Fostering a Reading Culture in High School (LIBE 477B)

As an English teacher, there are a lot of things that I do to foster a reading culture in my classroom. I’ve never really thought specifically about all the things that I do, but it’s definitely a goal of mine.  I always tell students that reading can teach them more about language than I ever can.

After doing a bit of research on the topic, it seems that many of the things that I do are what others recommend as well.  So, that’s comforting!

When I put my ideas into a word art generator, this is what turned up.  I'm pretty pleased with the final result!

Word It Out

One of the things I do to foster reading in the classroom is I have an extensive library of my own books.  I like to be able to personally recommend books to students, especially reluctant readers.  I often find that these students are overwhelmed trying to choose a book because they don’t know where to start. It’s easier to pull one off my shelf than to send them down to the library. I let students borrow my book for class and take them home if they wish. I’ve definitely lost some books over the years, but I always like to think that perhaps that student really needed that book.  

It’s actually one of the things I’m struggling with this year, as I don’t have classroom to call my own.  I teach in two different locations in addition to the library. My books are currently boxed up in my basement, which makes me very sad. 

ClassroomChronicles a Tennessee department of Education website recommends “build[ing] a classroom library” as one of the top ten ways to foster reading in your school (Whitehead 2016).  As a teacher-librarian, perhaps a way to foster reading using this strategy is to fund classroom libraries.  By using a portion of the library budget to build classroom libraries students would start to see books in more places and be encouraged to read.

Another thing that I do in the classroom is I always start each period with silent reading.  Sometimes students are reading a book of their choice and sometimes they are reading a book from our Literature Circle options.  Either way, I give students about 20-30 minutes of time to read quietly.  Over the years I’ve had feedback from many students about how much they enjoyed this quiet time.  Students are so busy today that I genuinely think that some of them don’t feel like they have time to read. I know I struggle to fit it into my daily schedule!  I also tend to keep silent reading mostly for pleasure.  We do some analysis activities with the books we are reading, but not the close reading of going through a novel chapter by chapter. I always tell students, I want you to enjoy your book. If you start reading it and discover you don’t really like it, change it.  I want you to finish the book!

This is why I use the Literature Circles approach in my classroom.  I offer students a variety of books and let them choose which they want to read.  This allows me to offer novels of various skill levels but also various genres. I offer non-fiction, fiction, and graphic novels. By doing so, I hope to reach all of my students’ interests and abilities.  Classroom Chronicles also agrees with this option stating “giving kids the opportunity to read books of their choice in school is incredibly important” (Whitehead 2016).

Some key resources I have in my personal library related to Literature Circles are:

   -Grand Conversations, Thoughtful Responses: A Unique Approach to Literature Circles by Faye          Brownlie
   -Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles by Harvey Daniels and Nancy Steineke

Both sets of authors are considered an authority on the topic, so if you're looking to learn about the model, I recommend both books.

A role of the teacher-librarian in this strategy would be to work with the English department to keep books on offer current and up to date with student interests.  Both for books that are considered English classroom novels and books on the library shelves.  At our school all the books (including textbooks) are stored in the backroom of the library, so we have easy access to see what is being offered and also what is being used most often. I’ve only been at my school for the month of September so far, but I can already see a trend in which books are more popular than others in the English department. 

Another thing that I do in the classroom is share my love of reading.  I usually have a poster on my wall which has a space for me to fill in the title of the book I am currently reading.  As I finish a book I change the title on my poster and also talk about the book I just finished with my students.  This lets me model my love of reading with my students.   Sometimes I’ve just read a young adult novel or more recently a parenting book, but no matter the content I share it with my students.  It shows them the diversity in the things I like to read and that all types of reading are beneficial.  ClassroomChronicles agrees with this idea too stating “Be a Reader Yourself – It’s hard to sell what you won’t buy yourself, and reading is no exception" (Whitehead 2016).  I also like to ask students what they are reading currently, if they are reading something outside of our class.  It’s a great way to get book recommendations and to learn a bit about your students.

One of ways I can incorporate this strategy as teacher-librarian is to perhaps use this as a bit of campaign for reading. I’m just brainstorming here, but I think it could be neat to have students create posters or little movie trailers about the book they are reading.  There’s nothing better to get students reading than one student recommending a book to another.  Something to think about with my colleague for sure!

A last thing I have done in the past in junior grades (gr. 7-9) is implement a Battle of the Books. This works best when the whole school or grade is on board because then you have greater buy in. But, essentially students are put into teams and must read a certain number of books.  Students must read a minimum of two books, but can read more. At the end of the reading time frame, students compete in their teams on trivia from the books.  The more books you read, the more you will be able to contribute to your team.  We do this first at a class level and them move onto grade level with the winning team from each class competing. 

It’s a great way to get reluctant readers engaged and reading. In addition, those who really like to read have a challenge as they try to read as many books as they can.  As a teacher-librarian I can see a couple of options for this strategy.  I could help facilitate the Battle of the Books program with the teachers as one option.  Or, I could even try to run an independent version in the library. I’m not sure how many students would buy into that, but I guess you don’t know until you try! 

Having never tried the Battle of the Books strategy in the senior grades (10-12), I’m not sure how it would go over.  Perhaps presented in the right way, it might work?

These are just a few of the strategies I currently use in my classroom to foster a reading culture, but they are ones that I think are quite successful.  How to transfer this level of classroom success to the creating a school culture of reading in my position as a teacher-librarian is another challenge. Something to think about as I learn more about my role in the school.

All images are take from Pixabay and are used under the CCO Creative Commons.


Bibliography

Aguilar, E. (2013, February 13). Ten Ways to Cultivate a Love of Reading in Students. Retrieved Oct

5, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/cultivating-love-reading-students-elena-aguilar


Brownlie, F. (2005) Grand conversations, thoughtful responses: a unique approach to literature

circles.Winnipeg: Portage and Main Press.


Daniels, H. & Steineke, N. (2004) Mini-lessons for literature circles. Portsmouth (NH): Heinemann.


Whitehead, C. (2016, May 23). 10 Ways to Foster a Reading Culture in Your School. Retrieved

October 5, 2017, from http://tnclassroomchronicles.org/10-ways-foster-reading-culture-school