author positionality is a valuable close reading strategy that supports us in our work of showing students that their stories matter.

Many teachers have found that until they took a true audit of what they were reading and teaching, they tended to overestimate the number of books by and about people of color on their shelves.

As expected, the exercise reveals our reading preferences, as well as the fact that many of us don't read as much as we would like. While it's OK to have preferences, it's important to be aware of the gaps in our understanding and to actively try to address them. This requires reading outside of our cultural or genre comfort zone, which is why the third round is essential-it requires us to talk about books, to seek suggestions from our peers, to ask young children and folks two generations older than us for book recommendations. It affirms that reading can be a social journey, and I've found these conversations to be incredibly helpful.

The bingo card is a call to pay attention to who we are reading, who we are teaching, who is represented, who is missing, and why.

As we read more broadly and talk about books more intentionally, we're able to shine light on more experiences. We can begin to increase representation in our classrooms in ways that tell young people that many experiences matter, representation matters, and most importantly, they matter.

Here are four book lists to start expanding representation on your classroom bookshelf:

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How to Audit Your Classroom Library for Diversity

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A bingo card can tell teachers a lot about the people and genres that are represented in their class library-and the ones that are missing. Aron Vellekoop León / Ikon Images We know that representation matters, that in order for our classrooms to be spaces where everyone is affirmed and included, young people must see themselves and their lived experiences in our curricula.

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DIVERSIFY YOUR SCHOOL'S BOOKSHELVES: ENTER THE 2022 READ ACROSS AMERICA SWEEPSTAKES

You could win a virtual author visit at the public school of your choice with an author from our Read Across America calendar.

Authors available for a virtual visit are: David Bowles, author of My Two Border Towns, is an award-winning writer, poet, and translator; J. Elle, the author of the New York Times and Indie bestseller Wings of Ebony; and Ellen Oh, who wrote Finding Junie Kim as well as the highly acclaimed, young-adult Prophecy Trilogy.

Only one entry is allowed per person-but the more people who submit from your school, the more likely you are to win! So share this page with friends and colleagues and enter the sweepstakes today!
Get started

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You could win a virtual author visit at the public school of your choice with an author from our Read Across America calendar. Authors available for a virtual visit are: David Bowles, author of My Two Border Towns, is an award-winning writer, poet, and translator; J.

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February 2, 2022 - join the movement!

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For 13 years, World Read Aloud Day has called attention to the importance of sharing stories by challenging participants to grab a book, find an audience, and read-aloud! The global effort, created by the non-profit LitWorld and sponsored by Scholastic, is celebrated annually in over 173 countries and is all about bringing people together through the shared connection of reading aloud in all of our communities.

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Join us for World Read Aloud Day on February 1st, 2023! Celebrate by reading aloud to a friend or tuning in for our live author read alouds.

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An excellent book full of practical ideas for your classroom.

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Donalyn Miller says she has yet to meet a child she can't turn into a reader. No matter how far behind Miller's students might be when they reach her 6th grade classroom, they end up reading an average of 40 to 50 books a year.

Miller's unconventional approach dispenses with drills and worksheets that make reading a chore. Instead, she helps students navigate the world of literature and gives them time to read books they pick out themselves. Her love of books and teaching is both infectious and inspiring.

In the book, you'll find:

Hands-on strategies for managing and improving your own school library

Tactics for helping students walk on their own two feet and continue the reading habit after they've finished with your class

Data from student surveys and end-of-year feedback that proves how well the Miller Method works

The Book Whisperer includes a dynamite list of recommended "kid lit" that helps parents and teachers find the books that students really like to read.

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The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child

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Amazon.com: The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child: 0884430278273: Miller, Donalyn, Anderson, Jeff: Books

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Book recommendations for "one school, one book" programs. But really just a good list of read aloud stories.

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These books are shorter or slighter - 90 to 120 pages - and can be read in two weeks. They are especially well suited to schools looking for a less intimidating book to introduce to a less experienced parent population. Some of these titleas are old chestnuts; some are new and contemporary. All of them rely on high quality, stimulating prose and characters and scenarios that will reliably engage and enrich your students, families, and classrooms.

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These books are shorter or slighter - 90 to 120 pages - and can be read in two weeks. They are especially well suited to schools looking for a less intimidating book to introduce to a less experienced parent population. Some of these titleas are old chestnuts; some are new and contemporary.

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A quick way to create a poster for your classroom to help promote reading with students.

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Share what you are reading with your class

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Tips and Tricks Parents Can Use to Nurture a Love of Reading in Kids

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Tips and Tricks Parents Can Use to Nurture a Love of Reading in Kids

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"It does start with the parent," Paul said. "So even if you haven't been reading a lot, it is important to bring books into your life because kids look to their parents as role models." For parents who aren't already big readers, she suggests that parenthood could be a chance to make good on those resolutions to read more.

She recommends starting a reading routine with infants, even though it may seem like they aren't getting much out of books at that age. For one thing, it can help parents, who may not have ever read aloud, get comfortable with the idea. Reading time can become a daily ritual for connection, child snuggling with their parent, hearing their voice, playing with the pages. From a very early age, kids are building positive memories and associations with reading.

And there's no reason this protected time has to stop as children grow older, Paul said. People love stories - that's why audiobooks and podcasts are so popular. Many parents, and teachers, continue to read to older kids who continue to find it pleasurable. Reading a book aloud together also gives parents an opportunity to start conversations with their kids about the book or its themes.

Paul also points to research showing that mothers are more likely than fathers to read to their children, and that both parents are more likely to read to their daughters than to their sons. Paul hopes parents are mindful of these gender gaps and work to reverse them. The research shows that girls are often more avid readers than boys, a trend that parents may inadvertently be perpetuating from an early age.

Paul also recommends surrounding kids with books at home. Put books in every room. Stack them on the coffee table, in the TV room, put them in the bathroom, make it easy for kids to pick up a book wherever they are. She even suggests sneakier tactics, like piling books about turtles on the coffee table if a child just mentioned being interested in them, for example.

She also understands the temptation to hand kids a phone or iPad when waiting in line at the grocery store or at the doctor's office. But, those are also perfect moments to pull out a book. She recommends parents always have one or two along for those moments.

The goal is to develop an intrinsic love of reading, so make reading special. In her house, Paul's kids have a set bedtime. But they are allowed to stay up 30 minutes longer if they are reading in bed. This type of strategy makes reading special, a treat that comes with privileges. That's very different from rewarding a child for reading with candy or screen time -- extrinsic rewards that send the message that reading must not be very fun.

