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The new Common Core State Standards list skills to prepare American young people on the path toward the college and careers of their choice. Yet as students are on their journey to and through college, and ultimately through life, I also hope they are lifelong learners with an insatiable thirst for knowledge driven by their unique passions. It's that self-driven desire for knowledge that will empower students to grow and reach their potential beyond the reach of our classrooms. Building love of learning is a top priority in my classroom. Guest post by Maddie Witter

Where do lifelong learners often turn to get their knowledge? Books! Below are five ways you can help build lifelong readers.

Market Your Books
Lifelong readers love to go to the bookstore. Consider your favorite neighborhood bookstore. How do they display their books? Design your physical space mimicking how the bookstore sets up their space.
I'm so inspired by all the teachers out there sharing their love for books with other kids and teachers. Some of my favorites that you should check out include

Display new releases on a table covers facing out. Book covers are gorgeous and should be celebrated!

In Reading Without Limits , I share how to set up a mini café in the corner of your classroom so kids can flip through pages while drinking hot cocoa.

Check out how massive e-bookstores sell their books. At the time this post was written, one e-bookstore promoted recent Newbery Medal recipients, Black History month books, and romantic books for Valentine's Day. Be similarly intentional with books you spotlight. Set up themed displays in the front of your room, rotating in new themes once a month.

Give Kids Lots of Time to Read
If you want your kids to become lifelong readers, then they need time to build the habit. Set up opportunities so your kids get to read for long periods of time. Incrementally build how long they can sustain their reading with The Nerdy Book Club and Mr. Schu Reads .
Launch Playlists
Maddie Witter (Melbourne, Australia) is a founding teacher of KIPP Infinity Charter School, one of the top performing middle schools in New York City and is the author of Reading Without Limits . Maddie is currently building lifelong reading habits with incarcerated youth in Australia. Visit Maddie at www.reading-without-limits.com .

KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program , began in 1994. As of fall 2012, there are 125 public charter schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia helping nearly 41,000 students from underserved communities climb the mountain to and through college.
Lifelong learners seek out knowledge. One way that you can build curious mindsets around books is through text playlists. A text playlist is a collection of books, articles, paintings, poems, and movies that all explore a topic or motif. Students generate playlists based on their own passions . Students cultivate playlists with their own curiosity, teacher, and peer feedback. For instance, a child who loved The Hunger Games can create a post apocalyptic playlist that includes the movie Running Man , the short story "All Summer in One Day" by Ray Bradbury, the nonfiction book Collapse by Jared Diamond, the book series "Among" by Margaret Peterson Haddix, and the painting "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" by Albrecht Durer. Student interest drives the playlist. Create lessons that encourage connections between the texts. Playlists are a great inspiration for departments looking for interdisciplinary projects. I share a sample lesson plan that teaches kids how to set up playlists on Reading Without Limits .

As we teach students the skills necessary for the colleges and careers of their choice, let's also remember to nurture love of learning.

Harness Peer Pressure
Lifelong readers reach out to their peers. Create a culture in your classroom where kids, teachers, and families share their favorite new titles. stamina boosting activities .

Make Your Love of Books Contagious
My twitter feed exploded when the Newbery 2013 Medal announced that The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate won. For days, book loving teachers around the world were ecstatic. One teacher shared that as her class watched the announcement live on television, they jumped up in applause. Isn't that awesome? How can teachers inspire such reading mania? If you are excited about a book, so excited that you can't wait to share it with your kids, chances are your enthusiasm will rub off on your students.

Find favorite authors and send them gratitude tweets about their books. Encourage kids to follow suit.

Create book timelines of your favorite books from infancy through adulthood. Slowly introduce your class to excerpts from the books during daily read-alouds.

Ask different students to set up a recommendation shelf each month. For instance, Dion can set up a shelf of his favorite series, genres, and even books he liked when he was younger. Give him lots of space so he can showcase!

Websites like www.goodreads.com are a virtual resource for students to not only recommend books to their peers, but also reach out to larger social networks about their books. Also, check out the Innovative Educator's review of Book Glutton , another virtual resource that connects readers.

Set up an interactive bulletin board that displays new books that each student is reading that week. I call it the Bookcase Update Wall. Contact teachers and families who want to take part. Students love to see their parents and siblings contributing!

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The new Common Core State Standards list skills to prepare American young people on the path toward the college and careers of their choice. Yet as students are on their journey to and through college, and ultimately through life, I also hope they are lifelong learners with an insatiable thirst for knowledge driven by their unique passions.

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Booktalking tips

Make a list of the books. I hand it out beforehand, so that the kids can write on it and note books that they are interested in. When I worked at the Public Library and was booktalking in schools, the top of the list had a map, a treasure map, showing them how to get to the library. Only one boy ever said that he was afraid to go to the library because he had to go through the neighborhood on the map where the dragon lives.

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I think the most important thing is to put the booktalk in a context. Reading is an exercise, everything you read makes you a better reader. The better the reader you are, the better you are going to do at anything that has books about it. The faster you read, the sooner you finish assigned reading. It gets easier, you get less tired, you enjoy it more. The same as ice skating or running. At first, it's hard, it makes you tired and it's no fun. But the more you do it, the easier it gets, the less energy you expend to accomplish the same thing, and the more fun it gets.

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The main thing that I do is give dramatic readings and oral interpretations of passages from books. I'll start with a little bit of setup, read from the book, and then close with a teaser. This works with non-fiction and magazine articles as well. You need to mix it up, a funny passage, a sad passage, a tense passage.... You also need to mix up the length and pattern. A long booktalk with a reading, a short tease, a minute to mention 3 similar books....

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The main thing that I think you need is what I call a silencer. The silencer is the book that will grab their attention. Sometimes you need it at the beginning, other times in the middle, and if you never need it you can use it for a big ending. "Wait 'till Helen Comes," where she first sees the Ghost for lower grades and "Chinese Handcuffs," right after J. Maddy has been abused make great silencers.

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You can booktalk books you have not read. I still don't know what happens in "Killing Mr. Griffin," but the passage where the kids torment him when he is tied up in the woods is very powerful. A good ploy when you haven't read the book is to admit it. "It's a new book, it sounded good or I wouldn't have bought it, I would appreciate it if someone wants to read this book and come down and talk to me about it.

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I don't think you should give the books out in the classes. Kids will want books because other kids want them, but these kids will never read them. The kid who wants the book bad enough to come get it, is the kid that will read it.

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I think it is important to have a few very short books, and call attention to their brevity, and a few long ones to talk about the idea of the "book that you never want to have end." A few classics, "You're probably going to HAVE to read this book someday. A few admitted "girls' books" and a few "boys' books." I even like to throw in a "bad book," for comic relief. And you always need a book with a picture of Michael Jordan on the cover.

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My art teacher and I are working together on promoting reading for pleasure. She and I are already collaborating on the SC Book Award Nominees and how to promote them. Brainstorm idea: She will get students to make book (look alikes) for a bulletin board, and then we'll paste booktalks along with the appropriate cover. We'll promote them daily on the morning news and put them on a centrally located bulletin board in the hall.

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1.)You don't have to do a lot of books. What about 5 per class and rotate them each month. Maybe you could do a book talk moment and pop into classes to give a brief book talk about one book--2 minutes or so. See how that goes. You could also do a different theme for each class and then rotate those books talks and add a new one when you are up to it. Caroline Feller Bauer and Joni Brodart have good ideas that can be modified for secondary. I have given booktalks on mysteries where I only read the first line. That can be a grabber.

