This past year in one of our morning staff meetings, I had to
present an education related article to share and discuss with my fellow teachers.
Having taken so many speech classes and also being an elementary teacher, of course, I had to come up with an
engaging intro before letting the group read the article I brought for them to
read. Since the article that I shared was
all about reading and specifically reading strategies, I decided to poll the
group and see what their own personal feelings were on reading. This group
consisted of administrators, high school, elementary, and preschool teachers
and I was quite surprised with the results. About half of the teachers shared
that they did not enjoy reading! (GASP!!!) A few of them told the group they
read only when they have to because they are not very strong readers and others
said that they only like to read books on specific topics like sports, for example. This got me
thinking, how many of the kids in our classrooms actually like reading? And…
how can we get them to like reading?
Since I began teaching 3 years ago, I feel like my biggest
aim or goal as a teacher is to “make” my kids love to learn and to enjoy
reading and so here are a couple of ideas that I have used (some I’ve come up
with, others I learned about in school or have “borrowed” from others) that
have had some success. I jokingly tell parents that I try to “trick” kids into
thinking that all we do at school is play, when really, they are discovering
and learning just in “un-traditional” ways. Sometime I’ll share some of the
games we do that my kiddos have enjoyed but for now, I’ll address a few ways
that I use (to attempt) to get kids to enjoy reading.
1. 1. Let the
kids read books they enjoy. In 2nd grade we do monthly book reports
and I always let the kids choose what book they want to read. I give them a
minimum page requirement and sometimes I give them a specific genre that I want
them to read, but other than that, the kids (and parents, too) get to read what
they want to read. I’ll share in another post some ideas about how I attempt to
make book reports more fun for the kids, too.
2. 2. Make in
class reading time fun and enjoyable. I think reading groups/ reading circles/ guided
reading time in smaller groups (or whatever you want to call it!) can be a very
fun way to do reading class. Each group chooses the name of the group—this year
we had the Boston Bruins, the Jaguars, and the D-Backs—and we gather on the rug
with pillows and carpet squares and get comfy and read together. This relaxed
environment definitely takes away some of the pressure of reading orally in
front of others, gets kids out of their seats, and is just fun! I try to choose
stories that they’ll like and have discussions that engage the kids and let
them share personal experiences that go along with the story. I also like to
have candy or stickers for rewards for good reading, good behavior during
reading time, and good answers to comprehension questions. While I’m meeting
with groups one at a time, I give the students seatwork to do which involves
silent reading, a phonics practice page, and then some sort of fun academic or
seasonal page like a word search or a coloring page. After that, they decide
what they want to do—read, draw, color, or play with something quietly at their
desks. My plan for next year is to incorporate learning centers during this “free
time” so that one group is reading, one is doing seatwork, while the other are
doing center activities. Another summer
project. J
3. 3. Read fun
stories TO the kids. I think that this is the time to expose the students to
quality literature that they might not pick out on their own to read for a book
report. I love to use picture books to incorporate into lessons for different
subjects but my classes especially love when I pick chapter books to read to
them. I just LOVE to leave them hanging at the end of the chapter, making them
beg and thirst for more. I LOVE talking with them about what we just read and
then asking them to predict what they think will happen next. I LOVE when they
ask me to borrow the book when we’re finished reading it, so they can read it themselves.
Can you tell I just LOVE reading to my kiddos??
Well, because
of all this, one of my summer projects I want to work on is building up my
classroom library and finding more awesome read aloud books to share with my
class. Here’s a couple of my favorite read alouds that I already use in my class
that have been a hit.
I always
start the year with Peter Pan by J.
M. Barrie, because it’s my absolute favorite story ever and surprisingly, a lot
of kids have not even seen the Disney version of this story. Plus, for those who
have seen the movie, it’s neat to discuss how the movie is the same and how it’s
different from the book.
The next
book I like to read to them is a more modern story, one that works for older
kids and younger kids too. It’s by one of my favorite authors for children’s
books and it’s called Frindle by
Andrew Clement. The kids totally eat this one up!
The
Adventure of Tom Sawyer is another great one that my class has enjoyed. They
love to hear about all his adventures and makes for great discussion about the
wisdom in the choices he makes. It’s a little more suspenseful but the kids
really like to tell me how “not scared” they are!
Last year, after reading Tom
Sawyer to my class, I had a boy ask if we could read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn since he had it at his house. Naturally,
I told him we didn’t have time. Totally kidding! J I had him
bring it to school and the kids enjoyed it just as much or even more than Tom Sawyer. When we finished, we were
able to compare and contrast the two boys, talking about their personalities
and their character and then we voted which book they liked better. Really. Fun.
stuff.
These are a couple of my favorites but I’m curious, what read
alouds do you use in your class? Any books you think should ABSOLUTELY be in a
classroom library?
Enjoy!
