Collaborating Teachers discussion

It's inevitable, every year you find yourself in that same position of those couple of students (sometimes more than a couple) who are always spending independent reading time "looking" for books and never spending much time actually reading them. You've tried asking them about their preferences and redirecting them to a genre or book, you've collected a stack of books for them and placed it on their desk only to have them spend 30 seconds looking at the books and deciding to pass; you've basically tried this suggestion and that but still you can't seem to hook these students onto a book. I wanted to share with you one of the only suggestions I've found to work and I credit Donalyn Miller (Book Whisperer, Reading in the Wild - amazing books) for giving me an idea that actually has worked.

It's actually very simple and requires no prep at all. It's about creating demand for books and it's actually very easy to do. Take 5 or 10 minutes at the start of your ELA class and read aloud a book from your library to the class. I'm not talking about the whole book, I'm talking about the preview on the back and the first, maybe the second chapter out loud. Then stop and ask the class if anyone's interested in reading it. You'll be shocked at the number of hands that go up. And yes, you'll get hands from the usual avid readers, but you'll also see hands from some of those students I talked about earlier. Create a list on the board and hand the book to a reader. Boom, that's it, and it really works! You now have sparked interest in a book, created demand for it and in consequence found a book for those readers who struggle with finding books.

Now a few tips to help do go a long way. Most obviously you have to hype the book and sell it. Be excited about, tell a few white lies if need be about how much you enjoyed it (even if you haven't read it, just make sure you know it's supposed to be good) and when reading aloud have some fun, change up your voice for the characters - students love that and I could probably write a whole other post just on that. Anyway, it's worked in my Grade 5/6 class extremely well. The other natural consequence of this is you start to get students reading the same books which helps spark conversations amongst themselves about the books too. That's another win in my books. I usually share a book like this at least once a week and the students beg for it.

Thoughts? How do you help readers choose books?

I agree that teachers can create that excitement. I also like Jennifer Serravallo's "Buzz About Books" strategy where students write brief recommendations to their friends. They include a 5 star rating just like Goodreads. I know I always pay attention to books my friends recommend.

That's a neat idea. I do a similar activity where students advertise a book they've read to the entire class and give it a brief 5 star review. We also have a binder full of book reviews of books from our class library that are written by students for students.

For those interested, Jen Serravallo has a weekly podcast called "Teachers Ask Jen Serravallo" which has a ton of great reading tips. She also has a new writing book out that I'm hearing great things about!

Sometimes during the library days, I do speed dating with books. You just throw a mix of books and genres on students tables, give them 30 seconds to pick something, them give them 3 minutes to read the book--just long enough to create a first impression.

Then have students switch table, choose new books and repeat. It's a way to get avoiders to at least give a few books a try.

Tips
*put a big timer somewhere in the room.
*try to trick students into picking books randomly
*have them write the book titles and rankings and collect it to discourage non-performance (even if you don't grade it)

Hi, I'm concerned in this extended lockdown that my teenage pupils, having finished the readers they'd taken home from school, will drop their fab reading habits that have been so painstakingly nurtured. Can anyone suggest a good source of free online YA readers, apart from the classics, that I can recommend they try?