Voracious Reading

Teaching students voracious reading is one strategy I really love teaching and find very valuable. This strategy fits under Fluency and Expanding Vocabulary on the CAFE menu. I consider myself a voracious reader as an adult, and I love to guide these students towards their own love for reading. Reading, reading, and more reading will help students gain word knowledge for their daily lives and for their writing. As a primary teacher, it is important for me to help my students learn at a young age the importance of reading. Voracious reading involves having many options for students to read, giving reading time every single day, reading to students every day, and modeling what it means to be a voracious reader. If I can surround students with my own love for reading, then this will help develop their own love for reading.

Explaining the Strategy:

“We can become better readers by reading every day.”

“Remember to choose good-fit books when you are reading.”

Ideas for Teaching:

• Read to the students every single day. Use a variety of text to model the love of reading. Pull in picture books, chapter books, poems, big books, newspapers, magazines, letters, and pamphlets.
• Give students time every day to read independently. Let them have choice in what they read and offer them a variety of high-interest text to choose from.
• Help students choose good-fit books for independent reading time.
• Create a classroom library organized by author, genre, topic, series, etc. Make the classroom library accessible to all students throughout the day.
• Keep a log of books you have read as a class. Refer to the list often, highlighting books that you loved and certain things you remember or learned from the books.

Helpful Websites:

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/c55

This websites is an assortment of articles that help build motivation in readers.

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/catching-reading-through-interactive-241.html

This website offers tips on conducting an interactive read-aloud. Reading aloud to students is one way to help build voracious readers.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/29298

Here is an article and pictures on how to organize your classroom library to make it friendly for your students.

Supporting Picture Books:

Bertram, D. (2005). The best time to read. New York, NY: Random House Books for Young Readers.

• This story is about a boy who just learned to read. He searches his house looking for someone to read to.

Kirk, D. (2007). Library mouse. New York, NY: Abrams Books for Young Readers.

• In this story, the mouse lives in the library. He loves books so much he decides to become an author himself.

Knudsen, M. (2006). Library lion. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.

• The lion in this story has a deep love for reading and books. Even though he may not be the normal library patron, he becomes a regular visitor of the library.

Professional Resources:

Boushey, G., & Moser, J. (2009). The cafe book. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Boushey, G., & Moser, J. (2006). The daily 5. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.