My littles are really lucky to have SO many books at their fingertips. I know most families don’t have access to books like my kids do. However, as I have made independent reading time a priority in our quarantined home, I realized that some of the reading material that fills my kindergartner’s reading time could …
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Reading Motivation
Why Kids Should Read at Least 20 Minutes a Day—POWERFUL!
What if what’s best for kids is also something that is easy to implement? I recently had a conversation with a literacy coach from one of the districts that I support. She shared with me some of the struggles her teachers are having as they launch their distance learning plans. Even though this new normal …
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Read-Aloud Rituals: Trading Cards
Kids love to collect things! Why not play off of that love and connect collections with books. I thought of this idea after reading about Mary Lee Hahn’s “Book Lover’s Notebook“ and “Read-Aloud Gallery“. I haven’t tried this yet, but I’m hoping some of you will and let me know how it goes! Here is …
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Read Aloud Rituals: Book Lover’s Notebook
Here is another idea from Mary Lee Hahn’s Reconsidering Read-Aloud. Photocopy the front and back covers of each new chapter book read-aloud and distribute copies to students. The day you start a new read-aloud, lead students through the process of “orienting to the text.” Encourage students to make predictions, share any known information about the …
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Read-Aloud Rituals: Reading Slumber Party
Want to combine independent reading, read-aloud, and a class reward? This ritual works best when you can devote at least an entire afternoon to it. It can be used to: celebrate the end of testing week ease into a holiday break spotlight March is Reading month How it works: To prepare, make a list of reading …
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Read-Aloud Rituals: Read-Aloud Gallery
This idea comes from Mary Lee Hahn’s book Re-Considering Read-Aloud. After each chapter book read-aloud, draw a name out of a bag and have that child create a 12” x 18” illustration of a favorite part of the book. Hang the picture along with a sentence strip with the title and author in chronological order …
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Read-Aloud Rituals: Vote on a Read-Aloud
A teacher in Vermont shared this idea with me. This is a read-aloud ritual that she uses the week before starting a new chapter book read-aloud with her students. Each day for 5 days she reads aloud the first chapter from 5 different books. At the end of the week the class votes on the …
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Read-Aloud Rituals: Birthday Bag and More
Birthday Bag Jim Trelease, author of The Read Aloud Handbook, says that read aloud is like doing a book commercial for kids and conditions them to associate reading with pleasure. Why is this important? Because human beings seek to have pleasurable experiences repeated. There is nothing more exciting to a child than their birthday, so let’s associate …
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