Whatcom County Library System

Nancy Hudson has set up a reading club for teachers at Vista Middle School so that they can pool their knowledge of the best reads for teens.

It's a brilliant and straightforward idea: all the teachers in the club pick a book.  They read it, write a review, and create a poster for their title.  Everyone brings enough copies of their poster and review for all who attend the club...that means at the end of the meeting each teacher walks away with 11 new titles to hook their students, and posters to go with them!

The students at Vista are ravenous readers, and it is no wonder...their teachers have a lot of great suggestions at their fingertips thanks to this club!

When I was visiting Kirsten Jensen's classroom she had just opened a new box of books for her students.  She uses donorschoose.org, a website that helps connect teachers and donors.  She has had great success enriching her classroom library due to the generosity of donors!

It was really fun to talk to Kirsten's students about what they've been reading.  They keep a notebook of favorite reads and what they might like to read next.  When their time for reading in class is over the whole class takes a moment to share their reading reflections with the students sitting next to them.  All of this combined means that when you ask students what type of books they like they are eager to share.

At this point in the year Ms. Nugent's high school students protest when they have to miss free reading time.  In September it was a whole different story: reading was branded as "stupid."

Ms. Nugent realized that in order to make reading attractive it was essential that students have as much choice as possible.  She beefed up her classroom library  with a wide variety of materials at every reading level.  Her shelf includes Frog and Toad and picture books as well as adult and teen titles.  Her comment on the selection is that "some afternoons high school students want to revist picture books.  I am fine with that!"

SSR is slotted for 50 minutes every Friday.  Ms.  Nugent says that  her students "realize I won't force them to read something they don't like, and that I try to find titles that are related to their interests. Now they want to rush through their other work to read."

Reasearch by Stephen Krashen has suggested that free reading leads to higher reading scores, it makes sense...when you find reading can be enjoyable you read more!  Thanks to Ms. Nugent for inspiring her students (and us.)

Ms. Nugent teaches at Lummi Nation School. 

As part of this blog I want to highlight how educators are connecting high school and middle school students to great books and research.  Heather Smith at Lummi Nation School is definitely an example of that.  She has started a research club at her school inviting any interested students.  Attendance keeps growing: 27 students attended the last session.

Students are invited to find out more about a topic.  Most recently they delved in Valentine's Day. Currently they are learning more about author Sherman Alexie.  After about three weeks they all meet during lunch to share what they have learned.   Heather provides dessert as an added bonus...