Welcome! Findings from the International Reading Association Conference Sharon Franklin, SMA

1. Welcome! Findings from the International Reading Association Conference Sharon Franklin, SMA Lisa Bridges, MEA Tracey Hurt, MAT

2. The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller

3. Summary of Ideas • Teach literacy not literature • All about choice • Just let them read • Set a goal of how many books to read and from what genres • Give them time in class to read (that way you know for sure they're reading) • Provide a comfortable place to read and give them freedom of where to sit

4. My Experience Using Book Whisperer Techniques • Started in January so I gave them a goal of 20 books (instead of 40 for the year) • Gave them comfortable places to read and plenty of classroom time to read • Reading folder - Books I've read; Books to Read; Genres Tally Mark sheet; Reading Responses • Reading Responses: Set format; updated me on what they were reading and how it was going - due once a week • Individual Conferences

5. Results • 39 students participated • In five months, they read 945 books, which is an average of 24 books each (5 per month) • Lowest number of books read was 6 • Highest number of books read was 102!!! • All but 3 students met the goal of 20 books! • In a post-reading program survey, 88% said they felt the program was very useful and would recommend it be continued

6. Motivating Boys to Read

7. Why don't our boys like to read? • Too many women have picked out books for them - mothers, teachers • Women pick out “cute” books • They don’t think it’s cool; takes too much energy; they think it’s a “girl” thing • Research shows us we lose many of them by 2nd grade!

8. What can we do? • Boys must be interested in what they are reading • They must be able to choose what they read • It has to be "cool" to read • It only takes one successful experience in reading to change their thoughts about reading

9. Classroom Library • Mark a box "For Boys Only" • Teach them how to pick out a book based on interest rather than lexile or AR level • Rotate stock frequently and always have some featured books • Tell them it's ok to start with easy books (peer pressure will bring them up to speed eventually), and tell them it's ok to abandon a book if it's just not working for them.

10. Other Ideas • Provide a list of websites where they can read book reviews from other kids • Have students do "Book Commercials " on books they've read • Read dramatically from a book to get them interested (Book Hooks) • Start a "Guys Read" Facebook page where their peers can share information about books they've read

11. Guy Motivators. . . • Invite a dad, male administrator, or male public figure (the mayor?) to come read to the class • Invite a male author to speak to the class or read part of their book to the class (maybe via Internet?) • Have a "Mystery Night" or "Sports Night" where boys and their dads (or moms) can share in a themed event centered around books in that genre

12. Book Pass • Use this as a way to introduce students to your classroom library • Also great as a way to teach genres • Helps students learn how to pick books they’ll enjoy and have a “to read” list

13. Resources: • Reading.org (International Reading Association) • Penguin.com/books4boys • Guysread.com • Scholastic.com/readeveryday • Readkiddoread.com (James Patterson) • Carolhurst.com • Books.google.com • Davpilkey.com • Goodreads.com/author/show/1970104.Donalyn Miller/blog