And since technology is often the alternative to reading, Paul recommends parents follow the same rules they set for kids. If there's a rule of no phones at the table, that goes for parents, too. And if there's a no screens after 8 o'clock rule, with those last few minutes before bed being reading time, that goes for parents, too.

Let Kids Read What They Want

In the spirit of making reading pleasurable, Paul reminds parents not to judge what their kids read. It may not be high literature, but that's all right. Comics, books about baseball statistics, fantasy, graphic novels, these are all great forms of reading. Just as adults sometimes like to enjoy a trashy read, kids do, too. That doesn't mean they aren't starting to learn the difference between good and bad writing.

"If you want kids to read, they need to have what they want to read around them," Paul said.

Some parents worry that if they let their children choose what they read, they will encounter subjects or language that is inappropriate for them. Paul isn't too worried about this issue. She points out that most kids will skip over the parts of books for which they aren't developmentally ready.

"Kids take in what they're ready for," she said. And often, the other stuff doesn't quite register. But if it does, Paul would much rather kids get their first exposure to sensitive topics from a book, which has been carefully edited, rather than from the internet or friends, where misinformation abounds.

And there are more great young adult books available than ever before, many of which tackle the exact themes that concern young people. Authors are taking on identity, social justice and family issues.

"Really good books can validate a situation and help a child feel not so alone," Paul said.

Or, on the flip side, books may offer children a window into experiences they didn't realize other kids their age were having. That builds empathy. Rather than being scared that kids will encounter difficult topics, parents can use these reading experiences as jumping-off points for more nuanced conversations.

Paul remembers when her 10-year-old daughter came to her and asked for help with a word she didn't know -- heroin. The book was about how the opioid epidemic was affecting a young girl's family. Paul admits she was surprised, but she's glad her daughter is building an awareness of what other families may be dealing with. And, she was glad the book contextualized the issue, not glorifying drug use in any way.
What About Teens Who Won't Read Anymore?
This exact scenario happened to Maria Russo, co-author of How To Raise A Reader. She followed all the practices she recommends in the book and her daughter was an avid reader for most of her childhood. But then, when she was a teenager, she abruptly stopped.

Adolescence is a time of incredible change, often accompanied by the desire to rebel. Young people are defining their identity in new ways, often in opposition to their parents, at least at first. Therefore, it's no surprise that they may drop habits from their earlier life as they figure out who they want to be. Give them time: They may pick reading up again later, as Russo's daughter did.

As with many aspects of parenting teenagers, parents have to walk a line between giving their kids independence and support. When it comes to reading, it may be that kids just need the right book at the right time. Maybe it's a book about a social issue she's involved with, or an athlete's biography. Maybe the book that will get that child reading again is one that reflects his or her racial identity or sexual orientation. Or maybe that teen is tired of reading about people his age and wants something a bit more adult.

Paul suggests rearranging the bookshelves at home to make it easier for a kid to stumble upon something she's interested in reading. Maybe organize all the fiction and nonfiction together, or subtly turn books that might appeal with the book cover out, so it's more enticing.

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Tips And Tricks Parents Can Use To Nurture a Love of Reading in Kids

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"It does start with the parent," Paul said. "So even if you haven't been reading a lot, it is important to bring books into your life because kids look to their parents as role models." For parents who aren't already big readers, she suggests that parenthood could be a chance to make good on those resolutions to read more.

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Digital Library of Books

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Free for educators! Give students unlimited in-class access to the best books & videos on Epic

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Great tips from a classroom teacher.

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How do we inspire students to love reading and discovery? In Passionate Readers: The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child , classroom teacher, author, and speaker Pernille Ripp reveals the five keys to creating a passionate reading environment. You'll learn how to...

Use your own reading identity to create powerful reading experiences for all students

Empower your students and their reading experience by focusing on your physical classroom environment

Create and maintain an enticing, well-organized, easy-to-use classroom library;

Build a learning community filled with choice and student ownership; and

Guide students to further develop their own reading identity to cement them as life-long, invested readers.

Throughout the book, Pernille opens up about her own trials and errors as a teacher and what she's learned along the way. She also shares a wide variety of practical tools that you can use in your own classroom, including a reader profile sheet, conferring sheet, classroom library letter to parents, and much more. These tools are available in the book and as eResources to help you build your own classroom of passionate readers.

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Passionate Readers: The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child

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Passionate Readers: The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child

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A collaborative reading project that combines Epic and Padlet.

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** The current year's EpicPals Padlet boards and Google documents will remain active from the beginning of the month they go live and remain accessible until the end of June so feel free to go back and grab any of the Google docs from the current school year for your students to access at anytime. The share settings on the Google Docs will be turned off in July so Bobbi and I can update the boards for the upcoming school year.

Here's what you need to know....

*The links on the Google Doc are clickable if you'd rather push this sheet out to your students on your blog, Google Classroom, etc, If you go this route, be sure to "Make a copy" of the doc before sending it out to your kiddos.

I have found it easiest to scan the QR codes with the QR reader embedded directly in the Padlet app.

As your students begin to post on the Padlet boards, please don't be overly concerned about spelling. This is meant to be a place where kiddos can read and respond to text authentically. I do check in on the boards to double check content and any questionable phonetic spelling. (The links to these boards are not public or searchable- you must have the link to access them). I also have Padlet's profanity filter turned on.

Emoji use: Emojis are all the rage with our youngers right now and while I don't mind emojis on the posts, please have a discussion with your students about using them sparingly and in context of their post not just for the sake of seeing how many they can use. Poop emojis and any other inappropriate emojis will be deleted from posts.

That's really up to you. What's best for your learners? Are you learning about text-to-self connections, character traits, retelling, summarizing or simply writing complete sentences to share your favorite part? Be creative, utilize the boards to match your learning objectives. Feel free to have your students include images or screenshots or create and upload video reflections- the sky's the limit. Most important, have fun with this! I will have a question on the Padlet for students to think about but these are simply springboards if needed and you are are NOT required to respond to that specific question.

Do we have to use Epic Books to read the books?

If you have access to any of the books in another format, feel free to utilize it. Books do not have to be read on Epic although I will say my class is so completely engaged when using Epic now that they have the ability to also earn badges for reading (using iOs devices). Gamification is a wonderful motivator and engagement factor and being able to assign the collection to students makes it super easy!

Do students have to read all of the books and do they have to do them in order?

No, your class/students can do any or all of the books and there is no particular order. Let your students' interests gauge where they start. Again, make this fit your schedule and your learners.

Have fun! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me.
You can email me at: sjmalchow@pulaskischools.org

*If you have specific questions about the intermediate boards, please reach out to Bobbie Hopkins You can reach her on Twitter at: @bhopteacher

If you've not used Epic Kids Books, it is for educators- so run, don't walk, to check it out!! If you're interested in learning how to set up individual student accounts, click here to access some screen shots that will help you through the process.