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1. Multiple copies are nice, but I have talked with just one copy.

2. I usually talk 6-8 a visit.

3. Yes, I must admit I've talked books that I have not read or read so looooooong ago that the story line is very fuzzy. The thing that I found most useful to me is that I tend to select a theme and talk books relating to that theme. Such as family life, humor, growing-up stories....this is how I connected with my reading teachers. They have thematic units. It also narrows down the possibility that you will select the same book for a future talk with that class.

I like to take a selection of more books than I can booktalk in a session - say 30 - (all of which I am prepared to booktalk). I stand them up in front of the class on the blackboard ledge, teacher's desk, etc. I tell the kids that everyone says not to judge a book by its cover but I want them to do just that and tell me which ones they want to hear about from the cover. I pick on kids to tell me which one to tell about next. I can usually get through about ten in a class period, especially if I read a a short section, which I usually like to do to give them a feeling for the writing style. It's good to have about three copies of each title - one out and two hidden away - but a little bit of a rush on a book isn't such a bad thing. After the booktalk, you still have the twenty books you didn't talk for the next group The bottom line is, you need a lot of books, you need to read a lot of books, and it's generally unmanageable but a whole lot of fun and really worth it. You may want to do just a couple of classes at the beginning of the year.

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3.)I *love* to booktalk! However....I have given it up :( The reasons you stated are the very reasons that led me to believe it was best not to do it. Instead, I find myself doing a lot of "shelf talking" ---- going over to a group of students who have congregated and pulling off books from the shelves where they are standing and "shelf talking" those. I've read extensively in our collection so can always find a handful that I know well enough to push. (Or sometimes I pull books ahead of time and walk around with them in my hands looking for the right group of kids to push them to.) I guess "shelf talking" is a lot like booktalking but just to a MUCH smaller group. I just never thought it fair to lure 13 classes of 6th grades to 6-8 titles so I don't do it anymore. I know that there are many LMSs who do, and probably very successfully, but I'm happier this way.

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4.)I was hired last year to work in a 6-8 library. I was called upon by a variety of teachers to do booktalks, so I didn't worry too much about not having enough to go around as I didn't always do the same ones in the different classes. One 6th grade Language Arts teacher however asked me to do them once a month to 2 of her classes. I would take about 20 minutes(although I am so long winded when I am talking about books that I love that I sometimes went over!) Let's say I tried to keep it to 20 minutes. I usually wheeled a small book cart into her classroom with a number of books,of which I would talk about only some of them (whatever I could fit in in 20 minutes). I would have students sign up for the titles they wanted and that way I could booktalk those same titles in the next class, and let those students do the same. Then I would make a reserve list and students would eventually get the book they had requested. When I'm asked to do book talks for a number of classes that require the same theme or genre, then I try to pull at least enough books off the shelves to accommodate the number of students and have those books on my cart, although obviously I wouldn't booktalk every one. I never booktalk a book I haven't read. I think I have more influence with kids when I am passionate and enthusiastic about the books I am presenting and I can't be that about books I haven't actually read. Hope this is useful to you.

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5.)The more copies you have of a title the better, but I have book talked a book and only had one copy. I use different books for each class. On the odd occasion I've book talked a title I haven't read. Seems like there are never any takers!! I don't know how they know. I book talk to grades 3-6. With the 5 and 6 classes I just put out sign up papers for anyone interested in reading the book. I use to ask if anyone was interested in reading it or draw numbers, but found there is a lot of peer pressure at this age. Many don't want to appear keen before their classmates. I like to use props to catch their attention. Hope this helps.

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6.)Here's a few guidelines that have worked for me:

1. Never booktalk a book you haven't read. The kids--no matter what age--will see right through you.
2. If possible, go into the class about a week before hand to just ask kids what kind of books they've read before that they liked. Ask for specific titles or authors if they can remember them. Then pick out books that are very similar to booktalk. Also along this line, if they are not readers, ask them what movies they've seen that they've liked. Then get books that are like those movies.
3. I usually only have one copy of the book. When I'm done talking it, I pass it around and tell the kids that if they want the book to hold on to it until the end of the period. Then I'll check it out to them right on the spot (take an old date stamper with you). If they wait until they get to the library, they'll prob. forget the name of the book. "So strike when the iron is hot.
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7.)I frequently booktalk a book I have not read. I do rotate the books from class to class so there is better chance they can read them. I keep 3x5 cards on each book so I can use it again. I always thought I'd put them on hyperstudio so kids could browse them...but time.

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8.)If you need a source for prepared booktalks, check out my page "Booktalks -- Quick and Simple" There are about 2,500 ready to use booktalks. http://www.nancykeane.com/booktalks

I agree that you do not want to present the same books to each class. I would try to do as many "short" talks as I felt comfortable with and maybe just show a few books to add an assortment. I try to read each book I booktalk but I end up skimming most. Since I've read most of the books on my site, it's just a matter of reacquainting with an old friend.

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9.) When I took a YA class a couple years ago we were given some advise about book talks. You need to know the book which means you do have to read it; it is too hard to rave about something that you don't know about. I would think a suggestion might be to do a different set of books for each class and rotate the sets each month. That way no one book would be in demand by more than one class at a time. Know this means you need to be able to book talk more books but once the initial work is done, then just change them for the different classes. Another thing we discussed in the YA class is you need to like the book. Can be hard to convince someone else to read something you really didn't like. If you keep the talks short you could probably do around 10 at one time. That way you give a wide variety of things for them to think about. Also have other books out that might be similar to the ones you talk about. Can say, "If this sounds good, so might this" type of thing.

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10.)NEVER book talk a book you haven't read!! the kids will know you're working from the cover and be disappointed in you. As for books, I never check out the one I'm booktalking to anyone that day because I don't have enough to go around. You could try booktalking a couple of books by the same author (Lois Duncan, Gary Paulsen) or books with the same theme (humor, survival, mystery). That way you don't have to have read all of them, but you have similar books to check out. I generally will book talk two or three books but no more because the kids lose interest. If I only do a couple, that makes the ones I've read go further!

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11.)A word of advice - Never booktalk a book you have never read. You can do 4 or five books per visit. To make it easier you could do one or two fiction books and then follow up with some non-fiction titles. You can do a theme, you can do what is currently popular, or you can do books that fit in with what is going on in the classroom. Booktalks don't have to be just fiction -you can use non-fiction, magazines, any items that you have available for check-out.

A booktalk can focus on one article or aspect of a book or magazine - kind of like a teaser. What you are really doing is giving an "ad" for the book, a hook, to get them interested in checking out the materials. I had the same problem with having limited copies of materials that I was booktalking when I was in the public library and went to schools for class visits - I found that I had to do different titles for each class or I would have a riot when the kids came to check out the books. My advice - do what you can with what you know/have now - and just keep reading reading reading to build up your number of fiction titles.

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12.)I try to have other titles available that are similar to the ones I booktalked Sometimes by the same author; sometimes by genre. I also start a "hold" list for the titles. I work at a school of readers, so students will often go to the public library. I write out on the board (sometimes even a handout), authors and titles for the students

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13.)I usually have 2 or 3 copies of the books. I book talk 3 or 4 per class. I often try to booktalk an author so they have several to choose from. I also hold back a few copies for the later hours so they have a chance at the books, too. We also do reserves if they really want the book. I do not book talk books I haven't read.

