Stephanie Brant Gaithersburg Elementary School Gaithersburg, Maryland

1. Take the Journey: Putting Independent Reading Into Practice Stephanie Brant Gaithersburg Elementary School Gaithersburg, Maryland

2. Today we will discuss: • Share Ideas to Build a Community of Readers • Think about an Independent Reading Plan and resources that support it • Reflect on Current Practices

3. Getting Started • Think about everything you are currently doing that encourages independent reading. • What is really working? What current activities and ideas could you further develop and add on?

5. Gaithersburg Elementary Independent Reading Plan • As part of our strategic plan we have intentionally built in independent reading activities that strengthen and encourage independent reading among our students and their families. • These activities include: • Throughout the SCHOOL • In the CLASSROOM • At HOME and in the COMMUNITY

8. SCHOOL • A short, engaging, and enthusiastic presentation so others want to read the same book. Currently a practice on our morning announcements. • It uses every one of the language arts: reading, writing, and speaking. • Booktalks are not just isolated events. One booktalk after another builds a solid, supportive, and energized community of readers, eager to dive into books peers recommend.

9. SCHOOL • Strengthens reading skills by motivating reading practice • Recognizes readers (reader of the week) • Schools can participate during the school year by signing up online • Students can log and track every minute read on the easy-to-use website

10. SCHOOL • Scholastic Summer Challenge (May to August): • A free online program that offers everything you need for a successful summer reading program • Resources for students, teachers, and parents related to summer reading • Students can log minutes toward weekly challenges

11. SCHOOL Community Literacy “The more engaged children are with reading at school the more likely they are to read at home.”

12. Classroom • Standards of Learningfor English Language Arts • Instructional Shifts: • Students read a true balance of informational and literary texts • Provide more time and space and support for reading with comprehension • Students engage in rich and rigorous conversations about text

13. Classroom • Preview stacks for students • Change the choice for students • Mid-year reading survey with students • “Next to Read” List • Birthday Books • Reading Commitments • “Allowing students to choose their own texts fosters engagement and increases their interest and motivation to read.”

14. Classroom Research Reveals: Students who spend 20 minutes per day reading books independently are exposed to 1.8 million words per year and score in the 90th percentile on standardized tests. Anderson, R.C. “Growth in Reading and How Children Spend Their Time Outside of School.” Reading Research Quarterly 28 (3) p.292, 1998.

15. Classroom • How do we: • Help students read a true balance of informational and literary texts? • Provide more time and space and support for reading with comprehension? • Help students engage in rich and rigorous conversations about text?

16. Community Engagement and Opportunity HOME/ Community • Books and Bagels • Birthday Books • Scholastic Book Fairs • Bookmobile • Reading Commitment

17. Community Engagement and Opportunity HOME/ Community • Literacy Nights • Scholastic Book Fair Family Event • Family Library Trip • Open House • Parent Reading Survey • How often do you read at home? • In one word, how do you feel? • Do you feel comfortable asking about your child’s reading progress?

18. HOME/ Community

19. HOME/ Community

20. Group Sharing of Best Practices and Observations

21. Principal’s Guide As a school leader, you have the power to connect kids with books they want to read. www.scholastic.com/bookfairs/principals/resources.asp

22. Principal's Guide Resources • In the Principal’s Guide, you’ll find tools and resources to help you instill a love of reading at your school, including: • An archive of articles, reproducible documents, and links to Scholastic websites • Details on a Principals Advisory Board, a network of professionals helping Scholastic Book Fairs create innovative learning resources for parents and educators • “Reader Leader” eNewsletter written by and for principals

23. Reader LeaderQuarterly e-Newsletter • The Reader Leader e-newsletter provides: • Commentary from Donalyn Miller, teacher and author of The Book Whisperer • Tech Tips from Principal Dr. Rob Furman • Alyson Beecher provides great ideas to keep reading fresh and fun! • Shared success stories written by principals for principals • Guest columnists who are educators offering advice and weighing in on important issues

24. Studies Reveal: “Children who read as few as six books over the summer maintain the level of reading skills they achieved during the preceding school year. When children are provided self-selected books at the end of the school year, many not only maintain their skills, but actually make reading gains.” Anne McGill-Franzen and Richard Allington, “Bridging the Summer Reading Gap”

25. Early Intervention “A child who is not reading on grade level by the end of third grade is four times as likely to drop out of school when compared to peers who are reading on grade level.” “Poor children who are not reading on grade level by the end of third grade are 13 times more likely to drop out than wealthier and proficient peers.” See “Double Jeopardy”, Anne E. Casey Foundation and Hernandez, D.J. (2011), paper presented at AERA meeting in New Orleans, LA

27. Getting Started • Of the ideas you’ve heard today, what might be a fit for your school? What would move your school’s strategic plan forward? • Identify one or two new ideas that you can use to expand your independent reading plan?