November
22
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Ten Ways to Get Primary Readers to Read by Kimberley Moran
As he sounds out the word painfully slowly, he looks desperately to the illustration for assistance. He looks at me. I look back blankly. He says each sound separately, but blends it incorrectly. He shakes his head. He looks at me. I look back with my gentle smile. He glances over at the boys reading through the books in their book boxes effortlessly, happily even.
The silence is loud and a little too long. I want to cover my ears, but instead I hold my hand over my mouth. I must not tell him the word. He should be allowed to feel that power of saying the word and recognizing it first. I am his teacher. It is my job to align the planets so that this miracle can take place. There is only so much I can do.
- Introduce books as if they are an ore newly discovered in Minecraft. State loudly and with gusto, “You won’t believe it! The book I ordered came in last night!” Hold it high above their heads as if you won’t let them touch the rare gem.
When he smiles as you read the book, give yourself one tally mark.
- Read every single book as if you are auditioning for a shot in a Scorsese film. You are a teacher and, if no one ever told you this before (let me), you are an actor.
If he shakes his head at your impression of the fox in William Steig’s Dr. DeSoto, push yourself to overdo the way this same fox talks with his mouth glued shut.
- Order everything connected in any way to a book that has a child excited. Instant gratification is a not a virtue anywhere (you may have heard) except in the reading world. Use your library, bookstore, friend, or Kindle to get them in their hands in 48 hours or less.
When everyone is admiring the newest Bink and Gollie or Babymouse, pull out Little Mouse Toon books. Make sure he knows he gets them first. Put a finger to your lips to signal that he should keep it to himself.
- Stop everything some days and make everyone read wordless picture books. Let them tell the stories to each other. Let them write the stories too. This is a surefire way to accomplish the ultimate in differentiation. There ain’t no one you can’t reach with a wordless picture book.
He will look at these with the kind of discernment that reminds you of all that goes on in his beautiful brain. You will remember to align the stars more completely for this child. He deserves it.
- Follow bloggers who care about books as much as they care about their own children. If you just have to pick two, follow Carrie Gelson and John Schu. You could live on their recommendations for the rest of your career.
- Connect books to other things in their lives. Show them how Minecraft books can help them build electrical systems. Share this video before reading Kate Messner’s Under and Over the Snow. Then have the kids create a classroom mural of the Subnivean Zone.
Make sure you tell him you know about his drawing skill. Ask him to draw the fox. He will practice for two days before coloring and adding it to the mural. He will stand back to look at it for a minute or two before taking out a pencil and writing F-O-X in careful penmanship.
- Write about what you read. In order to write we must process, we must think. If you help students write about what they read, you will help them think about what they read. It’s a little like a magic trick.
As he sits down to write a letter to Ivan, he takes a long time to process and get the words on the page. He brings the paper to you and waits. “Dear Ivan, I’m sorry you were captured by bad people and made to wear clothes. I hope the zoo and the other gorillas made up for the bad stuff.” You tell him his piece is thoughtful and kind. You tell him how proud you are to have a student like him in your class. He smiles and asks if you can read another chapter together.
- Teach your kids to speed date with books. Invite them to bring a great book to their table spot. Have them all sit down at different table spots. Set the timer for two minutes. They must open up the book to any page and read for the full two minutes. Then they get up and move to a new book. Do this three times. Then let them choose new books for their book box.
He will open his book and happily try to read something his peers have chosen and loved. He will find some words he can read and he will want to work to read them. He will add a book or two to his book box.
- Read two picture books a day every single day. No targeted lesson can do what being a well read person does to further reading ability. Having experience with many different kinds of books will make reading easier. Period.
As you pull out That’s Not a Good Idea, he will raise his hand to let you know that he’s read other books by this author. You will smile and agree, but it isn’t until later that you will realize that he has read “Mo Willems” on his own.
- Make it your business to learn about every new and good book out there. Read The Nerdy Book Club voraciously. Follow great teachers, librarians, authors, and illustrators on Twitter. Become close friends with your children’s librarians. New fantastic books are published every day. These new books support all kinds of young readers where they are in the reading process and reach them with current topics that matter to them.
One day, as you are busy with another student, he will come up to you and wait silently at your left shoulder. You will remind him that you are not to be interrupted, but you are curious because he doesn’t usually initiate conversation. You tell him that he can wait. As the student walks away, he says quietly “I think I read a whole chapter book by myself.” “You think?” you ask. “Yes I’m not sure. Can I read you some?” He goes on to read slowly, meticulously, but completely accurately. He looks up at you as he ends the sentence and smiles. The planets are aligned.