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14.)Hi! Booktalking is a great tool, if you feel comfortable with it. I think it would be very difficult to booktalk the same books to all classes, unless you have multiple copies of the books. How many copies of booktalk books do you usually have? I often booktalked a combo of paperback and hardcovers. My library had multiple copies of the paperbacks. I would make sure I did a good number so the books would be available. I also had a list of "similar" titles in mind that I could recommend when all the booktalked titles were checked out . Often, I would put the books on a cart in YS so the kids could find them easier.

Hope this helps. While it's daunting at first, experiment with different ways of presenting the booktalks. I would vary from reading a passage, to describing, to relating it the audiences' life. Sometimes I would take on the personality of a character in the book. When booktalking a poetry book, I would choose one poem and read the majority of it, maybe all but the last line or two. The most important things to remember are to enjoy yourself and to talk about books you can get excited about. Happy booktalking!-

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15.)Some people learn or read the book talks available in a variety of places. I don't recommend that. Students can tell if you're not talking "from the heart." You want them to trust you and believe what you're saying, so don't cut corners by book talking books you haven't read. If you haven't read the books, how can you be sure that you would recommend them, and why should students bother to read them if you haven't? Students will also ask questions that you may not be able to answer.

Don't book talk the same books to all classes. In addition to the problems you've identified, you'll also get bored and perhaps not be as enthusiastic to the last classes as you were for the first ones.

Why not aim for a more reasonable work organization? Do book talks with some of the classes, perhaps one grade level, this semester, and another activity with the others. Next semester, switch. That way, you'll have both semesters covered. Why not talk with the teachers about a second activity that would work for the different grades? I'm sure they'll understand your situation. They've been there!

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16.)I've done little booktalking in my current job (K-8), but I'll answer from the viewpoint of my previous job in a middle school.

How many copies of booktalk books do you usually have? It varied. I was happy any time I had more than one.

> How many books do you booktalk in a visit? As many as 20 or more, so that there would be at least one title per student.

> Does anyone booktalk a book they haven't read? Yes, although some "experts" say it can't be done. Read enough to give you enough info to talk about the book.

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Here are some ideas on how to organize the lesson if you are doing a few booktalks. Pick books with different themes. Or pick books with the same theme. Go the a local bookstore and get an idea of what hot, new children's books they are promoting.

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Island of the Blue Dolphins by O'Dell

Noah's Ark by Spier

Activity: Assemble a survival kit for being stranded on an island by writing the words on paper and packing them in a backpack

Or you could do four booktalks on dog books:

Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Sounder by Armstrong

Grey King by Cooper

Officer Buckle and Gloria by Rathman

Activity: Discuss pet dogs. Read aloud dog poems or jokes or riddles.

Or you could do a booktalk with the theme of Stories, Stories, Stories

Start with A Story, A Story by Haley, then Fables by Lobel and finish up with a choral reading from Joyful Noise by Paul Fleishman.

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One person suggested that you could select an "oldie but goody" like Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and a Newbery or Caldecott title of more recent vintage.

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Titles of books on or about booktalking:

More Books Kids Will Sit Still For

Joni Bodart's Booktalk! books volumes 1 - 5 (I think 5 is the latest. She includes booktalks for new books as they are published for each volume.)

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What about grouping the books you discuss: voyages to other planets; to other times. Voyages and departure times. Upstart and Demco have had posters and bookmarks for sci fi. Each has an 800 phone number, you can check 1-800-555-1212 for 800 phone information.

Don't get Lost in Space as you take voyages to the Forbidden Planet. If you have Trekkies, some Star Trek stories would be good. They could poll their parents about the TV series and movies.

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Since I personally am not crazy about science fiction, I usually enlisted students to share their favorites. Additionally, since I'm from Ray Bradbury country (Waukegan, IL) I sponsored a Ray Bradbury contest with students doing various types of performance based sci-fi book reports, shared Ray Bradbury videos and filmstrips/cassette tapes, and had one wonderful filmstrip which highlighted about 15 excellent sci fi books. I am home replying so don't have producer nor title for you. Oops, I almost forgot -- we had "dandelion wine"(lemonade) and cookies for those students who participated in Ray Bradbury contest and when Ray was in town the students with the most points (as seats were limited) got to attend his presentation and meet with him.

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I once went to a workshop of a librarian who booktalked to 8-11th graders. She used an overhead or just held up pictures from magazines and said, "This is Mary...Do you know what happened to her?" Well...and proceeded to tell the story (booktalk) the book she wanted to show them. She also used current events headlines and clippings to get them interested..The volcano on Montserrat, battles, heroes, deaths, etc. of someone famous and tie it into the booktalk somehow..

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Could you get any of the students' grandparent or parent to come in and talk about how that book affected him/her when they were young?

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My 8th grade lit teacher put up a beautiful border from a teacher store on classics for middle and high school...and that got us going on required reading for all 8th graders (3 classes) for this marking period (2 classics). I made a list of all on the border and this was our kickoff. Kids had to check off if they had read (all did Anne Frank last year) in the original, in an adaptation (lots had done this) or seen the movie/video version. This got them realizing thy were a lot more familiar than they thought. I also had other lists and we basically decided to accept anything as a classic that was on anybody's list OR on the book itself (there are lots of series out there, like Apple Classics) Each student got a bookmark from Upstart (classic cars, guitars, candy--they have posters too) FAX 1-800-448-5828. Kids got very excited. This is the reporting form the teacher devised: summarize the book in three or four sentences. Include main character(s) and setting (time place). What did you learn about life and human nature from reading this book? Review the definitions of what a "classic" is. Explain what makes this book a classic. All on a card which she will display. Some classic definitions we used: c delights us when we are young and is cherished, reread and quoted when we are old" "c has weathered one generation and is accepted by the next".."c not only has something to say but says it very well". Oh, I started my talk with a bottle of classic coke and told about new coke and how people demanded the old/classic.

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Another librarian introduced me to this "HOOK" for classic books. Tell the kids that you don't check these books out to younger kids; but that they are now MATURE enough to check them out. Perhaps they have plain brown covers because the information in them is just too juicy to show. Take "A tale of two cities" there's death and love and sacrifice and all kinds of mature themes, not to mention the most quoted first line of any book ever. Or talk about Jules Verne and how he predicted the amazing visits to the moon, the submarine, etc long before there were any kind of realistic inventions scientifically possible. How did he know? Or refer to HG Wells and the "War of the Worlds" and how people actually believed the story when they heard it on the radio in 1939. I've also used the "hook" that we have meat and potato books, dessert books and salad books. And classics are meat and potato books. I've given out small packets of potato chips or beef jerky to students who had read a classic or could identify some information from a classic. There are lots of classic "girl" books, like the Bronte sisters books, Jane Austen, etc. Easy to talk to girls about those.

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Instead of starting off telling them which book you're going to do, why not just say:" Book #1", then launch into a vivid description of part of the story from a narrator's or one of the character's views. Have some appropriate taped music in the background, or a few props, or have the teacher turn of or flicker the lights on cue depending on the story. Spend only about 5 minutes or so, then move on to "Book 2." For example, "Kidnapped" could be done in the frightened voice of the hero describing his abduction, with seafaring noise, etc. in the background. "Little Women" could be started with you entering the room hurriedly, wearing an old fashioned velvet bonnet, long gloves or better yet, a muff, and a shawl, shivering and rushing to the fire to warm yourself, then slowly and dramatically removing hat, muff, shawl as you describe the situation you've just returned from (it's the Christmas morning scene when they take their special breakfast and sacrifice it on behalf of a very poor family in poverty). End with a funny story like Rip Van Winkle - start off fast asleep, snoring, twitching, etc. perhaps with hair disheveled and bits of dried grass or twigs, then wake up suddenly, rubbing your eyes, and begin your walk home, proclaiming your consternation at the unexplained changes you find in your town, and especially when you arrive at your own home - now an abandoned, broken down hovel!

