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Top Ten Practices for Principals to Promote Literacy in School
1. Read, Read and Read
Principals should not only be reading current research and resources about best practices in education, they should be reading children’s books as well as reading for pleasure. With children’s literature, I read the latest releases plus recommended books. My latest favorites are A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. Books are an excellent way to relate with students. For example, I meet with a student periodically to give him some positive interaction. Yesterday, we browsed through the library and determined which Ricky Ricotto book will be his next read. Did you know there is a method to flipping the pages in order to make the robot move correctly?
With reading for pleasure, it may be the best practice we do. Consider your students. Do they read for other people, or for school alone? No, they read because they enjoy it. We should too. Your enthusiasm for reading will only build and exude from you as you share great literature when you…
2. Read aloud to students
I could write a top ten list on this topic alone (I’ll save that for another Nerdy Book Club post;). Without listing all the benefits, let me just say there are few things more important I do as a principal than sharing great literature with my students. I get to know students’ names and personalities, facilitate deep thinking through conversations, share my thinking as I read, host book talks after a novel is finished: All of my favorite parts of being in the classroom when I was a teacher! My goal is to present reading as an engaging and social experience that is too rewarding to not take part in.
3. Write, Write and Write
I bring a Moleskine book journal with me to classrooms when I have finished a longer read aloud. We write a review on the document camera as a class for that book. Then I hand out a classroom book journal. Students can write their own reviews in the journal and then share them with me in my office. After they are done reading their book reviews, I give them a pencil that states, “I Read to the Principal”. I also keep a personal journal and I blog.
4. Ask Teachers What They Are Reading
According to Todd Whitaker in Leading School Change, your first impression as a principal will set the tone for the rest of the year. For me, I started my first staff meeting in August by having teachers write down all the books they recently read in a book log. No magazines, newspapers or blogs. Just books. I then shared my list of books with them that I had read over the summer. The objective was to make clear that if we expect our students to be regular readers, we better be too.
5. Encourage Social Networking and Blogging with Staff
Social networks such as Twitter are excellent ways to network with other educators. They are great motivators for people to write. Brevity is a requirement when posting online, so the skill of summarizing is regularly practiced. Those online also have a URL in their profile that connects followers to their reflections about their experiences. This usually takes the form of a blog. Blogging is one of the best ways for principals to reflect on their current practices and make improvements. Writing truly has a purpose in this forum because there is an authentic audience. By writing online, it is very easy for the principal to encourage teachers and even students to blog, because they are practicing what they preach.
6. Display Books in Your Office
My read alouds are shelved in my office with front covers facing out. Anyone coming into my office can see them and how I value reading. When a student does come down to take a break from the classroom, I now have age-appropriate reading materials for them to peruse at the ready. Students may be removed from class, but they will always be expected to read and learn.
7. Spend Money on Books for Classrooms
Studies point out the positive correlation between the amount of text in a home and how students score on achievement tests. Classrooms should be no different. If the guided reading books that come with the district-prescribed literacy program aren’t engaging students, ditch them in favor of high-quality and high-interest literature. Also a good investment are mentor texts, stories read aloud by teachers to students that are a good model for a specific reading or writing skill. These lessons lead into shared and guided writing lessons that are relevant and authentic. This year alone, we spent over $2000 on mentor texts.
8. Use Data Only to Inform Instruction
As the saying goes, “You don’t fatten the cattle by weighing it”. The same holds true when analyzing student assessment data. This information should only be a springboard for collaborative discussions, namely about best practices for students’ needs. Taking a look at literacy standards gives teachers a common goal of what is expected of students. With knowing current reality and having an end in mind, teachers can get down to the business of planning instruction and assessment.
9. Provide Quality Professional Development for Staff
Teachers, as with other professionals, need constant professional development to keep their skills and knowledge current. In my school, we bring in a reading consultant to work with our staff on certain areas of need. Our most recent session was on word work. It is helpful for me because I don’t have the background and expertise in this area. If I attempted to lead these PD sessions it just wouldn’t hold as much weight as when she presents.
