Getting Kids Excited about Reading! 

Often times it's a challenge to get students reading and staying engaged with books. Particularly in this era of time when books have to compete with so many technology resources. Yet, creating a love for books is wonderful way to help kids be life-long learners. I always tell my own children and students alike how reading can take you places that you cannot go and how good readers can practically teach themselves new things daily. All of these clichés sound good but rarely do they tempt kids to want to read more. Therefore, having school-wide reading events can spark students' desire to read and also build students' engagement while reading! I am especially excited about the upcoming World Read Aloud Day event! As a literacy coach, I often stress the importance of reading aloud to students so this event really illustrates not only the importance of reading aloud but just how exciting and fun reading can be. So we're on the count down at our school to World Read Aloud Day! Are you? 

Get Ready for World Read Aloud Day!

 

Welcome back to another school year. Although this school year, much like the last is a bit out of the norm, I am hopeful for the a great year. With the start of the school year, there is always a lot to do as we prepare for our students. In midst of it all, we must remember to take time for ourselves and not only practice self care, but 'soul care.' Soul Care is a daily process of cultivating healthy thought patterns and taking inventory of our emotions. This practice is extremely helpful for reflection and essentially helps to build gratitude and motivation. 

During my teacher training, my program required us to complete written reflections of each day of our student teaching. Well naturally, I viewed the process as daunting initially; however, after doing it for a while, I found it to be a great means of relaxation and most importantly, it forced me to take inventory and ownership of my actions as a student teacher. As I think back, this simple process helped me to be a much better teacher. You may be wondering have I continued this process and the answer is yes! Although I am no longer in the classroom, I still journal my reflections each day and I think of it as Soul Care. Whether you think of it as Soul Care or Self Care, take time to reflect daily. This process will help you to inspect, record, and analyze your day. Daily reflections can become a power ally and inevitably help to build your self awareness, especially when so much of what we plan can change in the course of a day! 

 

As teachers, we are always looking for ways to get the biggest bang for our buck during instruction. Therefore, when you're planning always determine how to make your literacy instruction align with not only the standards, but also align to other areas within the Balanced Literacy Model for instruction. By doing so, your students see the cohesion of your lessons and fundamentally have a stronger foundation to transfer the learning. Take a moment to read the quick tip on reading and writing instruction below.

Hopefully, you'll find it helpful to your teaching!

Ways Reading Can Support Writing Instruction

You may have heard the phrases: “Writing helps to grow readers and Reading helps writers grow!” or you may have heard: “Read like a writer and write like a reader!” Well these phrases are actually true! Good readers most times become good writers and good writers are often good readers. 

So here’s a quick Literacy Tip for you…

When planning your reading instruction allow your writing instruction to be like the flip side of the coin. Plan reading mini lessons that will strengthen your writing mini-lessons. For example, when teaching narrative writing, choose read alouds that display great small moment stories. Check out this site to find

 The Top 10 Anchor (Mentor) Text for Small Moment Writing.

When you expose your students to great narrative small moment stories, they will better be able to relate to the concept of a small moment. Additionally, you can implement reading strategies that will essentially help them to be better readers and writers! 

Potential is Always Bigger Than Problem! 

"Potential is Always Bigger than the Problem." I heard this quote recently and like many profound quotes that I hear, I wrote it down. In the current state of the world, it can be easy to focus on the pandemic and allow it to force us into negative thinking.  In life, we often focus on the problems we encounter or the problems we foresee. Yet, concentrating on the negative can often cause you to become stuck and unable to develop or tap into the infinite potential that we all possess.

This is often the case in the realm of education as well. Unfortunately, we encounter many different challenges that often change the course of our school year. We begin the year with a multitude of goals, but life has a way of interrupting the best made plans, such is the case with the Corona-virus pandemic. We are faced with a significant challenge that is constantly changing the scope of how we currently live and how the education system functions. To say that that the Corona-Virus has "thrown us for a loop," is an understatement. Yet, educators  are known for exhibiting flexibility and it has been amazing to see the teamwork and camaraderie that many have shown in our schools. This shows that our potential is always bigger than the problem. We are greater when we operate collectively to achieve common goals. Life may have thrown us for a loop, but it also has a way of forcing us to connect and cooperate in ways that has drawn us back to what matters most in life and hopefully compels us to see that our collective potential is bigger than our current problem. Check out the link to view Corona-Virus resources for teaching, learning and thinking critically.

Motivating Readers

Recently I had a discussion with one of my colleagues about how can we motivate our students to read. Needless to say, we were both feeling a bit discouraged about the willingness of the children's desire to read on a daily basis. After much thought about the subject, I began to ponder some of the ways that I have tried to inspire our young readers to read, from implementing the "Get Caught Reading campaign to providing seasonal reading challenges. Yet sadly, many of these initiatives have been met with apprehension from our students.

Research has shown that students are motivated to read when they feel a sense of accomplishment that often leads to increased motivation to continue to pursue more challenging tasks. When a child does not have a sense of accomplishment with a task, they are often resistant in participating or continuing to engage in it. Teaching students how to choose books that are "just right" and allowing them to choose the kinds of books they want to read has long been the gateway to enabling students to become more engaged readers. Likewise, reading aloud to students enables them to see how effective readers interact with text and essentially use reading strategies to comprehend text. Moreover, creating a classroom environment that is literacy rich allows children to see the value in being or becoming good readers.

If you are still embracing the challenge of creating life-long readers, here are a few simple ideas that you can try. I sincerely hope that you are still in the fight, after all, without literacy, we have nothing to build a foundation on!

After the Icebreakers...Sustaining Classroom Community Throughout the school year!

Children learn best when they feel they are apart of a community in which everyone feels accepted and individuality is  encouraged. -Scholastic

The start of a new school year always brings forth new opportunities to fine tune both your craft of teaching
and your ability to create a classroom culture that thrives with healthy community.

Classroom Community is also one important aspect of  education that transcends across all grade levels.
It is the first step to ensuring that learning occurs. As the education adage states:
“If you can’t reach them, you can’t teach them!” So what do you do to continue to build community after the icebreakers?

Take a look at this link for a couple of ideas to incorporate into your instruction
that will continue to enhance your classroom community after the icebreakers are done. :-)

Winter break is upon us! The break allows both teachers and students to renew their spirits and summon the tenacity that will surely be needed to complete the school year. Yet, during the academic down time, it is important to help our students maintain their motivation to read. Consequently, we ask: How do we keep kids reading during winter break when a book is in competition with their favorite toy? Here are a few ideas that could possibly spark their interest and put some fire in their engines during the down time.

• First and foremost, send a book home! What better gift to give than the one that keeps on giving...a book! 
• Encourage students to write a book review that they can bring to school upon their return to share with the class. (Book Review Link (online) or Written format based on an anchor chart)
• Use the book reviews to spark Book Talks! Easing back into the swing of things post winter break can be a challenging task to say the least, so why not plan to have book talks using the students' book reviews. Undoubtedly, the students will be engaged because they have a buy-in.
• Spark a friendly competition with a neighboring class! Challenge the students to read at least 3 or more books over winter break. The given number may sound minimal; however, give them a goal that won't seem too unattainable then they will hopefully strive to surpass it.  Also, remember 3x18 (average number of students in a class) will mean that your class can possibly read 45 books over the break!
• Encourage your students to learn more about 1 topic that they may have interest in. Have them to list the new facts in a fun way. Certainly they will have to read via internet or a book to gather the information. 

Try one or more these helpful tips to help keep your students motivated to read and progressing toward their reading goals during the winter break.