Afterwards, let the students guess, or simply announce all three titles, or without a word place all three books on display, or dramatically pull off a cloth revealing them on a nearby table. Or give them just the authors' names and let them search the catalog by author until they find the correct titles by reading the annotation.

Of course, this means you'll have to reread or at least scan each book and prepare something special. Perhaps you could eventually have the students each do a short skit, based on the classic they're reading. I strongly suggest a slightly different approach for each title, to keep the interest - don't get in a rut, and keep the suspense by not revealing the titles 'till the very end.

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Perhaps you could ask them for suggestions about music, movies, etc. of today that they think will still be popular 50 years from now. Once they understand that some of today's great stuff will be classics "someday" they may be more receptive to the ones of yesteryear.

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Don't know if this is something you can use or not but the best book talk I ever saw presented started with the book _The year of impossible goodbyes_ The librarian assumed the role of a military person and barked out orders to the teacher. The kids were "hooked". She didn't necessarily take direct dialog from the book but rather used one of the themes (military occupation of a country) of the book to write her "script". Maybe an idea like that could be used with one of your titles?

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Do you have any video resources? What about a one two minute piece of the movie playing on a TV (with the volume off) while you talk about the book? Use the visuals. There are so many lush movie adaptations of classics that can attract a more "sophisticated viewer.

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Dry as "classics" may seem, I try to booktalk classics: (1) tied to films with which they are familiar and to contrast the original book to the hollywood version challenging them to determine the differences; (2) that have a couple of editions of the same title showing differences in size, print, thickness, etc. and not to be put off by nondescript covers; (3) that cross genres providing something for everyone from adventure to sci fi to fantasy to ...(4) and define classics as crossing nations, languages, universality of theme and the test of time (ten generations of readers).

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I did a booktalk for 7th graders using the idea that each of the characters in these books was reaching for something, wanting something -- and that the book was about their journey toward that goal. As a "visual", I brought a Hershey's candy bar (the kind with almonds, my very favorite!) and set it just out of their reach (and mine). The idea was that the candy bar was something to be reached for, a goal to work on. It did get their attention!!! Are you planning on posting a hit of ideas you get? I'd love to hear what other librarians are doing.

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You're right, using the word "classic" is the kiss of death. How about "Tried and True" or "Forever Read" (I don't know, I'm making these up as I go along). The biggest problem I remember with these is that they're basically all loooonnng. Never mind that an 8th grader will happily read a Steven King or John Grisham that is much longer without blinking an eye, if it's an assignment, they want it short.

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First, don't tell them their classics! There are a couple of gripping paragraphs in "All Quiet on the Western Front" (p.70-73 in the Little, Brown 1958 edition). I would suggest reading a couple of short excerpts rather than just tell about the books. I read to my 8th graders as much as I can and they like it a lot (as much as they think it isn't cool. This way your not just talking at them, but engaging their imaginations. Beg for more time, if you can.

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Most of the classics have been made into movies.... I do a movies and books talk...showing the book reading a bit. One could show a clip from the movie. I've never been that prepared but now that I'm telling you... I think I'll create a movie clips video to use with my next books/movies talk!

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I like to use a display of actual objects when I do a series of booktalks. It's amazing what you can find around the house that you can *make* fit a novel you want to push :) Wouldn't tell the kids they are classics until the *end* of the booktalk if you have to tell them at all. I'd probably say that these were books that 8th graders (and I sometimes might fudge and say "8th and 9th graders" which makes the students perk up even more :) have really liked. Period. (Not that they have liked them "in the past" or "for decades" etc. Just that they have liked. Period.)

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Aloha from Hawaii! Here's a suggestion I offered our YA Librarian. Try the "Fact or Fiction" theme from the TV series of the same name. In the half hour show, incidences are reported with the ending statement, "Fact or Fiction? You decide. Find out at the end of the program." I think that all the booktalks must be stated in a journalistic style, and the more enticing information that can be shared about the characters and conflict the better. You could distribute numbered scorecards for students to guess "fact or fiction", then at the end of the session, tell them which stories were from nonfiction books, classic or contemporary novels, newspaper articles, or maybe movies or TV shows.

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I don't think you need to be afraid of the classics. Just don't mention the word. Most of the stories have universal appeal that will grab your audience's attention: Imagine that you're an orphan in year 191???. Both of your parents are dead, & like many orphans in 191?, you've been loaned out to work. Your work for a family, where you cook, clean house, babysit & care for their needs. It's very difficult work. No one ever thanks you & there seems to be no end in sight. Then you get word! Some one wants to adopt you! So you board a train, travel all night, but when you arrive, you're all alone. You wait at the station, until a shy gentleman arrives in his horse-drawn buggy. He looks kind. His first quiet words, are:...You're not a boy. We wanted a boy....... Of course you'll need to do some elaborating!

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Have a raffle at the end of the booktalk and give away several books...Each child puts their full name into a large jar as they come. Talk about the books you will raffle. ©

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Booktalking tips Make a list of the books. I hand it out beforehand, so that the kids can write on it and note books that they are interested in. When I worked at the Public Library and was booktalking in schools, the top of the list had a map, a treasure map, showing them how to get to the library.

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LOTS of authors, the typical books they create and email contacts!

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POC Literary Panel for Young Readers Resource List 12/19

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Books Between: Connecting kids ages 8-12 with books they'll love, by a fifth grade teacher

Picture Booking: Showcasing authors and illustrators

The Children's Book Podcast with Matthew Winner:  (formerly All the Wonders), made by an elementary school librarian from Maryland

The Yarn: The inside story of children's books by Travis Jonker and Colby Sharpe (and part of School Library Journal)

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A children's book blog featuring picture book and comic reviews, illustrator interviews, and book clubs from a design and illustration perspective

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What are the best ways to use leveled texts? An article and podcast link from The Cult of Pedagogy by Jennifer Gonzalez

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What are the best ways to use leveled texts? An article and podcast link from The Cult of Pedagogy by Jennifer Gonzalez

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Listen to my interview with Jen Serravallo (transcript):
Sponsored by Peergrade and Microsoft Inclusive Classroom

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.

A few weeks ago, a teacher named Isabelle O'Kane sent me a direct message on Twitter. She had been reading a debate that was raging all over social media, and she wondered if it was something I might want to write about. The debate took place in response to a single tweet sent out by literacy experts Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell:

The classroom library should NOT be organized according to level, but according to categories such as topic, author, illustrator, genre, and award-winning books. #FPLiteracy pic.twitter.com/hxJNDow3Qz

- Fountas & Pinnell (@FountasPinnell) September 21, 2018

Teachers responded to the tweet from all directions: Some shouted hallelujah, because it supported what they were already doing. Others agreed, but argued that their hands were tied because administration required leveled libraries. Quite a few insisted that the best approach was to do both; yes, students should be able to seek out books based on interest, but without levels, how would they ever find appropriate books on their own? And some threw up their hands entirely, wondering if a single, clear answer was ever going to present itself.

