How Do We Help Kids to Want to Read?

My passions in the classroom revolves around reading and talking about that reading.  I love to see students enjoy reading and then being able to discuss that reading with students.

                                  Home        Learn More        Standards        Inspiration        About the Author

---

We Need Better Readers

Overall our students are not the successful readers that we want them to be, despite the fact that they need to read in all aspects of their lives to be successful and productive.  Not to mention that they are missing out on the sheer enjoyment of reading for pleasure.  It seems like every study says that reading supports students.  It is one of the best ways to build a working vocabulary, and it helps students to understand themes and 'big ideas.'  Despite the fact that we all know our students should be reading as much as possible, it seems like every year more of our students are reading below grade level.

To improve the situation our students need to read more.  The big questions are; how can we get them motivated to do so, and what kinds of supports might they need to be successful?  Building reading skills takes work, and might seem like an intimidating or scary prospect to some students.  What kinds of academic (and maybe even emotional and social) supports do they need?

Click above to see a brief video that introduces my project.