Helping Students Become Readers

If you asked Sandra, a first grader, her favorite things to do, she would say riding bikes, playing with her sister, painting her nails, and more.  Reading would not be on her Top 10 list.  Sandra could read, but she didn't choose to read.  How could we help get reading onto Sandra's Top 10?  Here is what we tried and what we learned:

We began with tried-and-true strategies for engaging readers: 

• We let her choose from a wide assortment of texts that she could read at home.  
• We helped her create a book log to track her reading. 
• We spoke with her family about the importance of reading at home.

When we conferred with Sandra to see how reading at home was going, her responses went like this:  

• "I can't find the books.  I don't know where I put them."
• "I read for a couple of nights, but then I forgot about my book log." 

Notice how only one week of the log is completed.

We tried new ideas week after week:

• We showed her another wide assortment of texts and showed her where she could find good-fit books in the school library.
• We had her draw pictures showing where she could read at home.
• We asked her to read to her younger sister.
• We tried a tally chart instead of a book log.
• We took pictures of her enjoying reading.

What happened?

• She read a little bit more each week.
• She smiled as she talked about the books she read to her sister.
• She brought books back and forth from home to school without losing them.  

So what did we learn? 

It is really about persistence.  Sandra lost books, she lost book logs, and she even lost the special folder we bought to help her organize her materials. But no matter what happened each week, we stuck with her, kept our expectations high, and suggested new things she might try.  What we learned from Sandra is that sometimes it just takes time, but if we trust our students, they will eventually figure it out.  We just need to stay the course until they do.