When I was working on my Five Steps to Raising Devoted Readers, one of the most influential books I read was The Reading Zone, by Nancie Atwell. Atwell is a reading seminar teacher at CTL, a school in rural Maine. On average, Atwell’s 7th and 8th graders read between 40-100 quality books each year. The numbers are equally impressive for the younger kids at CTL. When I learned of Nancie’s success with these kids, my first thoughts were--who are these kids that read so many books? Is CTL a special school for gifted kids? How much are their families paying to get them such an elite education?
And then I read the answer:
And then I read the answer:
“CTL students are regular kids. They suffer ADHD, depression, and identified learning disabilities, including nonverbal learning disorder, visual-processing difficulties, and dyslexia. Some kids come from homes with packed bookshelves; some own only a few books of their own. Maine is a rural state and a poor one, in the bottom third in terms of per capita income. Only 66 percent of jobs here pay a liveable wage, and our student’s parents work hard at all kinds of occupations: farmer, carpenter, sheetrocker, store clerk, soldier, fisherman, gardener, postal worker, and housecleaner, as well as physician, minister, teacher, executive, and small-business over.
So what our students read can’t be explained away as an anomaly. This is not a privileged population of students. This is what is possible for children as readers.” (Pgs. 12-14 from In the Zone, by Nancie Atwell)
There you have it. Kids from all genders, classes, ethnicities, and intellectual capacity are reading a minimum of 40 novels per year. If they can do it, we can do it. Here's how...
So what our students read can’t be explained away as an anomaly. This is not a privileged population of students. This is what is possible for children as readers.” (Pgs. 12-14 from In the Zone, by Nancie Atwell)
There you have it. Kids from all genders, classes, ethnicities, and intellectual capacity are reading a minimum of 40 novels per year. If they can do it, we can do it. Here's how...
The Reading Plan
Five Steps to Help Kids Read Better Books, for Longer, with More Joy
Step One
Get to know the statistics regarding reading, and show them to your kids. Hopefully it will help them get on board when they find out how powerful reading is.
Step Two
Teach your kids about the three categories of books, and help them understand the importance of all three. (The categories are candy, substance, and veggie. I’ll describe each of them further down)
Step Three
Create a Reading Profile for your child, then create a quality book buffet for them to choose from
Step Four
Stock up on books for your book buffet.
Step Five
Set aside Reading Time. Thirty minutes a day minimum, OR an hour-long Home Reading Workshop if possible. Deep breaths! Depending on your lifestyle and the time of year, you won’t be able to do the hour-long reading workshop. That’s okay! We only do the hour-long workshops during the summer. If you don’t have an hour to devote to a reading workshop, you can still make a great impact on your kids by doing steps 1-4. Then make time for your kids to read on their own for 30 minutes a day. Hopefully 30 minutes of reading each day will become a lifelong habit.
I wrote a whole separate article on how to do a Home Reading Workshop and I will post it next week. If you can fit it in, a reading workshop is a simple and exciting step to help you raise devoted readers.
The Five Steps Explained
I made a FREE Reading Plan Packet that will help you with these five steps. It has the info. from this blog, plus charts and worksheets and everything else you need to get started with the reading plan in your home. Feel free to download it, print the pages you are interested in, use them, and share them! Always feel free to contact me if you have questions.
Step One
Get to know the statistics regarding reading, and show them to your kids. (Find stats in my previous article) (or in the reading plan packet) Discuss with your kids WHY these stats are true. Why does reading (particularly reading for pleasure) matter so much? You might not know all the reasons why, but it definitely makes for a good discussion.
Step Two
Teach your kids about the three categories of books, and help them understand the importance of all three. I named these categories (based on Leslie Funkhouser’s method) so that my kids could easily understand them and relate what they know about food to what they know about books.
Candy Books
These books are easy, leisurely reads. We all need a few candy books in our lives, but we need to be careful to push outside of the comforts of candy. These books often have lazy writing, watery plots, convenient endings, hollow characters, and crude humor. Many books that are written with characters from popular tv shows or movies fit this category, as do comic books and Guinness Books of World Records. The publisher knows they will sell, so why bother with “nutrients?” (Our family loves Guinness Books of World Records, by the way. But if it was all my kids read, they would sure be missing out.)
