During the past week students in K-5 and I talked about goals that would help them to stretch their reading experience during this new calendar year. We had begun the conversation during the previous week and students came well prepared with a specific goal already in mind. A wonderful variety of goals were set and the following are just a few examples:
Reading...
- more chapter books
- a book every day
- more fiction
- more complex books
- different authors
- different genres
- aloud to a sibling
- fiction and nonfiction books
- more than 1h per day
- and making sure to understand the text
- and looking up difficult words in a dictionary.
It was wonderful to observe students eagerly adding their goal to a star. All stars (including mine) are up on the ceiling of our library now. In this way, we are reminded of our reading goals each time we visit the library. Very exciting!
Reading...
- more chapter books
- a book every day
- more fiction
- more complex books
- different authors
- different genres
- aloud to a sibling
- fiction and nonfiction books
- more than 1h per day
- and making sure to understand the text
- and looking up difficult words in a dictionary.
It was wonderful to observe students eagerly adding their goal to a star. All stars (including mine) are up on the ceiling of our library now. In this way, we are reminded of our reading goals each time we visit the library. Very exciting!
(Below is the email I sent out to all parents two weeks ago. I thought it might be helpful to reprint it here, including direct links to all the websites I suggested.)
Dear Parents,
All the best wishes for 2013 from the HKA library!
At the beginning of each New Year, many of us like to set goals. I usually include some reading goals among my new year's resolutions. While I read all the time, I have strong preferences regarding the genres from which I select (I just love realistic and historical fiction). My goal is therefore usually not related to a specific number of books but geared towards reading a wider variety of materials. As Donalyn Miller put it so well in a recent blog post:
“No one who reads should apologize for their preferences and reading experiences, but we can aspire to stretch ourselves or fill any perceived deficits in our reading lives.” (http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/book-gap-challenge-by-donalyn-miller/ )
I love the idea of stretching my reading life to find new rewarding reading experiences. And I want to encourage students to do the same. When they return to school on Tuesday and begin visiting the library, I will initiate conversations that will help students to identify an individual goal to stretch their reading experience in 2013.
Since modeling being a reader is surely the most powerful way to support a child in becoming a lifelong reader, I invite you to join us: set yourself a reading goal and share it with your child. There are endless possibilities of what your reading goal could look like. I am listing just a few examples that might help in giving you ideas:
- Set an amount of time for reading each day
- Start a reader's journal in which you keep track of the books you read
- Identify a list of books you want to read
- Set a frequency or number of books you want to read, e.g. one book per month/week, 10/20 books in 2013
Not sure what to read? Here a few suggestions:
(1) Browse through some of the Best Books of 2012 lists to find titles that interest you.
(2) Subscribe to a children's literature blog (i.e. receive updates of new posts through your email) for ideas, e.g. Watch.Connect.Read, Book-A-Day Almanac, Nerdy Book Club.
(3) Visit a bookstore or library and browse their shelves.
(4) Follow what I am reading, e.g.
- Follow me on Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4120311-tanja
- Like my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/MsTanjaG
If you have any questions or if I can be of any help, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Happy reading,
Tanja
Dear Parents,
All the best wishes for 2013 from the HKA library!
At the beginning of each New Year, many of us like to set goals. I usually include some reading goals among my new year's resolutions. While I read all the time, I have strong preferences regarding the genres from which I select (I just love realistic and historical fiction). My goal is therefore usually not related to a specific number of books but geared towards reading a wider variety of materials. As Donalyn Miller put it so well in a recent blog post:
“No one who reads should apologize for their preferences and reading experiences, but we can aspire to stretch ourselves or fill any perceived deficits in our reading lives.” (http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/book-gap-challenge-by-donalyn-miller/ )
I love the idea of stretching my reading life to find new rewarding reading experiences. And I want to encourage students to do the same. When they return to school on Tuesday and begin visiting the library, I will initiate conversations that will help students to identify an individual goal to stretch their reading experience in 2013.
Since modeling being a reader is surely the most powerful way to support a child in becoming a lifelong reader, I invite you to join us: set yourself a reading goal and share it with your child. There are endless possibilities of what your reading goal could look like. I am listing just a few examples that might help in giving you ideas:
- Set an amount of time for reading each day
- Start a reader's journal in which you keep track of the books you read
- Identify a list of books you want to read
- Set a frequency or number of books you want to read, e.g. one book per month/week, 10/20 books in 2013
Not sure what to read? Here a few suggestions:
(1) Browse through some of the Best Books of 2012 lists to find titles that interest you.
(2) Subscribe to a children's literature blog (i.e. receive updates of new posts through your email) for ideas, e.g. Watch.Connect.Read, Book-A-Day Almanac, Nerdy Book Club.
(3) Visit a bookstore or library and browse their shelves.
(4) Follow what I am reading, e.g.
- Follow me on Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4120311-tanja
- Like my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/MsTanjaG
If you have any questions or if I can be of any help, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Happy reading,
Tanja
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