Reading in the Wild Chapter 3
Hi friends!
We’ve got more Wild Reading in store this week, as we talk about Chapter 3: Wild Readers Share Books and Reading with Other Readers. My favorite quote this week (p. 128) reminds me of us, as we share this book together!
Again, this chapter was chock full of ideas for our school libraries! After reading, re-reading, and lots of highlighting and margin-scribbling, here are my biggest take-aways.
Flooding Students and Parents with Pro-Reading Messages
How can we flood students and parents with pro-reading messages? Hallway displays? Morning announcements? Email signatures? Public library card sign-up events? What has worked for you?
One easy pro-reading message that has worked for me is this quick and easy display at my check-out desk. (You can download it for free from my TPT store.) I keep books that I’ve read there, and I replace them as soon as they’re checked out. (You can see my original blog post about the sign here.)
The Benefits of Reading Communities
I think we all want to make our libraries “a reading home that supports all readers no matter where they are on the path to wild reading.” (p. 97) By intentionally building reading communities, we can:
- build relationships among readers
- help our students read more
- stretch readers into new reading experiences
- allow readers to enjoy their reading more
- lead students to new titles to read
- encourage students to reflect and be thoughtful about their reading
How can we make this happen for our elementary students, who are not old enough to participate in social media? According to the terms of use, you should be 13 or older to create an account on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Goodreads.
My plan is to create book clubs next year in Google Classroom. All of our students have Google Drive logins, and I can create Google Classrooms for each grade level. Students would be able to have online discussions about books they’re reading, and I can monitor everything they say. Has anyone tried this? I think I may offer it to fourth and fifth grade, to see how it goes.
Conferring
I’ve got almost 900 students in my school, and I know that I don’t confer with all of them (or even speak to all of them) consistently. After reading pages 129-134, I’ve decided to make it a goal for next year to look each student in the eye and have a positive, reading-centered conversation with them at least once each month.
Here’s how I’ll track it. I can get a copy of the class lists from our office, and draw columns for each month next to the student names. I’ll make clipboards for each day of the week so I don’t have to shuffle any papers around. Then I’ll carry the day’s clipboard around with me, and make a mark after I’ve had a conversation with a student.
I can find time to talk to 6 or so students per class per week. I believe I’ve been talking to the same 6 students per class all year, and have missed quite a few! This system will highlight those quiet, under-the-radar students that I’ve been missing and will not require much time to set up or maintain.
I imagine the list looking like this.
Reading Graffiti
Our students could create Reading Graffiti in library centers, responding on black butcher paper to prompts like, “I like to read because _________,” or ” I chose (title) because_______.” Or they could write the first line of the book they just checked out. This would create fabulous displays of student work!
What Did You Think?
I’d love to see your comments, questions, and “aha” moments on our Padlet! Click here for our Chapter 3 Padlet link. Or you can click the plus sign in the embedded Padlet below and add your thoughts without leaving this blog post.
[padlet key=’pfyxs5275o8u’ width=’100%’ height=’480′]
I’m so glad we’re connecting by reading and sharing this book! Thanks for being part of our summer book club!
