Part 4-Fostering a Love of Reading

Missed a part of the “How to Teach High School Students how to read,” 5 part, blog series: See end of post for links

Spreading the joy

A love of reading is nurtured. The goal is to have students constantly adding books to, and more importantly reading books from, their “To Read Next” lists (pay product on TPT). Students will add to this list throughout the semester.

It’s important to have an extensive, diverse and inclusive class library for students to draw from but a good school library that is accessed often can also work.

We do a variety of activities to generate interest in reading. Here are some examples:

• I promote the books in the class library:
  • facilitate book talks
  • read first chapters of books: “First Chapter Fridays”
  • place books of different categories on display (genre, highest rated, most read)

• place books of interest on the whiteboard (e.g., star rating or review approach)
  • • Ms. Markides is reading…
    • Ms. Markides has just finished…
    • Ms. Markides’ next read next…

• promote interest by posting inspirational or intriguing quotes or statements from books in class library
• actively share what I am reading (and sometimes what students are recommending), with brief reviews, on the class twitter account @msmarkidesclass (I don’t finish reading anything less than 4 out of 5 stars and neither should they)
• have students recommend/discuss books (e.g., star rating or review approach)
  • student give book talks (pay product on TPT) of their favourite books on the first day of school-the visuals from these are posted on the wall and accessible all year

• students add their titles to the “Books We’ve Read” poster with student recommendations, see my post “Competition Between Classes Means More Reading“

• students discuss their books through:
  • • book talks
    • speed dating
    • turn and talk discussions (connecting what we are learning in class to their book)
    • student book tweets
    • book club

Celebrate successes

I celebrate successes by acknowledging when students complete a book by adding them to the “Books We’ve Read” poster. I also give out reading certificates (free product on TPT) at the end of the semester to acknowledge a student’s hard work and any progress they may have achieved. The certificates indicate the amount of books they have read, or the movement in reading level or focuses on another area of accomplishment such as: finding a genre or format of interest or doing a wonderful book talk or the fact that they have become such good inferencer.

NEXT? Read How to teach high school students to read: Part 5-The Results

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NEED TO CATCH UP? Read posts below:

• Read part 1 of this article: Part 1-Overview: How to teach high school student’s how to read: 5 Part blog series
• Read part 2 of this article: Getting Them to Buy in
• Read part 3 of this article: Teaching Reading Strategies
• Read part 4 of this article: Fostering a Love of Reading
• Read part 5 of this article: The positive impact of teaching high school students how to read
• Why Can’t my High School Students Read? outlines the need for the program

If your interested in how to teach high school teachers how to read or you have questions or comments please feel free to leave a comment or contact me.