Every successful teacher has a few strategies, activities or ideas that are proven winners!
We’ve asked teachers to share their favorite tips. Read through the entries below—you’re sure to find a few helpful suggestions.
Bulletin Board Reward
Ashley Lemma
Kindergarten -
Bellerose, NY
My meeting area and, of course, my library play a major role in my classroom. My goal this year was to help my children build reading stamina. I put all of their pictures on a bulletin board behind my chair in the meeting area. I set a goal of a certain number of minutes each day to read and put it on the board. It said, “Look who read for ___ minutes today!” If they read without talking for the whole time, their picture went up on the board and they got a sticker. If they were on the board all week, they earned a trip to the “treasure box.” This really increased their stamina and helped foster a love of reading!
Never a Dull Moment
Melissa Steinmetz
Kindergarten -
Westville, NJ
I try to foster a love of reading by incorporating students’ interests into our classroom library. I use all different types of reading material in our library, such as books based on classroom themes, easy readers that match students’ reading levels, familiar big books we’ve read in class, and different magazines and catalogs.
My kids have several options for how they read in our library. They can read by themselves, with a stuffed animal or with a partner. There are also three different ways that they can read the books: They can look at the pictures, they can make up their own words or they can read the words on the page. I’ve found that giving my kids these options helps to keep the library from getting dull. I also change out our books often so that the students have new selections on a regular basis.
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Cozy Reading Loft
Christine Morales
Kindergarten -
Ludowici, GA
My students love to read because we do so much of it! I have a reading loft that my father and my husband built, and it allows students to separate themselves from the classroom with just a book in their hands. “Whisper phones” help keep the noise to a minimum, and children love to hear themselves read!
The Perfect Match
Stephanie Madison
4th grade -
Salem, OR
My classroom is full of over a thousand books that range from kindergarten to college reading level! I have everything from magazines, picture books, encyclopedias and graphic novels to chapter books, posters, student-created books and newspapers. This wide variety of texts guarantees that my students will find something they enjoy reading as their literacy skills grow. I have read nearly all the books in my library, which helps me be an asset to my students in their search for the perfect book. Fitting my students with that “just right” book lets each and every one of them be successful readers!
Keep it Fun
Denise Pool
2nd grade -
La Porte, TX
In my class, I use a loft as my reading center. My students can read two at a time on the top of the loft and three sitting underneath use it as our special place for silent reading. Sometimes as we read, the students wear swimming goggles as a special treat. They enjoy the opportunity. Both things are used as incentives for all children to continue reading independently and have fun at the same time.
At Their Own Pace
Dawn Gage
1st grade -
Barnstable, MA
I use mini individual storybooks that are numbered. The children can read at their own pace. As they read, they fill out a printed form—they fill in the book number, the book title, and words they do not recognize easily or do not know. They also choose one sentence from the book and write it on the form. They write the words they do not know in their word journals, and after reading five storybooks, they write their own story using some of those words. They love this challenge and do well pacing themselves. I meet with them individually once a week to check their reading and comprehension of the books.