Because my training and classroom work has all been with students in grade 6 and above, I don't have a lot of experience or knowledge on this topic, but it definitely seemed like something teachers needed help with.

So it was pretty serendipitous when literacy consultant and author Jennifer Serravallo contacted me right around that time about her new book, Understanding Texts & Readers: Responsive Comprehension Instruction with Leveled Texts.

In the book, Serravallo takes a deep dive into the question of how best to match texts to readers. She starts with a discussion of why we have leveled texts to begin with, what their original purpose was, and the missteps we often make as teachers when using them. Then she explores the levels themselves-for fiction and non-fiction-and unpacks the characteristics to look for in each one. Finally, she brings it all together, showing teachers how to combine their knowledge of text levels and students to assess student comprehension, set goals, and match students with books that are just right for them.

In our conversation, which you can listen to on the podcast player above, we talked about the mistakes a lot of teachers and administrators make in how they use leveled texts, and what they should be doing instead.

What Are Leveled Texts?

When schools first attempted to differentiate reading instruction, they did it with texts that were written specifically for that purpose, like the SRA cards that were popular in the 1960s and 70s. Although these programs offered different levels to match student readiness, "(they didn't) actually offer kids real language structures or really interesting storylines," Serravallo explains. "And kids were not able to read those with as much comprehension as real children's literature."

In the 1990s, a shift came when teachers started looking at ways to level real books, books that were not written with "levels" in mind. Two types of text leveling emerged around this time:

Quantitative Leveling: Systems like the Lexile Framework leveled texts through computer programs that measured dimensions like text length and complexity.

Qualitative Leveling: This type of leveling is done by humans, and while it considers things like text length and complexity, it also takes more nuanced qualities into consideration, like whether a text delivers information in a purely straightforward way or contains multiple levels of meaning. One popular qualitative system is Fountas and Pinnell's Text Level Gradient.

Common Mistakes with Leveled Texts

When leveled texts are used in classroom and school settings, teachers and administrators make some well-intentioned but significant missteps that can negatively impact students' growth as readers.

1. Leveling Readers Instead of Books

One of the biggest mistakes Serravallo sees is labeling students by text levels. "Levels are meant for books, not for kids," she explains. "There's really no point in time when a kid is just a level, just one. There's a real range, and it depends on a lot of other factors."

This misstep, she says in her book, has had negative consequences. "Kids nationwide have become aware of something that many would argue they shouldn't be aware of at all...causing some students to compete, race through levels, and experience shame."

To compound the problem, a number of schools have begun basing student learning objectives (SLOs)-part of teacher evaluation protocols-on these levels: "(Districts will) say, 'You come up with goals for your students, and then we're going to measure and make sure you met your goals.' And what's happening is that I find teachers are using levels (to measure growth)-'This student's starting off at an L and is going to end up at a P,' or something like that."

This type of system often prompts teachers to put books in students' hands that they're not quite ready for. "The teacher is going to be pushing the student into harder texts in order to meet the goal," Serravallo says. "You've got this kid being pushed through because they can maybe decode the text but not because they're actually getting everything they can from it in terms of comprehension and meaning making. If the kids are not thinking on that level, why be pushing them into harder and harder books? Why not work with them in texts that they choose to help them get more from the texts that they're reading?"

What to do instead: Rather than focus narrowly on text levels, teachers should get to know students as readers from a variety of angles. "Factors such as motivation, background knowledge, culture, and English language proficiency should all be on our radar when considering how to help students find books they'll love, and how to evaluate students' comprehension and support them with appropriate goals and strategies."

2. Restricting Book Choice Based on a Single Assessment

"One of the ways that levels get misused is that teachers administer one assessment," Serravallo says. "It's usually a short assessment. It could be a computer assessment that's a short text with multiple choice, it could be a running record where kids read a selection of a text and answer a few questions. So there's this one assessment, and then from that they get a level or a level range, and they say to the kids, you can only pick from that level range. But the problem is that's misunderstanding all of the different variables that kids bring to the table, things like motivation, prior knowledge, stamina, their command of English, the genre. There's so many variables."

What to do instead: Take multiple factors into account when pairing students with texts. "We need to look at a couple of different assessments," Serravallo recommends, "and we need to account for these variables, and then once we have a sense of about where kids are able to read, we still need to be flexible when they go to choose. So if I have a kid who knows a lot about dinosaurs who typically reads books around Level O-P, if it's a dinosaur book and he wants to read it, and it's a Level R or S, maybe that's okay."

3. Inflexibility

Even if we have a pretty thorough idea of what types of texts would be a good fit for a student, only allowing them to choose books from a narrow range of levels doesn't take other important factors into account. There may be times when a student wants to challenge herself by going for a book that will require more support to get through, and other times when students want to read an easier book for fun.

"Saying to a student, 'You are a Level __ so you can only read Level __ books' is deeply problematic," Serravallo writes in her book. "We can use reading levels to help guide student choice, but levels should never be used to shackle a reader."

What to do instead: Use reading levels as a shortcut to knowing some likely features of books, but allow other factors to influence book choices. In her book, Serravallo shows us how to adjust our language to help students make these decisions for themselves: Instead of saying something like, "That book is too hard for you," she recommends saying something like, "That book is harder than what you typically read. Let's think about how I/your friends can support you as you read, if you find you need it."

4. Organizing Books by Level

While Serravallo admits to organizing the books in her classroom library in leveled bins years ago, "I've changed my thinking after seeing the consequence of what that does to kids' reading identity. What ends up happening is kids go to the classroom library and they say, 'I'm a Q. I'm going to pick a Q book.' And they go to the Q bin and they only look in the Q bin."

What to do instead: "I would organize them by topic, by genre, by author," Serravallo says, "So the first thing kids see when they go to the library is identities. And they think about themselves first before they think about level: Who am I as a reader, and what am I interested in reading?"

For her own purposes, Serravallo would still keep text levels on books, but put them in an inconspicuous place on the book, like on the inside of the front cover. "That way, when a child is holding a book, it's not like everyone can see the level on the book, so it's a little bit more private. But I like that having them on the book, because if I haven't read that book, I can peek at the level and be like, oh yeah, okay. Complex characters in this one. And I can use that to guide my discussions when I'm working with kids."

To learn more, check out Serravallo's book Understanding Texts and Readers, join the Reading and Writing Strategies Community on Facebook, or visit her website at jenniferserravallo.com.

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What Are the Best Ways to Use Leveled Texts?

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Listen to my interview with Jen Serravallo (transcript): Sponsored by Peergrade and Microsoft Inclusive Classroom This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.

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This MCBA Mash Up bulletin board allows kids to anonymously show which book/s they have read for our annual reading promotion.

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full bulletin board image MCBA interactive

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Reflecting on our own reading practices can yield useful tips for our students. Go ahead and add to this Google Slides presentation of "reading truths and tips" from readers of all ages.
https://tinyurl.com/y9ep23x6

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My reading superhero is a series of animated short episodes celebrating the teachers, librarians and family members who read to and inspire us to read. Watch them and find out how to be an effective reading role model.