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Kimberley Moran is a second grade teacher who lives in Hampden, Maine. She has two children and one very nice husband. Kimberley would like her bio to make her sound brilliant, witty, and kind because she knows that when you write and read you get to be anyone you want to be.
Nerdy Book Club 
Outstanding post! Thank you, Kimberley!!
Thanks Sarah! Glad you liked it.
Dearest Kimberly,
Your advice and wisdom has given me goosebumps yet again. The kind of goosebumps that make me go buy more books, and be inspired, and validate what I do every day. Thank you for that!
~Jennifer
We just need to get together again and talk books, teaching, and being nerds! We think so much alike. I think we all have that student (or two or three) in our class every single year and we are always loading our brains and libraries with perfect fit books for them. I love this post so much.
I love this! Well done!
This was a perfect post for me and at a perfect time. I taught special needs children and did many of the things you spoke about to inspire reading. I am now tutoring boys in high school and have just found my new student for the year! I am excited and hopeful to have him reading by the end of the school year. I only see him three hours once a week so I’m going to have to find his magic button, fast. You mentioned fabulous ideas! I’m ready to tackle this. Hooray for teachers like you!
Hooray for those kids to get someone like you who wants to build readers instead of getting people to read. Thanks for your kind words.
Beautiful post! I am a elementary librarian and always eager to get books into the students’ hands. I’m passing this post on to our k-3 teachers. Thank you for your enthusiasm. It is contagious!
Thank you for sharing! I think Librarians are rock stars!
Thanks so much for writing this! I have a little guy in my 2nd grade class this year who I am trying diligently to help become a reader. He struggles so much but the other day during read to self time, I had the biggest smile on my face as this little guy read an Elephant and Piggie book perfectly complete with some awesome voices! He wasn’t reading to me at that time and normally I would have quietly reminded him to lower his voice but I was so floored I just sat and stated and grinned like an idiot. These are the moments when I know I am right where I need to be!
Great suggestions and an extremely well-written post! Those readers are so hard to lose if we are not careful.
Thanks Joelle! Your opinion matters to me greatly. You are wisest among them. 🙂
Great Post, Kimberley! I really like the speed dating idea. I think I’ll try that next week:)
Thanks Barbara! You are one of my favorite cheerleaders and one of the greatest teachers.
Thank you for sharing your passion and experiences with books and children. You have much to teach us.
I’m reading your post and I say to my husband, “these are the things that make me cry”. With joy, dear, with JOY! YOU, young lady, are magnificent! What a wonder you are! Your students are so lucky! With teachers like you and librarians like John (I got to meet him when he came through Colorado, EEEEEEEE!) there is hope!! Another reason I cried, is because what you wrote gave validation to ME. Do writers know that? Do they know that not only are they giving GREAT ideas, they are also letting the people who AGREE and have USED these ideas, are patted on the back, and FEEL useful…that what they did had value? Thank you from ,the bottom of my retired librarian heart! Reading does change lives…young lives, old lives and YOU are one of those life changing people! Carry on, dear teacher, carry on! Bless you and know that you are appreciated, valued, and WONDERFUL!! PS: Thank you for the “new to me” blog, There is a book for that. How did I not KNOW about this blog?! =) Take good care, have a great rest of you school year! And…KEEP WRITING!
I’m not sure there are words in English to describe what your comment meant to me. in Italian maybe… Thank you. And thank you for being a librarian. Librarians are the last bastion of intelligence.
What a lovely post! I am a PB author and parent volunteer in my daughter’s 3rd grade classroom. Each week, I work one-on-one with below grade-level readers. And the struggle is exactly as you state…painfully slow reading while their peers move easily from book to book. But we celebrate the small things. A chapter heading read perfectly. A multi-syllable word sounded out accurately. And the completion of an entire chapter book with piles of praise. I hope my enthusiasm for reading rubs off on these kids in some small way. Thanks for the tips!
I love that you write books and you work with children because they need people who get why we read and write. We don’t read and write to say we do, we do it because we have to. That’s how we learn about who we are. Thank you for commenting and sharing yourself.
Oh Kimberley I have taught this little guy many times. And he (and all the others like him) deserve us to deliver reading magic on multiple platters so he can choose the most delicious, the very best and the ones perfectly meant for him. Again and again. And eventually, all on his own. This is a beautiful post. Thank you also for the mention. I am honoured.
You are one of the most special people I have ever encountered. For real, Carrie. I can’t wait to meet you. I will hug you and buy you a glass of wine so we can talk books all night. I feel certain I will cry.
This is fabulous, Kimberley and I can’t wait to share it with my friends who are not part of the Nerdy Book Club group! I love the speed dating idea and your wordless picture books, too. Teachers need to get money for fabulous classroom libraries so they are filled with these wonderful books. These kids need us so much! Hook them early! I love how you recognize the need to be an actor. It is so true and important. Needs to be done with honesty and enthusiasm. Thank you for your post, so glad you shared.