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The current year's EpicPals Padlet boards and Google documents will remain active from the beginning of the month they go live and remain accessible until the end of June so feel free to go back and grab any of the Google docs from the current school year for your students to access at anytime.

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Download and print our free activity calendars to use at home or in the classroom.

Go on Epic! to find books, quizzes, and learning videos to help complete each fun activity.

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Instantly access 35,000 high-quality books for kids

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The leading digital library for kids offering unlimited access to 35,000 of the best children's books of all time. Sign up for a free 30 day trial to instantly access high-quality online books for kids, ebooks, audio books, quizzes, videos, and more.

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Plus activities teachers can use to help students improve their reading comprehension and understanding of math concepts.

Read-aloud time is typically dedicated to building reading comprehension. Sometimes teachers incorporate some social studies ideas, but rarely does math get to be front and center.

That should change because math and reading don't exist in separate silos. Adults who use math on a daily basis also need to be strong, fluent readers. Likewise, math requires strong logical reasoning skills, which can be honed in tandem with with reading skills. This is why reading about math, as well as using reading as an opportunity to engage with mathematical concepts, should be embraced.

When we blend these disciplines, we invite students to engage with math in a new-and often far more inviting-way. Kids who have struggled with geometry may love the opportunity to write a shape story, for instance-and it might even help them to remember that a square is a type of rectangle but a rectangle is not a type of square.

This far-from-exhaustive list of read-aloud books and related activities can help get teachers started thinking about how to incorporate mathematical reasoning, logic, and concepts into literacy instruction.

Math Curse

, written by John Scieszka and illustrated by Lane Smith, is a hilarious book about a student who, after being told that anything can be a math problem, wakes up to find that she can only see math problems in everything around her.

Activities: Math curse your students-have them go around the school and find math problems. You can extend the lesson by having them solve the problems they find (or pick a few for the class to work on together). For instance, you might pose the problem of needing new classroom supplies. Give students a budget and prices for items and encourage them to decide how to spend the money.

Actual Size

Actual Size, by Steve Jenkins, explains the sizes of different parts of animals, from a gorilla's hand to the world's largest tarantula. It's fantastic for teaching size and scale, and the collage illustrations are beautiful.

Activities: Have students choose an animal they're interested in and build either the whole animal or part of it in its actual size. For example, students could pick an insect and research its dimensions, then draw it accurately on graph paper. For a more elaborate project, students could draw an animal to scale on a large piece of craft paper or with painters tape on the floor; alternatively, they could build it using papier-mâché.

Triangle

In the engaging tale , written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen, Triangle tries to trick his friend Square... and a battle of the shapes ensues. This book is part of the Shape Trilogy-don't forget to check out Circle and Square.

Activities: Have students write a shape story with at least one fact about each shape included. For younger students, you might give them part of the story and encourage them to finish it. Or have them write a song or poem about a shape of their choosing.

As an alternative, have your students create a podcast in which they interview a shape. They can ask that shape about its favorite uses (e.g., "I'm a pentagon and my favorite use is a baseball plate"), its best friends ("As a pentagon, I love squares because when we get together it looks like we've made a pencil!"), and so on.

The Map of Good Memories

When Zoe has to flee her hometown because of war, she creates a " map of good memories " in this book written written by Fran Nuño and illustrated by Zuzanna Celej.

Activities: Create a map of good memories with students. Each student can create their own, using a map of their home, school, or hometown. Or you can create a class map and have each student provide a memory for a different place in your town. This activity provides an opportunity to work on map skills such as measurement, scale, and distance. For older students, you might use graph paper to create a scaled map of good memories.

Infinity and Me

In Infinity and Me, written by Kate Hosford and illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska, Uma looks up at the sky and feels small in the face of so much. This leads her to ponder what infinity means and looks like. This is an unusual book about a fascinating idea.

Activities: To get students thinking about the concept of infinity, sit in a circle and ask students to come up with the largest number they can. Go around until you feel like stopping, and declare the last person the winner. Your students will immediately point out that this is unfair because whoever goes last will win. Suggest another game: Do the same thing, but have students go around trying to say the smallest number they can. The same thing will happen. Discuss with students how a person could possibly win this game. This will spark a great conversation about how numbers can continue infinitely. Sitting in a circle gives students a physical view of infinity as well-you could go around that circle forever.

Another great way to get students thinking about infinity is to have them make a list of all of the things that go on infinitely, such as the number of stars in the universe or the number of times you can cut a rope in half.

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Plus activities teachers can use to help students improve their reading comprehension and understanding of math concepts. Read-aloud time is typically dedicated to building reading comprehension. Sometimes teachers incorporate some social studies ideas, but rarely does math get to be front and center. That should change because math and reading don't exist in separate silos.

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Book Whisperer Donalyn Miller's strategies to build a lifelong love of reading in your students.

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Ready to host a reading challenge with your class? Whether you want your students to read 4 or 40 books this year, here are some ideas that will help you be successful.

The Problem with a Reading Challenge

It's no secret that middle school students aren't spending as much time reading as they are on their phones or playing video games. Add to that the other activities that students are involved in...and reading for pleasure certainly takes a back seat.

But there are more great books than ever for this age group! (I've given up reading adult fiction because I think that YA books are better written!!)

With the busy lives our students lead, they need incentives to read. And one way to do that is to host a reading challenge with your class.

You want to create a vibrant community of readers who LOVE to read and WANT to read.

Before Starting a Reading Challenge

Think about what you, as an educator, want your students to gain from a reading challenge.

You want students to read, yes. But more than that, you want to create a vibrant community of readers who LOVE to read and WANT to read.

We don't want students to think of it as a punishment - one more requirement they have to complete. A reading challenge shouldn't make students feel dread. The last thing you want students to do is to lie about what they've read (or haven't read).

Keep the ultimate goal of your reading challenge at the top of your mind - and the minds of your students.

At the end of the year, you want students to tell you, "I used to not like to read, but I love reading now!"

So how do you get there? Read on!

How to Implement a Successful Reading Challenge

1. Join the challenge yourself.
Read right along with your students! This tip is number 1 for a reason.

Show that you value independent reading by modeling it. Take that one better by reading the books your students are reading and ask them for recommendations on what to read next. When you are excited about reading and can talk to your students about books they are reading, you add value to the challenge.
2. Determine what is right for your students.
You may want to use the 40 book challenge, which means students read about one book a week during a school year.

However, be sure to determine what is appropriate for your students.

Meet with them and allow them to set their own goals. Of course, a reading challenge isn't a challenge unless students are working toward something ... challenging!

