The Teacher As Proud Supporter of Students’ Reading Lives

Episodes about Read Alouds

Top 5 Underrated Read Alouds for Grades 3-6

Read Aloud Zoom In: Malamander with Author Thomas Taylor

Zooming In on Dynamic Read Alouds

Transcript

Melissa Milner 0:09

My voice is back and I am happy to be able to do another minisode. I have recently been inspired by my own students, their love of reading. And it reminds me of the importance of having a vast classroom library, and making sure there's enough time for students to read silently, and time to read aloud to the class. I already have done some full episodes about read alouds. So first I want to share about those. I'll put links to these episodes on this episode page on the teacher az.com. One episode is "Top Five, Underrated Read Alouds." In this episode, I share books that have been a huge hit with my students. But they are not always mentioned in read aloud lists, or they don't have a high rating on Goodreads. Then there's the episode "The Ways to Make Your Read Alouds More Dynamic." And this is where I share some things I do while reading aloud to capture the students' attention and make them shout when I go to close the book. I also did an episode with the author of the most popular read aloud in my fourth grade class for the last two years. The episode is "Read Aloud Zoom In: Malamander" and it's with the amazing author Thomas Taylor.

Melissa Milner 1:15

So among other reasons, read alouds are so powerful for modeling a love of reading, having a common story for kids to bond over. Often they're walking to lunch, talking, still talking about the story and getting students used to how stories go and learning about author's craft. I want to incorporate more nonfiction books in my read aloud vault. I was given a reminder of this last month when I interviewed author Candace Fleming, who recently wrote a Nygma girls, she spoke about the importance of exposing students to narrative fiction. That episode will be available on May 19.

Melissa Milner 1:52

The reason I decided to talk about this topic is because two students inspired me this week, and I wanted to do a minisode basically because these two students made me think...this is a good topic for a minisode. So one student is reading above grade level, but avoids long chapter books. This is when having a vast classroom library and knowing what's in your library comes in handy when students have trouble with attention and are overwhelmed by a longer book. But I want to get them to have that stamina. I tend to recommend action books, or humor books, obviously. But the action books, really they stay at a level like you got to find the ones that stay they start strong, and they usually stay strong. Those are the ones that keep those kids reading. So in this case, I knew that the student would love the Alex Rider series, I highly recommend this series, again for these reluctant readers. He loves to read, but he's just a little reluctant about those longer chapter books. They've seem daunting to him. So this student is really enjoying the first book in the series. It's called Stormbreaker. And I've taught him to focus just on reading the next chapter, instead of the whole book. Sometimes we put a post-it for him at the end of the next chapter. And I said, "This is your little mini book, this is what you're reading right now. Don't worry about the rest of the pages." So it's really going well for him. He just he's kind of having to talk himself out of being overwhelmed. So this reading mindset is helping him and I'm very proud of the student's growth this year in reading and the types of books that he's starting to be comfortable reading.

Melissa Milner 3:36

The second student has been a voracious reader all year. She's also reading above grade level, she reads during snack, she brings books to read at lunch, reading five or six books at a time and she finishes every single one of them. She reads a lot at home as well obviously. It's always inspiring when you have a student like this. She recently recommended a book to me, and I got it on Amazon. And I really enjoyed it. And I added it to the classroom library and I made a big deal out of it. She was so proud. It's so simple, but it was very important to her that I read the book she recommended and that I added it to the library. The book, by the way, is about Chernobyl. It's called the Blackbird Girls, and it's by Anne Blankman. It was pretty good.

Melissa Milner 4:18

Also this week, I sat with a group of students who read the book Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix in a book club. They wrote their book reviews and were sharing them with each other. I had already read them on Google Classroom and given comments. I was so amazed at the improvement they have made this year in their ability to write about their reading, what a difference eight months makes. So I was excited to have them read the reviews out loud to each other and have a discussion about them. The students asked clarifying questions, agreed on favorite parts, asked questions about why they think characters did certain things, etc. Three of the students in the group are reading the second book in this series as well. By the way, I only had one copy of found in my classroom library, and our school librarian was awesome, and ordered five more from other school libraries in our own district. They were sent inner district mail, it took a day. It was very cool.

Melissa Milner 5:18

Lastly, I want to share about another reading group who I turned on to Beverly Cleary books. I grew up reading Beverly Cleary books, and Judy Blume books, they are now addicted and reading all of them. They were so excited to hear that when I was their age, I was reading these books. These students started the year below grade level and are now reading at grade level. And they're so proud of themselves that they're reading longer chapter books now. It's again, so exciting to watch. And I'm very proud of them.

Melissa Milner 5:48

So I guess I wanted to share some of the successes in my classroom, and reiterate like I always do the importance of read alouds and having a good classroom library. But also, I hope that you take the time out, if you haven't already, to just look around your room...when you're meeting with your students... just notice how far they've come because this is the time of year to do that. And appreciate it because you know our work is important. Thanks for listening.

Melissa Milner 6:17

For my blog, transcripts of this episode, and links to any resources mentioned, visit my website at www.theteacheras.com You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram @melissabmilner and I hope you check out The Teacher As... Facebook page for episode updates. Thanks for listening. And that's a wrap.