Thanks Janet. I respect you so much and know how hard you work to help your kids. Thank you again for the kind words.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Simply beautiful!
Great.
What a great article ! Yes it gave me validation as a teacher who wanted to guide her students to becoming great readers
and to love reading. Wish everyone would recognize what’s important for students and stop all this stuff that is making them hate school and learning. You learn best when you are curious about something,,,,, that’s a teacher’s job to help students become curious.
I love this post and I have passed it on to some teacher friends. I retired as an elementary school librarian in June but can not break the habit of reading and recommending books. Just ask the teachers I worked with. I am still sending them book titles by text, email, and over dinner dates!
Thank you so much Ann. That’s the ticket, don’t you think? Knowing and recommending just the right book.
The speed reading date is awesome!! Thank you so much for posting!
So incredibly pleased and proud that Mrs. Moran is my daughter’s teacher. This brought tears to my eyes, knowing the care and joy in the classroom my daughter enters every day; I could ask for nothing more of her education.
Awesome post! Love it!!!! It is the best to see our students become readers and lovers of books!! 🙂
Thanks Niki. That is for sure my primary goal.
Truly inspiring and touching Kimberley! If only every teacher could be like you! My eyes welled when I read that the planets aligned. This blog alone was a fantastic read! Now I have more ideas for books to put under the Christmas tree and fantastic ideas on what do with them after that wrapping paper is long gone. ❤️U
I am blessed that I get to see you in action every day! I can say, yes it is all true even the brilliant, witty and kind part. Really!
I love your post! I’m going to send one point to my teachers as a 12 Days of Christmas treat. You are spot on! Thank you.
Thank you so much. What a good idea to break it up!
Reblogged this on Library Mom and commented:
If everyone tried these techniques, which I think anyone can do, just think of how many happy readers we would have out there. My son gets so excited to read with me and I can’t wait for him to be able to read on his own.
Although I anticipated the end, it still brought tears to my eyes – sitting on the train on the way to school. I thought, yes, those smiles and eyes are why I do what I do every day. Nothing more rewarding. Thank you for a beautiful post!
Love this so much!
Great job- on the post, on the teaching, and on the loving!
Why, oh why, don’t you work with me?! I revel and delight in putting books into the hands of readers of all types. And of making them proud to use that word to describe themselves. And I delight in your ideas and MISS having you close to me. I am going to do a speed-date-with-books event with the seventh grade classes in place of one of my monthly book talks and I think it’s going to be fun.
Brilliant. I am sharing with EVERYONE!
Thank you for your post! Many of your points resonated with my as I am just beginning my graduate degree in Literacy Education. Your advice is right-on with the essentials of teaching reading and thinking. A theme that resonated through your post was sharing excitement. Isn’t it amazing the amount of money school districts spend on special kits, programs and strategies, when in reality the thing that really lights kids on fire is excitement and enthusiasm???
When I observe kids who are ferocious readers and those who are not, I also notice that those really avid readers have parents that also love to read and read in their spare time. If I could give parents advice on how to get their child to read, I would say: model that YOU love to read. Make sure your kid sees you reading to yourself and modeling it as a pleasurable pastime. They always say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…the same goes (many times, in my opinion) for a love or lack of love for reading.
Finally, I really liked your challenge to read two pictures books a day. I teach 5th grade and wondered, at first, where I’d find the time to do that. But, you’re right. The only way to become a better reader is to interact with lots of different text frequently. It’s kind of like eating your 5 fruits or vegetables a day – it seams like soooo many to fit in! But, when you do you feel so good!
Thanks again for your post! -Katie
Thank you for your post, Kimberley. I poached your idea for Over and Under the Snow. The fascination from watching the fox video and then to discover the subnivean zone – such amazing reactions. It was a huge success with everyone in my grade 2 and 3 class.
Oh man, you made me cry. I teach middle school, and I specifically teach the kids who aren’t in special ed, but who aren’t thriving in school. Poor reading skills are almost always all wrapped up in it. With four to six of my 36 students reading at or above grade level, I wish I could give this kind of attention to all the others. Many of your ideas will work though–using wordless books, speed dating, and lots of read alouds.
This post also touches me because my son is an ELD student with a host of learning challenges, and I am working hard to keep his love of books up even as he struggles with the mechanics of reading to himself. (Luckily “working hard” here means checking out library books by the dozen and reading aloud every chance I get, and offering the option of either drying dishes or reading to me after dinner. He always chooses reading to me!) I am in awe of all that elementary teachers do to create readers–thank you!