Scholastic Reading Summit

I had the privilege of attending the Scholastic Reading Summit in Charlotte this past Tuesday and did a double session on promoting a culture of independent reading.  I am always looking for ideas on how to balance reading promotion with teaching research skills in the limited amount of time I have with students.  

One of the questions we were asked in the session was, What is your vision for a culture of independent reading?  My response to that would be a comment that my principal made in a meeting I had with her last year:  to get students talking about books so much that we are almost sick of hearing about it.  

So I'm working on that.  I'm planning to book-talk as many books as I can this school year on our morning news show, and recruit kids to do the same, so the students get 180 book talks this year.  

There was also talk about book drives and getting parents on board, but for the purposes of my school community, the book talk suggestion stood out the most.

It's a great school year to read.  Let's have some fun.