Reading Rituals

It is rounding the corner to the end of July.  How did that happen?

My goal this summer was one word: Inspiration.  I wanted to be inspired by the PD that I took, the books that I read, and the things that I did.  In turn, I was not online as much, blogged even less, and created nothing.  But life ebbs and flows.  And so it is okay.

Last night I met with my teammate and we discussed some of the learning that came out of my different PD events this summer.  Looking at it collectively and being reflected.  Inspiration occurred.  And most of it can fall into one category: Reading Rituals.

I went to a session this summer at Nerd Camp titled "Motivating Readers without Incentives" by two ladies from Teacher2TeacherHelp.com.  The book that started reading rituals for them was "Reconsidering Read Aloud" by Mary Lee Hahn.  The presenters explained that rituals bring people together and connect people to a larger community.  Reading rituals.

So by looking back at my notes I came up with a list of reading rituals that I would like to try to incorporate this year into my school/guided reading groups.  You may do many of these or this list may help you to rethink something you are currently doing.  Some of the ideas I have gone back and pinned.

1. Books We've Read Display

My teammate and I will do this with her whole group books.  But I also want to have a running record of our guided reading books.  Because as first graders they really need to see the massive amount of books they really are reading each and every week!  Here are some pins that I found for these ideas (you can click on them for further details from that author):

2. Staff and student book selfies.  I want the students to see that I am always reading too!  And I want them to have their pictures taken with their favorites.  There are so many ways to do this and I foresee myself putting up a plate stand in my guided reading area with my "current read."  Here are few pins:

 3. One goal this year is to make their thinking about books more visible.  During guided reading, I want to have an "exploratory notebook" for me to write down any thinking, wondering, or questions that they have about the book we are currently reading. (Betsy Hubbard has many posts about this concept!)  As first graders, I want to honor their thinking and know that it is important.  Another thought is to have a "glitter board" or frame where we write down favorite quotes from a book we are currently reading.  Here are a few pins that can lead you to more information:

 4. Book Talks.  At the Scholastic Summit, I learned so much about the power of book talks.  I would like to integrate this into an announcement with books from our Readbox.  My hope is that after much modeling, some students may be interested in doing the book talks for me!  Scholastic has some resources on Book Talks and I think I need to watch many YouTube videos to help me out.

5. I love this one: end of the year book signing.  The class picks their favorite book from the year and they all sign their names to the inside cover.  It is a way for you to remember their favorite book and future students!

A few other things that I would like to do is add some student published books into my guided reading lessons somehow and also into the Readbox.  I want to encourage students to look at all parts and angles of a book (spine, cover pages, smell, etc), and Skype.  My students need to meet more authors!



What are some of your reading rituals that you think would benefit my students.  I think all these small rituals are going to add up to something HUGE!!






**All of the pins in this post do link to the original owner.  Please click to learn more about each one of them.