10. Read Aloud to Students
I know I mentioned this already. I am saying it again. It’s that important.
Matt Renwick
@HowePrincipal
This is my twelfth year in public education. I started as a 5th and 6th grade teacher in a country school outside of Wisconsin Rapids, WI. After seven years of teaching, I served as a dean of students at a junior high, which developed into an assistant principalship along with my athletic director duties. Now in my first year as an elementary principal, I am excited about getting back into the curriculum, instruction and assessment side of education.
Nerdy Book Club 
I am going to forward this to my principal. He believes in all of this, I know, but it is good to remind him, too. Your push for reading aloud is right on! (and your post reminded me of the stack of Ricky Ricotta books I have in my basement and my seven year old son will get a kick out of them … again)
This is a great article and very useful.
I wish my principal was as passionate about literacy as you are. Your students (and teachers) are lucky.
Whoo hoo! I love this list and I plan on sharing it with my principal as well! I’m sure your actions speak loudly to your teachers as well as your students.
I love that you have age appropriate books in your office and that you show off what you are reading! I will be sharing!
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Yay! What a wonderful role-model for students, teachers, and other principals! Best of luck with your year!
Wonderful post! Thank you so much. I know my principal believes strongly in the importance of reading, and I’ll share this post with her.
Matt, there’s an opening for an elementary school principal at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. Just in case, you know, you’ve always wanted to live in Chicago…
Along with being the principal, and all the other things that you do, you’ve shown that you are truly the head teacher and mentor, what principals are supposed to be. I know that principals have so many duties that pull them from the work of teaching, but you seem to be managing this list of important stuff very well. Sounds like a book that needs to be written! The teachers and students with whom you work must be having a wonderful year.
Matt, I loved this post and cheered aloud at several of your top ten. I’m in school to get my admin degree and many of your items (specifically 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 10) were in a recent paper what I would value as an admin. Great job, your teachers (and students) are lucky to have you!
Matt – I find that reading aloud in classrooms, introducing teachers & students to skype visits with authors, arranging for authors/illustrators to visit the school, helping with book clubs, and working with a parent on our Literacy Cafe to be some of the most rewarding work I do as a principal. We have $0 budget for the library (which is only open 10 hours a week) but I work really hard to get new books in there every week – even if at times that comes from my personal budget. As a result my students are developing a greater interest in reading. I wish more principals took an active role in literacy and not just the mechanics of teaching reading but the support of the love of reading through books. I love when a child equates coming to my office with finding out about new books or getting a new book. Keep up the great work.
Amazing. I wish more administrators were able to put their priorities in order the way you have. I would go to great lengths to work for an administrator like you!
Love the list…so important and relevant as this is Literacy Week here in BC…thanks!
Great post- thanks for sharing! Everyone needs to model the importance of literacy, especially building leaders.
I love this list. I can remember my elementary school principal coming into the classroom (not to read, but to recognize every child on their birthday). It was a big deal to have the principal come in. We stopped everything for her! I can only imagine the impact a principal could have on a child by selecting a book and reading it aloud to a class! So cool!
I would add: Support the School Library, by providing a library media specialist and a healthy book budget. Kids need books in both the library and the classroom.
Thank you for all of the positive and constructive feedback. I was surprised to see the large number of comments here. They motivate me to continue getting into classrooms to share great literature with kids. #NerdyBookClub has a quite a following. How do I become an “official member”?
Have a successful second semester! -Matt
What a breathe of fresh air! A principal who walks the talk! I have never worked for a principal as passionate about reading as you! Can you be cloned? Your post needs to be required reading for principals.Want to work in Seattle? We have an opening in the fall at our school!
Very good article Colby! I agree with every statement in this. I am currently a student and I believe those are all the tactics that are necessary to really get someone involved in reading. I appreciate your post, thanks!