But keep in mind your goal for this challenge. If a student read zero books last year, reading ten this year would be a challenge!

3. Rejoice in the accomplishments.
Keep a class tally of the number of books your class has read ( you can find one here). This is a powerful tool!

Update it weekly and post it on your classroom door - or better yet, in the hall for the world to see.
4. What about long books?
Should they count as two books? One of my team teachers allowed students to count books that were over 300 pages as two books.

The advantage of this is that it takes pressure off students who want to reader longer, more challenging texts.
5. Book reports...
Should you require students to write a report for each book?

Look back at your ultimate goal for the reading challenge. If it's to create a community of passionate readers, a book report might not be quite what you're looking for. Not to mention, you'll be grading them.

And let's be real here. Would you join a book club that required you to write a book report? Me neither.

Alternatives? You could just have students record the title of the book and give it a star review. Or you might want to have students give a monthly book talk.

6. Create a reading frenzy!
You will know you are on the right track when a book makes its way around your classroom like wildfire! And book talks are a great way to do this. It is so exciting when students start passing books to each other!

We know our students are much more likely to take the recommendations of their peers over ours. With book talks, students are taking turns recommending titles to each other. Golden!

Plus, book talks provide opportunities to reach the listening and speaking standards - not just once, but several times a year.

Schedule books talks monthly or once a grading period.

7. Requirements?
What should you require?

If you look online, you'll see school requirements for a 40 book reading challenge that specify a certain number of books for particular genres or topics.

I am not at all behind that idea for the simple reason that it doesn't align with my goal for a reading challenge: instilling the love of reading in my students.

Requiring students to read 5 biographies feel more like jumping through hoops than developing a love of reading.

You might be wondering how can you get students to read biographies or... anything besides fantasy? Here's how:

8. Meet with your students
When you meet with your students regularly, you'll be able to adjust and fine-tune their challenge.

If a students is reading just fantasy, the challenge might be to read a biography. Talking over your students' book choices can lead to interesting conversations and real connections with your students! This is where the two of you can create and set challenges.
9. Build community
Provide simple ways for students to share what they're reading. You can do with a quick weekly "turn and talk" as students tell another student what they are reading and what the book is about.
10. Keep a running list
Create a graffiti wall for students' suggestions. Just hang a big piece of paper on the wall with the title, "What are you reading?" and allow students to write out titles. They can give a star review next to the title as well.

This simple graffiti wall is helpful when students ask, "What should I read next?"

11. Easy record keeping
Make recording what books students are reading painless for both the students and you. Use a "status of the class" or book log.

You can also have students keep a reading log that has the title, author, date finished, and star review.
12. Reduce needless competition
Assure students that they are "running their own race." That means they are just competing with themselves. They've set their own goals and are working toward meeting them.
13. Return to your student's goals
Support your students by revisiting their goals and expectations often.

Check in with them regularly to assess how they are doing. Are they meeting their goals? Do they need to reset them? Are they challenging themselves or is the goal they set unattainable?
14. Off limit books?
Are there books your students aren't allowed to read or that shouldn't "count" toward their goal?

In my opinion, no! Let's not go there!

I tell my students that there are "candy" books. Books that are fun to eat, super easy to enjoy, but probably not really great for me. Books like Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid are wonderful books, but maybe not for a middle school student. Or maybe not all the time.

It's okay to read The Twits. But for a student who only wants to read "candy" books...there is an opportunity for discussion and growth!

Of course, we want our students to read "nutritious" books, but even adults will read a book that isn't high literature every once in awhile (right?? right?).

And again, go back to your goals! Use reading choices as a topic for the conferences you have with your students.
15. Celebrate all the successes
Make sure to celebrate what your students achieve!

Here's to a great reading challenge!

Ready to host a reading challenge with your class? Whether you want your students to read 4 or 40 books this year, here are some ideas that will help you be successful.

The Problem with a Reading Challenge

It's no secret that middle school students aren't spending as much time reading as they are on their phones or playing video games. Add to that the other activities that students are involved in...and reading for pleasure certainly takes a back seat.

But there are more great books than ever for this age group! (I've given up reading adult fiction because I think that YA books are better written!!)

With the busy lives our students lead, they need incentives to read. And one way to do that is to host a reading challenge with your class.

You want to create a vibrant community of readers who LOVE to read and WANT to read.

Before Starting a Reading Challenge

Think about what you, as an educator, want your students to gain from a reading challenge.

You want students to read, yes. But more than that, you want to create a vibrant community of readers who LOVE to read and WANT to read.

We don't want students to think of it as a punishment - one more requirement they have to complete. A reading challenge shouldn't make students feel dread. The last thing you want students to do is to lie about what they've read (or haven't read).

Keep the ultimate goal of your reading challenge at the top of your mind - and the minds of your students.

At the end of the year, you want students to tell you, "I used to not like to read, but I love reading now!"

So how do you get there? Read on!

How to Implement a Successful Reading Challenge

1. Join the challenge yourself.
Read right along with your students! This tip is number 1 for a reason.

Show that you value independent reading by modeling it. Take that one better by reading the books your students are reading and ask them for recommendations on what to read next. When you are excited about reading and can talk to your students about books they are reading, you add value to the challenge.
2. Determine what is right for your students.
You may want to use the 40 book challenge, which means students read about one book a week during a school year.

However, be sure to determine what is appropriate for your students.

Meet with them and allow them to set their own goals. Of course, a reading challenge isn't a challenge unless students are working toward something ... challenging!

But keep in mind your goal for this challenge. If a student read zero books last year, reading ten this year would be a challenge!

3. Rejoice in the accomplishments.
Keep a class tally of the number of books your class has read ( you can find one here). This is a powerful tool!

Update it weekly and post it on your classroom door - or better yet, in the hall for the world to see.
4. What about long books?
Should they count as two books? One of my team teachers allowed students to count books that were over 300 pages as two books.

The advantage of this is that it takes pressure off students who want to reader longer, more challenging texts.
5. Book reports...
Should you require students to write a report for each book?

Look back at your ultimate goal for the reading challenge. If it's to create a community of passionate readers, a book report might not be quite what you're looking for. Not to mention, you'll be grading them.

And let's be real here. Would you join a book club that required you to write a book report? Me neither.

Alternatives? You could just have students record the title of the book and give it a star review. Or you might want to have students give a monthly book talk.

6. Create a reading frenzy!
You will know you are on the right track when a book makes its way around your classroom like wildfire! And book talks are a great way to do this. It is so exciting when students start passing books to each other!

We know our students are much more likely to take the recommendations of their peers over ours. With book talks, students are taking turns recommending titles to each other. Golden!

