Questions for Book Club I have struggled to succeed with book clubs (or literature circles) throughout my teaching. This year I was able to break through with powerful questions for book club that both enriched my practice and sustained my students. Powerful Questions for Book Clubs in High School What if I set up book…
Keep your classroom library current with these amazing September 2023 YA new releases. Secrets Never Die by Vincent Ralph An exciting thriller where a former child star’s secrets come to life. Male POV. I can see pairing it with books like We Were Liars by e. lockhart or I Know What You Did Last Summer.…
Professional Reading for Teachers These titles are not new, but it takes me awhile to get through my professional TBR pile as I prefer to go slow and focus on fewer titles. Do you! Literacy as Liberation, Visible Learning for Literacy, and Cultivating Genius Literacy is Liberation by Dr. Kimberly Parker First, I am so…
I always set goals for myself to read more actual research, but I rarely follow through. In this post, I’ll share some research from 2020 and later on independent reading that I actually read. Yay! What comes first–print exposure or reading skills? van Bergen, E., Vasalampi, K., & Torppa, M. (2021). How Are Practice and…
Reading Independently There are lots of positive thoughts students have about reading independently, but this post is about the negative ones, why they’re valid, and how we as teachers can respond. You can see an Instagram live version of this post here. What Students Think About Reading Independently Here are some of the most common…
Have you seen those Instagram vs. reality videos and memes? Photos by Geraldine West This is like that for how educelebs say independent reading should look versus how it actually looks. I am having a little fun with this post, but I really do appreciate an aspirational lens and am inspired by people who capture…
Not sure if you’ve seen the readers’ bill of rights from Daniel Pennac which is often used in schools, but I am riffing on that idea as rights for teachers, because you too, Gentle Reading Teacher, have rights. Here they are. You can add, revise, and delete, as you see fit. You know best. There…
Ways to Motivate Students to Read We all studied motivation for at least a nanosecond in our teacher training programs. I remember them focusing on extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. When finding ways to motivate students to read, we tend to focus on extrinsic. Positive reinforcement, like sticker charts, raffles, and prizes. Negative reinforcement, like losing…
ChatGPT for Teachers Have you played around with ChatGPT yet? I finally got around to it amidst all the things, and I am very excited about some of the possibilities of ChatGPT for teachers using the four moves every literacy lesson plan needs for soaring reading growth. If you haven’t had a chance to check…
Reading and Writing Portfolio As I get sucked into the day-to-day of teaching, I can lose sight of the big picture–and so can my students. That’s why taking time to breathe, reflect, and dream are so important for me to do with my students. Finding activities that help us pause makes sure we focus on…