It’s the end of vacation week here and this post came at the perfect time to kick-off the next few weeks of school. With our “Community Reader” day this week and the long month of March ahead reading it’s a great time to re-focus on reading!
Last year (as an assistant principal) my co-AP and I ran a “book club in the office.” It was something to challenge readers at either end of the continuum and was quite a hit. I haven’t managed to pull that off on my own as principal, but certainly think I can attempt some of these tips and practices. Thanks for the reminder!
How did this work, the principal book club? I have tried this but struggled to make it work with schedules.
It was fabulous, but the logistics of making it happen were awful. We tried to do it during lunch and recess times but so many other issues always came up. With two of us, it was easier, but this year alone, I could never get it to happen. I have thought about the possibility of doing it the last half hour of the school day, or as an enrichment offering, but it will wait until next year!
Dear Matt,
How great to find you attached to Choice Literacy, my go to for PD! Loved your list. Say hi to Jodi for me.
Happy Reading,
A former Howe teacher, Jennifer Metzer
Thanks for the comment. Good to hear from you. Where are you teaching? Hope all is well. Howe is going strong! I just wrote a post at howeprincipal.wordpress.com about all of the nonfiction we put in the cafeteria. Take care, -Matt
Great ideas! One you might want to add, is an example from our principal, Libby Hart at WL McLeod Elementary, Vanderhoof, British Columbia. She begins each monthly assembly by having all the students, teachers and guests in the gym read for 5 minutes (all students bring a good-fit book and the principal hands out books or newspapers to the audience). She uses the criteria for independent reading that teachers are using on anchor charts in their classrooms, thus reinforcing the learning at a school- community level. Cheers!
Fantastic and so right on! Enjoyed every minute of reading it!
If I were to write this post again, one thing I would change is in #7 – Spend Money on Books in Classrooms. Where it says, “Ditch them in favor of”, I would replace it with “Supplement them with”, referring to district-prescribed guided reading books. It is more the connotation of the language than anything I would revise. I strongly believe students need to have the right books in front of them, text they will engage their interests.
I would love to alert Australian principals to your advocacy of reading. Would you allow me to put a link to our website for principals, teachers and teacher educators at
http://www.connect2tls.info/ ?
Georgia Phillips
Co-founder of The Hub: Campaign for Quality School Libraries in Australia,
http://hubinfo.wordpress.com
initator of the House Inquiry into School Libaries and Teacher Librarians, 2010.
Yes, of course.
That was a great post! I don’t know how you find the time to do all you do, but I know that the students and staff are better because you do. As a teacher, and a media specialist, your list encourages me in how I will continue to push your literacy actions with our students and staff, as well.
I actually seem to go along with almost everything that
ended up being written within “Top Ten Practices for Principals to Promote Literacy in School � Nerdy Book Club”.
Thank you for pretty much all the information.Thank you,
Clinton
This particular posting, “Top Ten Practices for Principals to Promote Literacy in School | Nerdy Book
Club” medvedic ended up being terrific. I’m
impressing out a duplicate to demonstrate to my buddys.
Many thanks,Mattie
What a wonderful post – you are definitely a principal who believes in celebrating and promoting a school-wide culture of literacy. That is what makes the difference, not just individual classrooms in disconnected buildings – like mine. I hope more administrators read your post!!
I enjoyed reading this article and I agree with “read, read, read!” It is so important for educators to be enthusiastic about reading and exude that excitement when working with students. I also find modeling good reading makes students become more engaged in the process and inspires them to become excellent readers as well.
This was excellent reading. The strategies are not only imperative to use as educators but also in our daily lives. My favorite is Read Aloud to Students (regardless of the age). During classroom guidance presentations I would read certain portions of my powerpoint because even at the high school age they seemed more engaged about what you are talking about and they would ask questions as well. Also, sharing what you are reading with others opens a wide range of dialog with your fellow peers as well.