Plus, book talks provide opportunities to reach the listening and speaking standards - not just once, but several times a year.

Schedule books talks monthly or once a grading period.

7. Requirements?
What should you require?

If you look online, you'll see school requirements for a 40 book reading challenge that specify a certain number of books for particular genres or topics.

I am not at all behind that idea for the simple reason that it doesn't align with my goal for a reading challenge: instilling the love of reading in my students.

Requiring students to read 5 biographies feel more like jumping through hoops than developing a love of reading.

You might be wondering how can you get students to read biographies or... anything besides fantasy? Here's how:

8. Meet with your students
When you meet with your students regularly, you'll be able to adjust and fine-tune their challenge.

If a students is reading just fantasy, the challenge might be to read a biography. Talking over your students' book choices can lead to interesting conversations and real connections with your students! This is where the two of you can create and set challenges.
9. Build community
Provide simple ways for students to share what they're reading. You can do with a quick weekly "turn and talk" as students tell another student what they are reading and what the book is about.
10. Keep a running list
Create a graffiti wall for students' suggestions. Just hang a big piece of paper on the wall with the title, "What are you reading?" and allow students to write out titles. They can give a star review next to the title as well.

This simple graffiti wall is helpful when students ask, "What should I read next?"

11. Easy record keeping
Make recording what books students are reading painless for both the students and you. Use a "status of the class" or book log.

You can also have students keep a reading log that has the title, author, date finished, and star review.
12. Reduce needless competition
Assure students that they are "running their own race." That means they are just competing with themselves. They've set their own goals and are working toward meeting them.
13. Return to your student's goals
Support your students by revisiting their goals and expectations often.

Check in with them regularly to assess how they are doing. Are they meeting their goals? Do they need to reset them? Are they challenging themselves or is the goal they set unattainable?
14. Off limit books?
Are there books your students aren't allowed to read or that shouldn't "count" toward their goal?

In my opinion, no! Let's not go there!

I tell my students that there are "candy" books. Books that are fun to eat, super easy to enjoy, but probably not really great for me. Books like Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid are wonderful books, but maybe not for a middle school student. Or maybe not all the time.

It's okay to read The Twits. But for a student who only wants to read "candy" books...there is an opportunity for discussion and growth!

Of course, we want our students to read "nutritious" books, but even adults will read a book that isn't high literature every once in awhile (right?? right?).

And again, go back to your goals! Use reading choices as a topic for the conferences you have with your students.
15. Celebrate all the successes
Make sure to celebrate what your students achieve!

Here's to a great reading challenge!

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15 Tips for a Reading Challenge - Just Add Students

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Ready to host a reading challenge with your class? Whether you want your students to read 4 or 40 books this year, here are some ideas that will help you be successful. It's no secret that middle school students aren't spending as much time reading as they are on their phones or playing video games.

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Establishing reading accountability partners

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Tracking minutes wasn't helping her students, so a teacher asked them to instead discuss their reading every day, making it a social activity.

Jim West / Alamy Stock Photo

After using reading logs in my fifth grade classroom for some time, I began to feel burdened by this daily routine. I noticed that students' reading logs consistently showed the same number of minutes read each night: It was always 20. My students seemed to be reading merely because they had to-not because it opened up windows to the world, because reading about a character who looked like them brought them a sense of belonging and hope, or because they wanted to learn how to change the world for the better.

I sought to find out whether other teachers were feeling the same way and what research said about this issue. I found that many parents and educators had strong negative feelings about reading logs-and research supported those sentiments. In fact, one study found that mandatory reading assignments such as reading logs can actually decrease students' motivation to read. After furthering my investigation through student interviews and parent surveys, I dropped the reading log in my classroom.

I experimented with several alternatives before developing reading accountability partners. Accountability partners meet every day to discuss the previous day's reading. The practice may seem simple, but the results have been impressive.

Establishing Reading Accountability Partners

In this activity, every student needs a partner for conversations about their reading-and the pairing must be intentional. Students need to be paired with someone who will challenge them academically and encourage them emotionally. A prerequisite to setting up partners is knowing your students. Spend time thinking about student relationships within your classroom, observing students interacting with one another, and listening in on conversations to ensure that you pair students with someone they're comfortable with-who can also hold them accountable.

Once you have established the pairs, provide mini-lessons to help students understand their role as a reading accountability partner-how they can hold a peer accountable for daily reading while being receptive to feedback. Model book talks and how to converse about reading, and give students time to practice these skills. Provide anchor charts and other visuals with helpful strategies that students can refer to during conversations.

Provide students with guiding questions to steer their conversations in productive ways. My students and I found that the following questions were helpful:

What do you like best about your book?

What feelings did this book evoke for you?

Which character do you most closely relate to, and why?

How have you been changed by what you read?

Does your new understanding leave you feeling motivated to take any action?

You may choose to have some type of journal for students to record notes in. We also found it helpful to have a calendar where students were able to jot down notes each day about their reading and their partner conversations. They enjoyed being able to revisit previous days and months and reflect on all they had read and discussed-and how much growth they had made. Some students quickly recognized trends in their own reading, including which days they tended to read more at home; which, if any, genres they were stuck in; and when it was time to branch out and try new genres and authors.

Implementation

In order to set students up for success, I suggest giving them unrushed time every day to meet with their accountability partners and providing options for comfortable spaces to have conversations. In our fifth grade classroom, we found around 10 minutes of partner time to be adequate, though this might vary in different grade levels.

Work to ensure that the conversations are meaningful by making yourself present and "guest partnering" with students. Try to avoid stipulations or assigning grades or other metrics to their recreational reading and conversations. Let the purpose of this activity be to simply support students' love of reading.

Anecdotal Evidence

One of my former fifth graders-let's call her Ava-lacked confidence when it came to reading, but she possessed grit. She couldn't imagine reading ever being fun for her, but was still willing to work hard. Her accountability partner motivated Ava to read more. Because of their commitment to one another, there were very few days when they came to school without having read the previous evening-and when they did, I would overhear them apologizing to each other for having let the other down.

With the accountability partners activity, Ava was able to experience success as a reader for the first time in her schooling-and she and her partner fostered a lasting friendship. Through conversations with her partner, Ava was empowered to try books she may have previously shied away from; she also met characters she could relate to and discovered stories she hoped would never end.

Academically, Ava experienced significant growth in our classroom-but more than that, she left my classroom with a love for reading and learning. Her mom came to me toward the end of the year and told me about the new confidence she had seen in Ava and how reading was now a favorite family activity.

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Tracking minutes wasn't helping her students, so a teacher asked them to instead discuss their reading every day, making it a social activity. Jim West / Alamy Stock Photo After using reading logs in my fifth grade classroom for some time, I began to feel burdened by this daily routine.

