A love of reading ... one student at a time

Early in the year, I had a discussion with our Reading Specialist, Stephanie Peterson, about some of her students. It seemed several of her students were having trouble finding books in the library that they wanted to read. She wanted to know if I could work with them one on one to help them with their selection. It seemed like a very small idea, but what it grew into was really pretty cool.

Stephanie gave me a list of names and we set up times with their homeroom teachers when I could pull them from class for a 7 - 10 minute conversation. The idea was to get them to pick out a book that they could read for self selected time and stick with it. Our weekly meetings started out first as being conversations about how's it going? Do you like the book? Do you feel it's a good fit for you?

Immediately, the students wanted to throw a summary of the book at me and I wanted to duck! Some of the summaries were genuine attempts while others were, shall we say, inventive. I noticed almost right away that the kids hadn't made any kind of emotional connection to the book. It was all facts ... this happened, that happened. They said nothing about how they felt about the characters, the action, or the book in general.

This was around the same time I had started reading Disrupting Thinking by Kylene Beers (see prior post)

It made sense that I should be having students identify something from their reading that they connected to (made them laugh, made them cry, made them excited, etc.) I told them I didn't care how many pages they read, but the next time we met, they needed to be able to tell me about one moment from their reading that they connected to and why. I gave them a sticky note so they could write on it and mark the page. 

The next time we met, the conversations were so much better. There were smiles as the student described something funny that a character said or did. It was like a mini book club. If they couldn't find something to connect to, we had a conversation as to whether the book they were reading was really one they wanted to read.

When Stephanie and I met at the end of the year to review how things went, we were very encouraged by the results and we plan to continue and expand this concept next fall. Two things that were very clear from the experience:

• If we can inspire kids to connect to what they are reading, they are far more likely to continue reading. 
• The students love one on one time with an adult ... even if it's only for 10 minutes. And if we use that connection to talk about reading, students are more likely to continue reading.

Seems simple, doesn't it? How powerful would it be if every student had someone who would sit down with them everyday and share the joy of connecting to a book? I know this isn't anything new and I'm preaching to the choir here, but how do we give this opportunity to all our students? When does that conversation become a priority? Especially for those students who don't get that conversation at home.