This book by Donalyn Miller is absolutely amazing! I actually had the privilege to hear her speak at the ATPE conference 2 year ago. At that time though I was anticipating being in a elementary classroom and not in a 6th grade classroom. Mrs. Miller teaches 6th grade in Texas and has her students meet a book requirement of 40 books a year.
I am very passionate about independent reading in my classroom and know that it is an important part of my student's learning experience. This year I have been trying to do that, but it has not been quite as successful as I would like. We have about 20-25 minutes of Independent Reading time every day, but I always notice too many of my kids participating in it properly. In her book she talks about how pointless it is to have students keep a reading log of their reading at home because too often students will make it up. I could not agree with this more. In the 12 weeks I spent in 6th grade last year, those teachers were all about reading logs. I am glad to know there is now someone else on my side.
I have been trying to integrate a reading workshop with mini-lessons, but now after reading this book I am going to totally revamp what I do. I am thinking about implementing a book requirement with my class now of 25 books by the end of the school year. I just ordered some baskets and am making some genre labels for the baskets. I also just ordered some new storage things to help organize my library. I really think that by organizing my library by just a bit more my students will be more inclined to want to read books from it. I also really liked her ideas of using garage ale stickers to number each book so that students can easily place them back in the correct basket.
I am so excited about the new possibilities that I am going to be able to give my students during the rest of this school year and all of my future students as well.
Next on the professional reading list, The Daily 5.