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Research-based reading strategies, lessons, and activities designed to help young children learn how to read and read better.

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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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Excite, encourage and engage kids to read! Check out Biblionasium, where young readers connect & share book lists and good reads with friends, teachers & parents. Look up the reading level difficulty of thousands of books and find the right fit books. A powerful teacher tool and valued parent resource.

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How to Use Booktalks to Instill a Love of Reading

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How to Use Booktalks to Instill a Love of Reading

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While there are a number of effective strategies to instill a love of reading among your students, booktalks are one of the most fun and engaging. With weekly booktalks, your students will be inspired to really dig into the book they're reading, but most importantly, they'll develop important critical thinking, listening, and presentation skills they need to succeed inside and outside your classroom.
Check out these must-have professional development books to take your teaching to the next level.
Here are a few suggestions from the educators Stephanie Harvey and Annie Ward, authors of From Striving to Thriving: How to Grow Confident, Capable Readers, on how to conduct your own booktalk and inspire a love of reading among your students at the same time:

1. First, introduce the book to your students by holding it up, flipping through the pages, and sharing all the interesting aspects of it.

2. Next, describe its genre, define it, and share examples of other books your students may have read that are part of the same genre.

3. Find other ways to relate the book to others your students have read and love. This way they'll be even more intrigued by the story and can begin to think about what's in store for them while reading.

4. Choose a passage from the book and read it aloud to your class. A short read-aloud is a great way to introduce the tone and voice of the book to your students and will help them determine whether or not it's a book that interests them.

5. Sum up the plot and storyline, but don't spoil it!

6. Next, ask if any of your students have already read the book. Encourage those who have to share their thoughts. What did they like about it? What surprised them?

7. Leave the book out so students can take a look for themselves. A frenzy for the book may ensue, so be sure to make a few other books from the same genre and topic area accessible.

8. Finally, have your students do their own book talk on a title they love.

Booktalks are not only a wonderful and effective way to introduce your students to a wide variety of books and subject matters they'll love to read, they're key to helping your students grow as readers. For more booktalk tips and reading strategies, be sure to check out From Striving to Thriving. It's filled with fun and innovative ways to meet the reading needs of all your students, helping them achieve reading success and become more confident in the classroom.

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How to Use Booktalks to Instill a Love of Reading

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While there are a number of effective strategies to instill a love of reading among your students, booktalks are one of the most fun and engaging. With weekly booktalks, your students will be inspired to really dig into the book they're reading, but most importantly, they'll develop important critical thinking, listening, and presentation skills they need to succeed inside and outside your classroom.

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11 Essentials for a Highly Effective Classroom Library

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11 Essentials for a Highly Effective Classroom Library

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Research clearly demonstrates that a robust, high-quality classroom library impacts student achievement. Students who have access to an extensive, exemplary classroom library read more, read more widely for a variety of purposes, demonstrate more positive attitudes toward reading, and score higher on standardized tests of reading achievement. In this way, students are more likely to achieve the goals of college and career readiness.

Successful skill-building classroom libraries do the following:

Support literacy instruction.

Help students learn about books.

Provide a central location for classroom resources.

Provide opportunities for independent reading and curricular extensions.

Serve as a place for students to talk about and interact with books.

Here are the 11 essentials every classroom library must have to be effective:
1. A minimum of 750 books in good condition.

2. Thirty books per student.

3. 30% of the books in your classroom library have been published in the last 3-5 years (at a minimum).

4. 5 new books per student are added to your classroom library each year.

5. 50-70% of your classroom library consists of nonfiction books.

6. 10% of your classroom library consists of reference books (at a minimum).

7. 25% of your classroom library consists of multicultural books (at a minimum).

8. The reading level of your classroom library expands to cover two to three years above and below grade level. ( Here's a handy link to book lists for every guided reading level.)

9. Multiple copies of popular titles and text sets appear in your classroom library so multiple students can read these at the same time.

10. A rich variety of genres is included in your classroom library so children are exposed to: realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction, biography and autobiography, stories, classics, myths and legends, picture books, reference, poetry, comic books and graphic novels, and more.

11. Digital texts, ebooks, and multimedia such as interactive whiteboard technology.

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11 Essentials for a Highly Effective Classroom Library

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Research clearly demonstrates that a robust, high-quality classroom library impacts student achievement. Students who have access to an extensive, exemplary classroom library read more, read more widely for a variety of purposes, demonstrate more positive attitudes toward reading, and score higher on standardized tests of reading achievement.

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Lots of ideas for using Flipgrid to celebrate reading.

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Hello friends! I am so excited. This is my first #GridTip and I'm starting off with a celebration of reading! As educators, we want all of our students to be successful. We also want them to develop a love of reading. By providing pathways for all readers to share, we can celebrate alongside our students as they develop skills related to phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. In this #GridTip I'll share how one school champions their readers using Flipgrid and provide tips for creating your own Celebration of Reading Grid!

#BWreads at Beechwood School

Emily McDougall, COTSEN Mentor and Literacy Specialist at Beechwood School in Fullerton, California, created the #BWreads Grid as a space for Kindergarten through 8th Grade students to share and celebrate reading in class and beyond! Her goals were to:

🎉Celebrate readers on campus
🏫Provide an authentic place to share reading lives in class and beyond
💪Empower readers to use skills gained in Readers Workshop and direct instruction
🏠Connect with families in the community and engage readers at home

Emily and the staff got together and brainstormed topics that would be meaningful for the students. Teachers, Specialists, and Administrators joined forces and provided opportunities for classrooms to "sign up" and students immediately began adding to the Grid. #BWReads became a movement that involved the entire learning community and grew beyond a school wide celebration of reading. Just check out these reviews from students, teachers, and admins!

"I liked posting videos and watching my friends' videos. This helped me improve as a reader because I used to skip words. I decided that I wouldn't skip words anymore. I wanted to learn more about book so I could share them with my friends." - Evan, 2nd Grade

"I loved learning about new books that I could read. I would go to the 4th Grade Topic and see what videos my friends put in there." - Mia, 4th Grade

"Letting my students share their books on Flipgrid empowered them as readers. They began to learn more about different types of text and this gave them authentic ways to extend their learning." - Ms. Ritz, 1st Grade Teacher

"This is part of the fabric of our school, it is our reading community. It's cool to explain your thinking, it's what our readers do and this is an exciting way to do it." Mrs. Graham, Principal

Create your Own Grid

🔒Determine which Grid Community type works best for your school. Unsure which Grid type you need? Here's some information to help you choose!

