Reading in the Wild: Chapter 2

Woohoo! First linky party.

First of all, I need to say I love the premise behind this book, of getting kids to be independent, lifelong readers. Considering that my husband has actually told me to put a book down so he could talk to me, I'm pretty sure I qualify as a "wild reader." I never read The Book Whisperer, so it is going on the reading list. Immediately.

Something new: Reading logs to record all the books students have read. I like how the ones Miller uses have a begin and end date, and that it asks how students chose their book. I also like how she uses it when she conferences with students, to see how often they're reading and finishing books. I've used reading logs in the past, but usually forget to emphasize them in the second half of the year and only the kids who already read all the time remember to fill them out. I plan on having my own reading log for the kids to see, too!

Something I've done before: Book raffles. I'll show my kids 5-6 new books (usually from Scholastic), then have them write their names on slips of paper and give the students a chance to be the first reader of the book. They loved this, and it generated a lot more interest than if I'd simply put the books in my library. Who doesn't love to win something?

Something to work on: Read alouds. I do try to read aloud, but it's not sacred time. We might only do it twice a week, and we'll usually only get through 2 1/2 books in a year. I think I might switch from doing a few whole class novels this year to doing all independent reading and literature circles. Those novels will then be read alouds, and I know I'll make time for them since I love them so much.

Something else to work on: Getting students to recommend books to each other. I've thought about getting a big pocket chart, writing every student's name on a card, and having students stick books they think their classmates will like behind their names. I think this will take up too much space, though. Any ideas out there of quick (and space-efficient) ways to do this?

I have not quite figured out how to add the link-up for the book study to this post, but here's the website I found it on if you want to read more: