Love to, Learn to & Choose to Read

Love to, Learn to and Choose to read.

The interesting question in a world where technology is everywhere is "how do we continue to inspire our young people to not only be motivated to learn to read, but to love to read and choose to?" There are more and more distractions and more and more things drawing kids away from books. In May of this year we had an epiphany.  Teaching reading was just one part of what we actually wanted to accomplish in the Lit Pit. Knowing how to read was one thing, loving to read and choosing to read, was completely another. The more we discussed it with each other and then took it to dinner table conversations (our poor friends), we quickly discovered that knowing how to read didn't mean that you would choose to. This became our motto, our mandate and our challenge. 

So our discussions have changed a little, not only are our discussions surrounding how to teach reading but also how to inspire our students to love to read. Our first change in the Lit Pit came at the listening to reading station. We decided to re-brand this with our students and call it Love to Read!! Now I know Bryn has mentioned our administrator in previous posts, and this is again where she was an enormous asset! We asked her about stocking our room with books and she (loving books as much as we do) said yes! We then brainstormed with our students the kinds of books they would like to have in the Lit Pit; their ideas were awesome. There was one little boy in particular (who doesn't happen to love reading) and he asked for cook books! When the cook books arrived he lit up and said I won't need technology when I've got these to read (be still my heart). We also found that the grosser the better for many of our boys. So our love to read station was born.

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With the start of the new school year upon us, we are brainstorming new ways to inspire them to love to read. We have a book fair planned where students will highlight their favourite books and want to start a kids' blog tied to "It's Monday what are you reading?". We also have a new idea using technology (instagram, twitter and blogging) to tie technology and the love of books together! We are so looking forward to creating a culture of readers at our school who Love to and Chose to Read!!! 

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