👩‍🏫Help teachers and students learn how to use Flipgrid. Encourage the staff to try it out first. Go hands on and push buttons. If you're new to Flipgrid, be sure to check out the awesome Flipgrid Booth Instruction Posters created by Student Voice Ambassador Claudio Zavala.

🧠Brainstorm with your community to generate Topics that will be meaningful for your readers. Let students and families suggest Topics too! Make sure you have a wide range of Topics that interest readers of all levels. Share examples of how to organize your thinking (Thinking Maps, Graphic Organizers, etc) to help students be successful with their first response.

💌Partner up with your teacher peers and admins then share the Grid widely with your community. Promote your Grid at Back to School Night, in your school Newsletter, on your school's social media pages, talk about it and let your community know what you are trying to do to celebrate the readers on campus.

Disco Library

As is often the case, the best place to find inspiration as you're starting a Flipgrid project is to explore the Disco Library. Here are 13 Disco Library Topics that are perfect for your new Celebration of Reading Grid!

Elementary Topics
📖Saralee's Favorite Book
📖Chelsea's 1 Minute Book Talk Challenge
📖Amanda's Book Talks
📖Samantha's 6 Word Summaries

Middle School Topics
📖Kelly's Your Book Talk
📖Meagan's Book Love Book Talk
📖Mandy's Book Talk Bonanza
📖Rick's Become the Character
📖Sarah's Reading Response

High School Topics
📖Janel's 30 Second Book Talks
📖Janice's Blind Book Dates
📖Laura's Adversity in Literature
📖Kathleen's Current Events & Text Connections

As your school year begins, I hope you find ways to share and celebrate the authentic reading lives of those in your community. If you have any questions, give me a shout anytime on Twitter or email: ann@flipgrid.com. I'm always here to help!
Here's to the learning journey. See you on the Grid! 🚀
-Ann

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Hello friends! I am so excited. This is my first #GridTip and I'm starting off with a celebration of reading! As educators, we want all of our students to be successful. We also want them to develop a love of reading.

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By Jennifer Serravallo
In the Reading and Writing Strategies Facebook Group, a member recently posted this question:
I started conferring this week and I can't seem to keep the conferences to the recommended 5-7 minutes. What tips and tricks have you implemented to help you keep your conferring times down to the recommended time? I would set a timer, but I feel like it would be disrespectful to the student that I am with...Any suggestions would be appreciated. -Jenny H.
I promised Jenny and others who expressed an interest that the question deserved a whole blog post....so here it is!

It's hard to argue with the power of conferring: individualized instruction where teachers provide meaningful targeted feedback to each student. But to ensure that all children benefit - and that each student can have regular reading conferences with you - it's important to keep them focused and to be mindful of your time.

Here are my tips for being time-efficient while not sacrificing impact or feeling rushed. (Click images to enlarge.)

Tip #1: Stick to a structure

When you know how you want the conference to go, it's easier to adapt, adjust, and be responsive within the conference. I recommend the Research-Compliment-Teach (R-C-T) structure, something I learned from Lucy Calkins almost two decades ago that I still use today. I spend about a minute researching or checking in to see how the student is doing, then I decide on one thing to compliment and one thing to teach. Next I compliment in a sentence or two, reinforcing a strategy the child is already using.

Then I teach by offering a step-by-step strategy and supporting the student as they have a try. Finally, I link to their independent work with a quick reminder of what we worked on, leaving the student with a simple visual reminder. You might even keep these steps in front of you on a table tent as you work!

Tip #2: Don't open too many cans of worms

During the research phase of the conference, it can be tempting to ask a lot of questions, look at all the artifacts (Post-its, notebook entries, etc.) that the student has produced since the last time you met, and get into the weeds. It can be overwhelming to get so much information because it makes it harder to focus and choose what to teach. It also makes the conference feel less like a conversation, and more like you're grilling the student.

Instead, begin the conference with the student's goal in mind. Research only connected to that goal. For example, if the student is working on improving fluency, then just have them read aloud. If the student is working on better understanding the plot, then ask them to retell.

Tip #3: Keep skill progressions in mind

Conferences are most impactful when they are focused on a student's goal. Though the goal is something the student cannot yet do, there is a progression of skills within the goal. The best targeted teaching leans on what a student can already do (where they are on the progression of skills) and nudges them toward deeper work. For example, if a student is working on a goal of understanding text features, the progression might look something like this:

If you determine the student is able to offer multiple details from the feature, you might think, "What's just a little more than what they are doing now?" and help the child with a strategy to connect the information from the feature to the information in the rest of the text.

In doing so, you've based a teaching opportunity on a strength. You're working within the child's zone of proximal development. Doing so boosts a student's confidence and makes it more likely that the child will be able to approximate in the few minutes they have with you, and continue independently when you move on to another child.

Tip #4: Teach one thing

Teachable moments abound in every moment of the teaching day, and conference time is no exception. It's inevitable that you'll be in the midst of teaching a student about improving fluency by noticing mid-sentence punctuation when they get stuck on a word. You might be tempted to switch gears and teach a decoding strategy. In most cases, my advice is to stay focused on the one thing you taught, make note of what else you noticed, and plan to support what else the student needs in a subsequent conference.

© Serravallo, 2019. A Teacher's Guide to Reading Conferences

Tip #5 Don't model (or if you do, keep it short)

I used to do a lot of modeling/demonstrating in conferences and would spend two or more of my five minutes doing a lot of talking, showing, and telling. My experience tells me that in a one-on-one situation, it's just as effective (and much more efficient) to get the student to just try what you want them to do and give them coaching and feedback as they work. No demonstration needed.

So now, I always try that first-I just tell the step-by-step strategy, and get the student to practice while I coach. If the student needs a quick example or demo, I'll do it only after I've given them a chance and they show me they need more support. And even then it's short-just one quick example.

Tip #6 Let it go

Conferences are an opportunity to give the student some supported practice. It's ok to leave before the student masters what you've taught. Like with piano lessons where the teacher leaves when time's up even if the piece isn't perfected, in conferences we need to move on to other students and trust that there is value and potential for progress in the independent practice time in between each session.

Leave the student with a sticky note or book mark to remind them of what you worked on (just as a piano teacher leaves sheet music with marginal notes) and plan to see them a few days later.

Tip #7 Confer in groups when more than one student needs the same strategy

As you set goals with students and see them regularly, you'll start to notice patterns in your class. "Hey, these three are all working on retelling the plot of simple chapter books" you might notice, or "These two are both trying to infer character feelings." It makes great sense, then, to pull students together to save time.

In a small group conference (AKA "strategy lesson") you can start by telling the children why you've pulled them together, offer a strategy that everyone will practice on their own, and move around the group coaching and giving feedback one-on-one. These small group conferences last about the same amount of time as individual conferences, but you can work with two or three children at a time.