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Why and how to use graphic novels in the classroom (and more)

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Why and how to use graphic novels in the classroom (and more)

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https://tinyurl.com/y8x6yf3q

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Article about reading promotions from the American Association of School Librarians

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Article about reading promotions from the American Association of School Librarians

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I believe literacy is at the heart of everything we do as school librarians. Students must be able to read in order to effectively inquire, include, collaborate, curate, explore, and engage. And, as we all know, reading promotes lifelong learning. Creating a school environment in which students see reading is valued requires buy-in from all adults, not just the library staff. That said, the library staff can and should lead the charge. Reading promotions are an essential tool in the librarian's quest to create a culture of reading. They provide positive reinforcement for our avid readers while encouraging our less enthusiastic readers to stop by the library to see what we have to offer. Reading promotions remind our school community about one of the essential services we provide, and they send a message that our schools value reading.

Most of the reading promotions my co-librarian, Elaine, and I sponsor at our school are ones we learned about at conferences or by reading library blogs and professional journals. Reading promotions don't have to be original to be effective. Because I get so many great ideas from other librarians, I'd like to share some of my favorite reading promotions in hopes they will be helpful to others.

State Readers' Award Programs. These programs provide a great way to encourage reading. In my library, we promote the Gateway Readers' Award , sponsored by the Missouri Association of School Librarians. This curated list of fifteen books provides high-quality, high-interest titles for us to promote with students. In addition to buying multiple copies of each book for our collection, we purchase the Gateway video and share it with 9th- and 10th-grade language arts classes, display the books prominently all year, pass out Gateway bookmarks, and invite all students to fill out a "Gateway Reader" card to keep track of the nominated titles they've read. In March, we host a voting party for students who have read three or more titles.

Because we actively promote these books each year, the Gateway Program is part of our school culture. The Gateway books are our most highly circulated items. These are the titles our students talk about and recommend to each other. These are the books they select for independent reading in their ELA classes and/or for pleasure reading outside of school. I think one reason students like the Gateway list is because it helps them to narrow their choices to a manageable number. Students, especially those who are not passionate readers, are sometimes overwhelmed by the number of books to choose from in a library. But a student who reads and enjoys a Gateway book is likely to return to the library to ask for one of the following: a sequel to that book (if there is one), a book by the same author, a similar book, or another Gateway book. It's all about developing readers.

If your state's school library association doesn't sponsor a readers' award for the grade levels you serve, or if you feel the nominated books don't appeal to your students, work with other librarians or with students to create your own list of high-interest, high-quality books to promote every year.

Book Selection Lessons. While I've always presented booktalks to ELA classes, Elaine and I started teaching book selection lessons when our 9th- and 10th-grade ELA teachers adopted Penny Kittle's "Book Love" approach to reading about five years ago. This approach involves building students' passion and stamina for reading by allowing them to choose the books they read, giving them time in class every day to read those books, and conferencing with them about their reading regularly. Most of the book selection lessons Elaine and I teach are variations on speed dating with books. Speed dating involves gathering books ahead of time and putting them on tables organizing them in some way (often by genre). When the class enters the library, students sit at a table. We talk to them about "meeting a book" by reading the summary, reading the author information, and reading the first few pages of the book.Then, we are ready to begin the "dating." Each student selects a book from their table that looks interesting. The librarian sets a timer for 2-3 minutes, and students use that time to silently "meet" their book. When the timer goes off, they take a few moments to rate the book and jot down notes on a handout we give them. They also have the option of adding the title to their "read next" list if the book is one they want to read. Then, the students rotate to the next table and the process starts over.

Librarians and teachers often assume students know how to select books they want to read, but that's not always the case. (How often have you seen a student come into your library, grab they first book they see, and check it out because they need a book for independent reading?) These lessons expose students to a lot titles and allows them to browse books in a purposeful and thoughtful way, which teaches them how to choose books that are right for them.

As much as I love book selection lessons, Elaine is even more passionate about them. In fact, she presented a workshop on the topic last year at the MASL Spring Conference. Here's a link to her slides presentation and handouts if you want to take a look at our lessons.

At my previous school, my co-librarian, Lee, and I sponsored an annual reading marathon, an idea we tweaked from a workshop presented by the Hinsdale High School librarians at the 2013 AASL National Conference. The idea is to create a program that celebrates reading while encouraging students (and staff) to set a reading goal for themselves. Hinsdale's marathon is a 26-week event, which seemed intimidating when we decided to give the idea a try. So, Lee and I chose to make our event six weeks long. Keeping our school's mascot in mind as a theme, we created multiple events for participants to choose from. For example, our most popular event is The Mustang Run, in which students commit to read six books in six weeks. Other options include The Thoroughbred (nine books in six weeks), The Yearling Trot (1,320 pages in six weeks), and The Pony Express (three books in six weeks). We promoted the event through the daily announcements, an all-staff email, and by hanging flyers around the school. When participants registered for the marathon, we gave them a reading log as well as a bottle of water and a granola bar to help them "go the distance." (You can access our reading logs and flyer Reading Marathon. here.) Participants who completed their event and turned in their reading log by the due date were invited to a celebratory pizza lunch in the library. (There were no reading quizzes or assignments required to prove participants had read their books. We relied on the honor system.)

The marathon appealed most to students who were already readers, though our ELA teachers encouraged more reluctant readers to sign up since this was a low-stakes event. The students (and staff) who participated loved the marathon and asked every year if we would be doing it again. We found the event to be a relatively easy-to-implement program that celebrated readers and sent a message that our school valued reading.

Lee and I were fortunate to have enough activity money to purchase incentive items and prizes for our reading marathon. However, a reading marathon can be implemented without those things. The essential pieces are the reading logs and some type of award (such as a certificate of achievement) for those who complete the marathon.

How do you promote reading in your library? I know there are tons of outstanding programs implemented by school librarians every day, and I would love to hear about them.

Categories: Blog Topics, Student Engagement/ Teaching Models

Tags: literacy, reading, Reading Culture, Reading Promotions

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For the Love of Literature: Reading Promotions | Knowledge Quest

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I believe literacy is at the heart of everything we do as school librarians. Students must be able to read in order to effectively inquire, include, collaborate, curate, explore, and engage. And, as we all know, reading promotes lifelong learning.... Read More ›

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Massachusetts Children’s Book Awards Mash Up!

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Massachusetts Children’s Book Awards Mash Up!

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Use the mashed up MCBA list of books to bring students’ excitement into your classroom. Here is the list for 2018-2019 followed by a link to a Padlet created to entice readers :
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fc6mH6HsrNXedEeuRQBeqLijt5I-8taWpzSfztViEhc/edit

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Words and images from Goodreads, NoveList Plus, and School Library Journal, edited by Ms. L. from SES

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Free source of digital books and audiobooks for students

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Free source of digital books and audiobooks for students

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www.getepic.com

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Instantly access 25,000 high-quality books for kids

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Instant access to thousands of great kids books.

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Have you shared book recommendations and read reviews on Goodreads? Biblionasium is a free, kid-friendly version that also allows students to maintain digital reading logs.

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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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Link to Donalyn Miller's 2010 article about how she supports readers of all stripes:
https://tinyurl.com/qexe4nd

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This link describes how to use the school foyer, hallways, bulletin boards, office, and even school grounds to promote reading
https://tinyurl.com/yagtertu

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to families: reading aloud, reading a minimum 15 minutes/day and other ideas
http://readaloud.org/

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to students, teachers, and families,
reading challenges, like the one at Crocker Farm School, Amherst:
https://tinyurl.com/ybpmlo4g
and here's how they did it: http://pgocrockerfarm.com/summer-reading-challenge

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Videos about creating a schoolwide reading culture

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Videos about creating a schoolwide reading culture

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https://natlib.govt.nz/schools/reading-engagement/videos

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The one good book that changes everything

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The one good book that changes everything

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For students of every ability and background, it's the simple, miraculous act of reading a good book that turns them into readers, because even for the least experienced, most reluctant reader, it's the one good book that changes everything. The job of adults who care about reading is to move heaven and earth to put that book into a child's hands.
— Nancie Atwell, The Reading Zone

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Sharing book lists and sources of book recommendations 

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Sharing book lists and sources of book recommendations 

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What are our sources of book lists? How and with whom do we share them?

