Create a Reading Atmosphere

Yesterday, when I was reading an email, I noticed that the sender included the title of a book they are currently reading below the signature. What a great idea! We want to create readers and foster a love of learning and reading in our schools, so why not take every opportunity to create a reading atmosphere?

Reading is fundamental for success in all professional fields in some manner. As educators, we try to promote this thought to all students in all grades. The question I ask is this: How do we model our expectations for students and how do we promote a reading atmosphere at all levels with all students? When do we provide time for our students to read and when do we provide time for our students to talk about what they are reading? If we want to foster this culture and develop successful learners, we have to find ways to provide opportunities to read, talk about reading and share everyone's reading story.

Many elementary schools provide time for reading in class. This is sometimes called Read to Self or Independent Reading or SSR (old days!). How do we provide these opportunities in Secondary schools and then teach students how to talk about their reading lives and what they are reading? In order to create a reading atmosphere, we have to move beyond the classroom into the rest of the school. This can be done in many ways, but it has to include everyone in the school for it to be successful

Students share with others. Students can promote reading by giving book recommendations to the class or even the school. A simple form can be filled out to frame the thinking and promote interest in the book the student has just finished and wants to share. The student's goal should be to give enough info without giving too much info so that others want to read to find out what happened in the text. Students can also post signs that have the titles of what they are reading on their lockers or in the hall. This is a great way to share a bunch of titles so that kids walking by are constantly seeing titles of books. Teachers can laminate the forms that are posted, or stick them in plastic sleeves so the students can fill them out with a dry erase marker!

Teachers can share their reading in many ways. Teachers are great about giving "book blessings" to their class. This is when they introduce a book and give a teaser to the class to get them excited or interested. A teacher can share their book ideas with the rest of the school by also posting what they are reading, being a guest on announcements and sharing ideas or putting out monthly lists of recommended books in a newsletter, tweet or blog.

A school can share and promote reading on a larger scale. One School, One Book is a way for the entire school community to share a reading experience. The project is fun for everyone and geared to all age levels. With One School, One Book, everyone gets a copy of the same book. EVERYONE. All students, parents, school staff. There are many activities that can be associated with this project and a school can create them to be unique to their book and their stakeholders. A school can also share and promote reading by creating videos from classrooms or groups of students to share more titles and give teasers.

When an entire school is involved in creating a reading atmosphere, a change will be evident. The school will come alive with excitement and collaboration. Don't we owe this to our kids?

Books for kids!

People that work in schools have a different awareness than people that don't work in schools. This awareness can be about many different things. A school can be filled with energy and excitement on a daily basis. A school can be filled with caring and passionate people. A school can be filled with kids that don't have the resources they need to be successful. Luckily, a school CAN ALSO be filled with people that are resourceful, creative and advocates for kids!

Often times we have students that struggle to read. What does this mean? Not only are some students not ready for grade level work, they are also not interested in learning. Our task is to help the child become successful and to motivate them to want to learn, and want to read. If you have ever met a person that has a job dedicated to teaching reading, you know that they are continuously searching for ways to help solve both of these problems. And they aren't afraid to talk to anyone and everyone about it!

As educators, we work with school staff to provide as many reading opportunities for students as possible. The library has all types of reading materials. Our classrooms have genre sections and tons of non-fiction. We encourage kids to read often and to talk with friends about what they are reading. Nothing is more heartwarming than to see a kid walking down the hall reading, or reading at recess or reading in line for lunch. Someone, somewhere, inspired a passion for reading in that child. We work hard at schools to provide opportunities for students in reading.

This year, we have embarked on a new journey with a school "take home library" at each elementary. We ordered hundreds of fiction and non-fiction books at all levels/topics. We want to provide children with an opportunity to take books home that they enjoy and spark an interest in them. We want children to keep the books if they love them, or return them for something else if they choose. By providing a school take home library, we are keeping full inventories in classroom libraries and school libraries. We are providing an additional opportunity for kids to find great books and develop relationships with them. Isn't our goal for kids to read more and for kids to love reading more? We can't do that if they aren't allowed to take home books from the classroom. We can't do that if they have a late library book, which means they can't check out a new one. We have to remind ourselves what our goal is for kids. We have to remind ourselves what our goal is for reading. Everyone comes from a different home setting. Some are rich in literature, some are not. Every child should have the opportunity to take home more and more books. Books that they want to read. We will continue to find ways to build a love of reading each day in our schools, providing books for kids is just one step.