Getting Children Engaged In Reading - Amy D

Getting my students engaged in reading books is key to their growth in reading fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. I have a few specific strategies that have worked well with 3-6 graders over the last few years to help them become life-long lovers of reading. My first focus is to have a library full of every kind of genre for every kind of reader. Not an easy task, because it's expensive and usually what I start with is someone's old and often out-dated library. I leave my library unorganized in the beginning of the year (except for my first year) and spend a week in chaos having students organize books and the library together. I have to admit that I go back and rearrange if things are too off afterwards. I love the discussions that erupt during this activity. "Oh, I want to read this book!" "Hey, Anna, this book is for you!" At the very least, it gives them ownership of the library and offers students an opportunity to become familiar with what's available. They might even find a book to start off the their year. A few other ways to gets engaged in books is to have a poster with author websites (they love to explore new websites, right?) where they can find out about authors and book series. My reluctant readers are best engaged when I spend time with them one-on-one talking about their interests and do book-walks through several books before deciding on one or two to choose from. My mini-lessons on choosing books, using a reading log, and writing about reading are so important for students. They discover how to choose books that aren't too hard. Seeing their own progress in how much they've read is encouraging and without writing about their reading, they might just be going through the motions of reading. Wow, this is not an easy task getting kids engaged in reading! But a task well worth the time and energy to see engaged, 'nose-in-the-book' readers in my classroom.