Inspired Reading

What are the important components to include in your classroom that make sure students love reading?

Interest surveys:
-Talk to your readers. Spend time with them.
-Ask the librarian what students are reading. Find out what they like, what they don't like and then turn them on to a variety of books.
-Show them how to look up similar books on the catalog.
-Show them how the book jacket can give them clues.

Anonymity: Protect anonymity and confidentiality with readers' habits, themes and topics. It's a very personal thing and something librarians work hard to preserve. Confidentiality is a librarian's responsibility. Do reading lists support this? Value reading as a very personal action.

At a great training in SDUSD with the secondary literacy resources teachers and some amazing English teachers. I asked them if I could share some of their ideas. Here you go:

Read aloud picture books: Check out the Last Stop on Market Street.

Penny Nolan, lit teacher extraordinaire for San Diego Unified says you can print out the text and read from a paper instead of showing them it's a picture book. Some students are put-off by being read to from a picture book and may perceive it's a baby book or maybe they are being identified as a "bad" reader. What's your purpose? Stop and talk. Think about what you see in your head. Have them illustrate what they see in their brain.

Readers Theater with Rebecca Bellingham, SDUSD Resource Teacher "Bring text alive, otherwise, what is the point?" "Embodiment anchors thought and is an important principle." What: novel - copy a chapter 3 or 4 max re and reread
1) Decide what chapter you will choose to enact What passages you'll turn into readers theater?
2) Decide who will read/play what characters
3) Determine who and how many people will read narration.
4) Find at least one line you can read together.
5) Do your best to have fun by sprinkling in unexpected movement, props, or magic to bring this alive for others
6) Discuss what new ideas, thoughts, or questions you have after choosing, practicing, and performing the scenes together.

Elsy Romero, SDUSD English teacher reminded us that readers' theater is learning to "lift the lines" and invites students select the most powerful lines for themselves. In this activity students have the power to decide and take action. Could be one chapter to create interest. Could be three important events that show character development; makes me think about the movie Moonlight.

Try these stories: Amal and Bound; Brown Girl Dreaming; Fish on a Tree; Because of Winn Dixie.

From reading to writing with Rebecca Bellingham Using the Last Stop on Market Street, Rebecca says after reading the story all the way through then you can go back and read the book to see what the writer does "that is working?" Is there any place in our writing where we might want to say something in a "fresh" way? Is there a place in your writing where we can go back and rewrite using these types of action words? Great workshop leader! How did the author do this? What kind of words did he use to establish relationships and show something big? What do we know about the two characters? What choices will you make in your writing to show a relationship? How will we have our characters talk to each other to show their relationship? Super inspiring! If we love a text we linger longer. Identify why we LOVE this text. "Lead with love!"

In writing, rules are meant to be broken so ask "why do you think he left 'and' out of that sentence?" Discuss why. "You can't create this experience watching a You Tube video!" Thank you, Rebecca for reminding me why teaching fiction is necessary, fun, and worth it.

An amazing teacher in San Diego, Jean Chaplupsky, shared that in her class she gives students "tummy time" to mimic that warm fuzzy feeling children have when snuggled up reading with their parents when they were young. They get down on the floor for ten minutes and read at the beginning of each class period. She's down there with her students modeling the same.

How is your day structured? To what extent do these research strategies work for you, your own children, or your students as a reader and writer?
Students need:
TIME to read and LOOK through books
CHOICE students need to choose for themselves
RESPONSE respond in meaningful ways (conference, book talks, time to share with others around common interest)
COMMUNITY part of a classroom community with meaningful contribution to the group
STRUCTURE routines and procedures that supports student and teacher learners

Build in mini-lessons, independent reading time, teacher student conferencing, small group instruction, close/share)

Learn more from: Carmen Fariña, Lucy Caulkins, Donalyn Miller Donalyn Miller https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2015/01/09/in-struggling-schools-farina-looks-to-shape-how-students-read-and-write/ https://pernillesripp.com/2015/07/30/why-picture-books-5-reasons-why-they-belong-in-every-classroom/

Then...ask yourself what percentage of your middle school and high-school day includes opportunities for students to explore and enjoy reading based on their own interest?

Teach what you value...value what you teach.

Pet peeve - non-fiction vs. informational text

Another reason why we need librarians...

What does "no-ficción" mean? It means "no fiction".

If something is nothing, then how can it be something?

Non-fiction is just something that is NOT fiction.

So...what is fiction? Merriam Webster's Definition Fiction 1a : something invented by the imagination or feigned specifically : an invented story … I'd found out that the story of the ailing son was pure fiction. — Andrew A. Rooney b : fictitious literature (such as novels or short stories) was renowned as a writer of fiction c : a work of fiction especially : NOVEL Her latest work is a fiction set during the Civil War. 2a : an assumption of a possibility as a fact irrespective of the question of its truth a legal fiction b : a useful illusion or pretense it was only a fiction of independence his mother gave him; he was almost totally under her power — G. A. Wagner 3 : the action of feigning or of creating with the imagination She engaged in fiction to escape painful realities.

Merriam Webster says non-fiction is informational text, but is it, always?

Nonfiction is Just Everything Else

Everything else would be in a non-fiction section in a library, so I argue that non-fiction is NOT a genre. Non-fiction just includes "everything else" that is not "fiction".

A non-fiction section in the library includes: -folk-tales and fairy tales -poetry -story-collections -jokes and humor -informational/topical texts (biography, sciences, sports, technology, curiosities, records, famous firsts, etc.)

What are your thoughts?