Motivate Your Students for National Young Readers Week
November 4, 2015
Next week is National Young Readers Week, an annual tradition that began in 1989 by Pizza Hut and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. Every year since during the second week of November we celebrate young readers nationwide and reinforce the importance of reading at a young age. If you’re planning to celebrate this tradition in your classroom next week, here are a few great ideas we’ve rounded up from Education World to help you motivate your students and get the reading underway!
Scavenger Hunt – Divide the class into groups of 4 or 5 and hand out identical book copies to each group. Have them take turns reading the book out loud within their groups. When all groups have finished, hand out a scavenger hunt list, naming different details in the book. They can be words, pictures, people, events, or anything else you choose. Have each group race to finish the scavenger hunt – the first to finish wins!
Create a Cover – Choose a book unknown to your students and wrap the cover so they cannot see the illustrations or title on the front. Read the book aloud and ask them to take notes based on the story. Then, have each student create and illustrate their own title and cover for the book. When they’re finished, reveal the actual title and cover image and let those who are willing share their covers with the class. *This also makes for a great bulletin board display afterwards!
Guest Readers – Send an email or flyer out to your class parents inviting friends and family members to come in for a super secret story time. Whoever is interested will receive a date and time to appear in the classroom. They will choose their own story and get to read it to the class as a surprise! In addition to facilitating an out-of-the-box reading lesson, this is also a great way to keep family involved in the classroom.
Teacher for a Day – Reverse the rolls for a day and allow your students each a chance to choose their favorite book to read to the class. Have the assigned student prepare a short quick of 2 or 3 response questions to give to the class after the read aloud. Then, ask the student to grade the mini quizzes as their homework assignment.
How are you celebrating National Young Readers Week in your classroom? We’d love to hear all about your unique lesson plan ideas on your Facebook page!
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