Destiny can be used by students, classes or teachers to create resource lists accessible from the Destiny Quest home page

Brightly.com

Our reading curricula

Bank Street College of Education 'Best Children's Books of the Year' lists

Goodreads

2018 National Book Award finalists, including Young People's Literature

American Library Assoc. 2018 awards

SES' links to kid-friendly book recommendation sites: https://tinyurl.com/ya8vd5ea

LES' links to kid-friendly book recommendation sites: https://tinyurl.com/ycvjdsrp

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Interactive displays that highlight teachers' or parents' favorite books

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Interactive displays that highlight teachers' or parents' favorite books

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Betsy: We used flaps and photos of teachers with favorite books from their childhood.
Donna: Poll teachers about their favorite books for a guessing game and related book display in the library.
Jane: "Favorite Book Project"; students interview family members about their favorite books
Heather: Photos of teachers posing with the library's new books with the prompt 'Which book do you want to read?'

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A variety of reading material will help encourage reluctant readers.

Have a range of resources in different formats and genres —

Ensure students regularly see new books through library visits, book talking, and other book promotion activities.

Know your students’ passions and interests.

Increase borrowing limits to encourage borrowing a larger number and wider range of titles.

Ensure making a choice isn't too overwhelming, for example have a 'good books box' with 10 great books.

Increase the amount of face-out display in the library — the cover is a big selling point.

Try arranging the fiction collection by genre so that students can easily find another book of the same type.

From the New Zealand library site
https://tinyurl.com/yccxj9gn

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From the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, addressing the needs of dyslexic students and struggling readers

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I'll admit I used to wonder if my dyslexic students were doomed to always consider reading a chore. It was a logical concern; how could something so labored ever engender fondness? But I knew most of these students loved to listen to stories and I couldn't help but wonder if they might also possess an untapped love for reading independently. The challenge lay in figuring out how to make struggling readers understand that books were worth their extra effort.

Then I stumbled upon a simple observation that gave me an idea-and lots of hope.

It all started when I hired a colleague of mine, Meg, to work with my dyslexic son on his writing the summer before he entered high school. Like any good writing teacher, his summer tutor understood the intimate connection between reading and writing. Meg arrived at our home loaded down by bags of books and full of lots of questions. She immediately launched into a detailed interview of my son to determine what kinds of things he liked to read.

"I thought we were going to work on my writing?" my son inquired as politely as he could. Meg explained that before they started to work on his writing, she wanted him to think about what kinds of writers he liked to read. This would help him develop his own voice as a writer.

He was immediately stumped. Writers he liked? Favorite books? Reading books was something he had to do for school. It certainly was not something he did for pleasure. Beyond listening to his parents read him stories, my son had not spent a lot of time considering books or the writers who wrote them. Meg anticipated his blank response and proceeded to pull a large pile of humor books out of her bag. "Read these before we meet again on Friday."

I was shocked. Not only was the expectation of reading a stack of books out of whack for a student with dyslexia, but the books she pulled out of her bag were for elementary school students; Diary of a Wimpy Kid? Love that Dog? A stack of simple picture books? What was she thinking? I could already anticipate my son's surly and dismissive reaction once his tutor left us alone. After all, he was entering high school in two months and he needed to learn how to improve his writing skills, not waste his precious time revisiting children's books.

After Meg left, my son quietly lugged the stack of books upstairs without complaint. I kept quiet. The next day he announced that he had finished the books, "Done. They were really easy." That's all.

Meg came back a few days later. Again, she had more books and questions for my son. When she asked him what he thought of the books she had lent him, he offered very detailed and thoughtful responses. In fact, he sounded more like a professional book critic than a kid who never read unassigned books. Who knew? Then Meg asked him if he knew any comedic writers that he would like to read over the summer. Yes, in fact he did: David Sedaris. His dad had read him some short stories from The New Yorker.

My son's next assignment was to look through all of our back issues of The New Yorker and read as much David Sedaris as possible before the next week. From picture books to The New Yorker in one short week? I privately winced and waited for her to leave. Again, I was sure that my son would complain that Meg's expectations were out of line.

But no. Meg left, and once again he headed upstairs to do his summer homework. This time when I walked by his open door, he was busy reading on his bed surrounded by a mess of old magazines. He continued to read and read The New Yorker over the next few days before she returned for their next meeting. This time his opinions about David Sedaris's short stories were very clear and strong. He knew which stories worked for him, and which stories he thought were weaker. He could also explain why. My dyslexic critic was now thoughtfully analyzing The New Yorker. I had to think about this.

I was witnessing a change so profound and rapid in my son that it made me wonder how I could co-opt this magic for the dyslexic and struggling readers in my own class. I could tell by my conversations with Meg that she didn't fully understand herself what she saw happening with him. I was going to have to use my "teacher knowledge" and my mother instincts to deconstruct this transformation.

My initial, albeit depressing, hunch was that my son hadn't finished many books on his own before. With so much pressure to have the appropriate title in his hand during quiet reading time at school, he was probably engaged in a lot of posturing. I could easily imagine him worried that his peers and teachers might think his books immature. He had most likely been wasting a lot of time faking engagement with the wrong books. If my hunch was correct, it was likely that he rarely got to the end of many stories.

How does one ever develop a passion for reading if one never finishes a story? Stories are written to be read: beginning, middle, and end. If an interruption is always taking place, no appreciation for the architecture of a story can be developed. I wouldn't love reading either if I was always reading books that I could never finish.

My first mission: I must get my students to read easier books.

But how does one get students to read easier books in a culture where one's academic stock is directly determined by the reading level of the book in one's hands? I had to figure out a way to lure my students to the appropriate level of book.

I decided to try an experiment. It involved encouraging everyone in my class to "read down." When I introduced my class library in the fall, I planned to sell my students very compelling but easy books. In fact, I decided to hide all the harder books in a secret cupboard in the room and fill the newly freed space with the easier titles.

I read dozens and dozens of easy Middle Reader fiction books that summer so I would know the material and be able to make successful recommendations to the students. Then I scoured used books stores and garage sales so that our class library would be appropriately stocked when my students arrived back to school.

It worked.

It worked almost immediately. Of course, I never called them easy books when I introduced my favorites to the class. Instead, I just reset the expectations in the classroom by focusing on a different kind of book. The books I chose to talk about were fun enough to engage the most sophisticated readers in the room, but easy enough to finish quickly. The students went nuts for my selections. Some were graphic novels; others were poetic prose; many were simply well-written short books. My students couldn't believe that reading could be so accessible, so enjoyable.

Students started to beg for quiet reading time. They asked to bring the class library books home. They shared our books with friends in other classrooms. They made waitlists for the most popular titles. They solicited additional suggestions of books by their new favorite authors. They talked about books with their friends. They started visiting bookstores and libraries. They donated new books to our class shelves. I had never seen anything like it. In fact, as a teacher, I realized that I had started to spend much of my instructional time talking to students about what their next book should be and what they thought of their last. Reading had acquired an urgency that it never had before.