Learning to use less time...takes time!

Just as your students need to practice strategies to work toward their goals, you'll likely find that getting your conferences focused and short will take time, too. Be as patient with yourself as you are with your students. Work on one of these tips one at a time, reflect, improve!
Read Rita Platt's review of
A Teacher's Guide to Reading Conferences
Jennifer Serravallo is a literacy consultant, author, and speaker and the author of several popular titles including the NY Times Bestselling The Reading Strategies Book and The Writing Strategies Book. Her newest professional books include Understanding Texts & Readers and A Teacher's Guide to Reading Conferences, Grades K-8.

Jennifer was a Senior Staff Developer at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project and taught in NYC public schools. Find her on Twitter @jserravallo, Instagram @jenniferserravallo, or the web at www.jenniferserravallo.com, and join the Reading and Writing Strategies Facebook Group to have your questions answered.
Download a PDF of this article.

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Jen Serravallo: Effective 5- to 7-Minute Reading Conferences

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Literacy expert Jen Serravallo shares seven reading conference tips to help teachers be efficient with their time without sacrificing impact or feeling rushed.

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Each year reading teacher Pernille Ripp selects books to be read aloud to students. You can connect with other classrooms reading the same books.

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This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Global Read Aloud. It is hard to believe that what started as such a small idea has grown into a truly global literacy initiative that has connected millions of kids throughout the year. It is hard to believe that it has been ten years already.

Yesterday, I was asked what the Global Read Aloud means to me and I will admit, it was hard to answer the question. Because in its truest form, the GRA is an invitation into a world that we can share together. An invitation into a story that will shape our experience, that will help us speak books with one another in order for us to understand each other better. Every year I see the connections being made and think of each of them as a small chip in the many walls that seem to surround us around the world, I see it as one more step toward a more empathetic, understanding, and activist society.

And so the books are at the center of it all which puts a lot of pressure on the selection of the texts. Hitting publish on this post will once again mean me holding my breath, waiting for the reaction to unfold worldwide. And yet, it also means that perhaps these books will change the way we think, the way we teach. That these books and the creators behind them will become part of the language of books that we speak with our students. I cannot wait for that to happen.

The books chosen this year were once again a combination of the winners of the voting rounds and my own selection.

So, starting on September 30th, what will we be reading aloud?

Picture book study

The work of Yuyi Morales - creator extraordinaire. Every time I pick up a book shaped in some way by Yuyi, it takes my breath away. The scope of her work means that we not only get to t revel in the beauty of her art but also marvel at the stories she shares.
1st week: Dreamers in English or Spanish 2nd week: Just A Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book 3rd week: Nino Wrestles the World 4th week: 5th week: Little Night/Nochecita 6th week: Your choice
Early Readers
Stella Diaz Has Something to Say by Angela Dominguez
Stella Diaz loves marine animals, especially her betta fish, Pancho. But Stella Diaz is not a betta fish. Betta fish like to be alone, while Stella loves spending time with her mom and brother and her best friend Jenny. Trouble is, Jenny is in another class this year, and Stella feels very lonely.

When a new boy arrives in Stella's class, she really wants to be his friend, but sometimes Stella accidentally speaks Spanish instead of English and pronounces words wrong, which makes her turn roja. Plus, she has to speak in front of her whole class for a big presentation at school! But she better get over her fears soon, because Stella Díaz has something to say!

Middle Grade
Front Desk by Kelly Yang
Mia Tang has a lot of secrets.

Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests.

Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao, finds out they've been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed.

Number 3: She wants to be a writer. But how can she when her mom thinks she should stick to math because English is not her first language?

It will take all of Mia's courage, kindness, and hard work to get through this year. Will she be able to hold on to her job, help the immigrants and guests, escape Mr. Yao, and go for her dreams?

Middle School
The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman
Life is harsh in Chennai's teeming streets, so when runaway sisters Viji and Rukku arrive, their prospects look grim. Very quickly, eleven-year-old Viji discovers how vulnerable they are in this uncaring, dangerous world. Fortunately, the girls find shelter-and friendship-on an abandoned bridge. With two homeless boys, Muthi and Arul, the group forms a family of sorts. And while making a living scavenging the city's trash heaps is the pits, the kids find plenty to laugh about and take pride in too. After all, they are now the bosses of themselves and no longer dependent on untrustworthy adults. But when illness strikes, Viji must decide whether to risk seeking help from strangers or to keep holding on to their fragile, hard-fought freedom.

Young Adult
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive as they make their way up north to the old lands. For now, survival means staying hidden-but what they don't know is that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves.

There you have it; another amazing year of connecting awaits. Read the books, share the books, and get ready for another opportunity to make the world smaller.

PS: If you still need to sign up, please go here.

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This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Global Read Aloud. It is hard to believe that what started as such a small idea has grown into a truly global literacy initiative that has connected millions of kids throughout the year. It is hard to believe that it has been ten years already.

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Use Seesaw as a place to house student book reviews! Students will not only being sharing book reviews with you and their parents, but other students in the class will also be able to view the reviews to determine whether they would like to read a book their classmate just finished!

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Ready, Set, READ!!!
Every summer students are challenged by Norfolk Public Library to READ and track minutes. This document has a 1500 minute challenge AND a 3000 minute challenge!
May need to click OPEN IN NEW WINDOW to view

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Jefferson Library Presentation 💗

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Reading conferences, response letters, sketches, blobs, and so much more!

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4 Must-Know Tips to Keep Readers On Track

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Scholastic shares tips to keep readers on track with one-on-one reading conferences, graphic organizers, discussions about reading, and book talks.

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What's better than a little friendly competition? Challenge students in groups to read by tracking the pages they have read!
May need to click OPEN IN NEW WINDOW to view

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Create a new spreadsheet and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Sheets to edit Excel files. Free from Google.

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Challenge students to read genres outside of their comfort zone with this GENRE Book Bingo. Students can track what they have read, and then rate their BINGO books with one star, two stars, or three stars.
May need to click OPEN IN NEW WINDOW to view

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Help Students Find a Book to Get Them Hooked!

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Help Students Find a Book to Get Them Hooked!

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One of the most powerful things you can do to increase reading engagement is to hand a book to a student and say, "I thought of you." Use an interest survey and simple conversation to aid you in finding "that" book.

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A great strategy to check students reading progress while building collaboration and communication skills.

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Audio books for special education students.

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Audiobooks for Dyslexia & Learning Disabilities | Learning Ally

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Learning Ally solutions help struggling readers through audiobooks & support services for educators, parents, and students dealing with dyslexia. Reading accommodations