What had initially started out as an experiment to get my struggling readers to enjoy books had turned my entire class into a culture of passionate readers. My assumptions and behaviors as a teacher also changed. I completely rethought how I talked about books in my class, and I kept current on all the newly released titles. The students started to talk to each other about books. As a class, we spent more and more time reading and talking about what we read. My struggling readers were equals in these conversations. They knew as well as their peers what they liked in a story, and the more they practiced talking about books, the better they got at explaining their opinions. There was no more false puffery associated with the difficulty level of their books. The new, more relevant questions were, "Is the book any good? and, "Do you think I would like it?"

Later, I slipped the more difficult books back onto our shelves. All the students were making rapid progress with their reading, their reading appetites were growing, and literary curiosity in the classroom was exploding. Our class library now offered a little something for everyone.

Click Here for "Creating a Classroom Reading Culture" Reading List

Addendum: My son now reads Kurt Vonnegut and the classic philosophers for pleasure. Needless to say, I owe a lot to THE DIARY OF A WIMPY KID.

updated 11/16/2011

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Creating a Reading Culture - Yale Dyslexia

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I'll admit I used to wonder if my dyslexic students were doomed to always consider reading a chore. It was a logical concern; how could something so labored ever engender fondness? But I knew most of these students loved to listen to stories and I couldn't help but wonder if they might also possess an untapped love for reading independently.

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"I need to put forward more encouraging terms for my students than the negative popular terminology struggling and reluctant. Where is the hope in these terms? I prefer to use positive language to identify the readers in my classes. Peeking into my classroom, I see sixty different readers with individual reading preferences and abilities, but I consistently recognize three trends: developing readers, dormant readers, and underground readers."
— Donalyn Miller, The book whisperer: awakening the inner reader in every child

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This site makes a fun mini-poster that includes your name and the book cover of whatever you're reading. Super easy!
http://whatimreading.org/

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AASL article about some innovative approaches a school librarian is taking 

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AASL article about some innovative approaches a school librarian is taking 

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School starts the first week of August in my school district, and the bullet journal I neglected over the summer is already starting to fill up with meetings, class schedules, and endless to-do lists. By this point in the summer break I'm ready to get back to work and start officially preparing for the year. Our theme for the library program this year focuses on our reading culture. With pressure to prove academic rigor, incorporate STEM, and showcase technology in the library, reading for fun can feel like an afterthought, something we can promote after we've done everything else.

We're so fortunate to have a fairly strong reading culture in our school, and we've been able to maintain it through lightweight promotions like book lists, signs, and displays. This year we've challenged ourselves to make reading promotion the thing we do first, before we address academic rigor, technology, or anything else that falls within the scope of the school librarian.

Along with keeping our book lists, signs, and displays current, we've chosen three activities we think will work for our school:

was held in June. Project Lit is a giant among book clubs where participants read books focused on diversity and cultural relevance. Our group will meet after school, and like the original Project Lit chapter, we intend to make and support a Project Lit has been all over my Twitter feed this summer thanks to awesome school librarians in the Metro Nashville area where the 2018 Summit Little Free Library in an area of town where kids may need more access to books (book deserts). Partnering with an ELA teacher provides us an opportunity for collaboration, professional development, and the chance to talk with our students about books we are all reading. Even though we stand to benefit, providing our students with opportunities for personal growth through reading and community service are our main goals with Project Lit. To officially be part of Project Lit, participants are asked to register and provide some information.

If you've ever visited Pinterest or Tumblr , you may have stumbled upon boards and blogs dedicated to book-inspired outfits. These pages inspired our second reading culture activity, which is much lighter fare than Project Lit. We're challenging students to wear their own book-inspired outfits on their scheduled library days. With this activity we could incorporate lessons on literary devices like characterization or figurative language and how those topics relate to a specific outfit, but we'd like to start this as something fun related to books without attaching any other expectations. Since the book-inspired outfits aren't meant as costumes, students will be able to comply with school dress code as needed.

Finally, we haven't forgotten about the teachers. They're a huge part of our reading culture. If a teacher endorses a specific book, that book is checked out continuously for the year, and we usually end up ordering an extra due to the high demand. This fall we're introducing an opportunity for our teachers to earn professional development credit by participating in a modified Diversity Reading Challenge. Teachers will read up to four books and participate in a slow Twitter chat per book. The goal is to create some crossover here with Project Lit and book options for the Diversity Reading Challenge, creating an opportunity for more teachers to get involved with a Project Lit discussion. This idea came from a school librarian colleague who created her own Diversity Bingo game. We altered it a little to suit our needs, but we really like the idea of providing teachers with some diversity awareness.

I'm sure we'll end up making little changes along the way, but we tried to find activities where we could also participate and have fun. If we stay motivated, the students are way more likely to stay motivated. Even though our school reading culture is doing okay, we could be using that momentum to do even better and challenge students and teachers to do more reading, thinking, and discussing. Do other school librarians feel a degree of pressure to push technology etc...rather than "plan old" reading?

Author: Mica Johnson

I'm a school librarian at Farragut Middle. I like the lib to be loud, messy, and full of student activity. I love tech stuff as much as I love books, and I'm part of an awesome rotating maker space.

Categories: Advocacy/Leadership, Blog Topics, Collection Development, Professional Development, Student Engagement/ Teaching Models

Tags: diversity, reading, Reading Culture

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Three Ways We're Improving Our Reading Culture | Knowledge Quest

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School starts the first week of August in my school district, and the bullet journal I neglected over the summer is already starting to fill up with meetings, class schedules, and endless to-do lists. By this point in the summer... Read More ›

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US Department of Education’s take on reading culture

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US Department of Education’s take on reading culture

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Teachers as Readers: Building Communities of Readers

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Teachers as Readers: Building Communities of Readers

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This project summary describes how a literacy organization developed "reading teachers"--teachers who read and readers who teach. It also emphasizes the importance of getting more kids to read for pleasure.
https://ukla.org/downloads/teachers_as_readers.pdf

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Give the lasting gift of a reading life. After all, where would you be without it? And if not you, who?
––Penny Kittle

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When we reflect on how we choose what to read, we can identify our reading strategies: skills we use to browse and select books, and the wider contexts that support making reading choices.
https://tinyurl.com/yabhflhx

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Questions to reflect on include:

How do you choose what to read?

What are your reading preferences?

Where do you source reviews and recommendations?

Are you in a book club?

How many books do you have on the go at any one time?

What works for you as a reader, and how do you build similar approaches into your classroom or library time for students?

https://tinyurl.com/yabhflhx

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The passion I am asking for from teachers is a passion beyond the pay cheque. It's a passion for children's books, as well as for their own reading, for if teachers don't love to read, why on earth should children?
— Mem Fox

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Rich Allen of the Winthrop Public Library shared this New Yorker article about author Susan Orlean called "Growing Up in the Library"
http://tinyurl.com/ybo25lk8

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The International Children's Digital Library, a site that provides books in many different languages.

Storytime Online:  Watch a read aloud with someone famous! Harry the Dirty Dog read by Betty White!? Yes, please!!

Booktalk resources saved on Donna's Pinterest page

Prewritten booktalks from Scholastic

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Massachusetts Children's Book Award (MCBA) Resources Sponsored by Salem State University 2018-2019 What is the Massachusetts Ch...