Substance Books
Most of what we read should be from this category. These books are both comfortable and nourishing. They have tight and descriptive writing, complicated plots, thought-provoking conflicts, creative endings, relatable characters, and insights that cause toy to think and want to discuss. Substance books can also be nonfiction titles that teach and inspire. The more substance books kids read, the more they will recognize the difference between these books and the candy books they used to grab for. (Yes, picture books can be substance books. Mo Willems, Eric Carle, and Kevin Henkes books are example of simple picture books that are brilliantly written, even if they do get annoying to read day after day. Other substance examples include Newberry and other award winners, biographies, poems, classic fairy tales and fables.
Veggie Books
These are a little harder to swallow, but we still need a few of them in our lives. Just like carrots go down better with ranch dressing, veggie books might need a little assistance to help kids get through them. Kids might require help from a dictionary or parent to understand certain words or phrases from veggie books. Some of the concepts will be too hard to grasp on their own. It could also be helpful to listen to an audiobook version of read aloud at a slower pace to help with comprehension. If kids are forced to endure too many of these books, they will feel frustrated and it will begin to poison their love of reading. Make sure to praise kids when they read veggie books, reminding them that if they will keep reading and practicing, someday these books won’t seem so tough. Reading is like any skill worth having. It takes practice, and it becomes more fun the better you get!
Step Three
Create a Reading Profile for your child then create a quality book buffet for them to choose from.
This is the hardest step, but in my opinion it’s also the most important one. Your job is to get to know your child’s book cravings and then create a healthy buffet of book options for your child to choose from. If you let kids choose anything the library throws at them, they might end up loading their minds with bathroom humor and sloppy writing when they could be growing their brains and enriching their imaginations. But, if you try to force-feed quality books to your kids, they can lose interest and rebel rather than revere what they’re reading.
The goal is to provide a good array of options, encouraging small bites until your kids are ready to dig in. If they are struggling with a book, find out why (Is it too hard? Too boring? Too easy?), and then use those clues to help them select a better option.
It will require time and effort to create this book buffet and keep it stocked. Nancie Atwell (author, and award winning teacher) says she likes to keep a classroom library with 20 books per student at all times. This way, when a child abandons a book, there are plenty of back-up options. 20 books per child is a lot! Too many for me to manage, I think. My goal for now is 5 chapter books at a time for each child to choose from. (10 books for my six year old since his books are so short and he breezes through them. He is reading a mix of easy chapter books and picture books.)
Sometimes its obvious what your child prefers to read, but sometimes they need help finding their favorites. (Atwell says that boys in particular need help choosing good books.)
Start by having your child/children take this questionnaire and then discuss the responses together. (Most kids are able to fill out the questionnaire by around 2nd grade. Help them fill it out if needed, and then have your children re-fill it out each year.)
To choose selections for your book buffets:
- Consider the questionnaire your child filled out.
- Talk to the librarian or your child’s schoolteacher for book suggestions.
- Check your library website. They often have lists of book suggestions by genre, age, etc.
- Look for award winners like Newberry Medal, ALA Top Ten Best Books, School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, Kirkus Review Editor’s Choice, or starred reviews in Booklist, The Horn Book, or Publishers Weekly.
- Look into selections from NPR’s Morning Edition Book Club.
- After your kids finish a book, have them rate it and tell you how they felt about it. Their responses will be your best clues in helping select new options for their book buffet. Read reviews on amazon.com and goodreads.com, looking for books that are similar to other books your child enjoyed.
Try to stretch your kids and introduce them to lots of genres. Give graphic novels a try or hit the nonfiction section. Youth nonfiction books are full of rich illustrations and photographs where kids can learn about everything from cooking to foreign countries to real pirates to guinea pigs. Also look into, poems, biographies, etc.
Letting kids choose their own books is a hot topic, and it’s something I’ve thought a lot about. To read more about my thoughts along with what the experts are saying, check out my article about book choice. (coming soon)
Step Four
Stock up on books for your book buffet.
Once you have your list of ten books per child, place the books on hold at the library and the magical library fairies will have them waiting for you to pick up. (Don't you just love the library? It's one of those things that is easy to take for granted.)
In the old days before I started intentionally building book buffets for my kids, we could easily spend an hour at the library and come home with zero substance books. While I know that exploring the library is important and fun, I’ve learned that choosing books in advance and placing them on hold is a much better way to use the library. Sure, the kids still browse the library and pick out a few books of their own. I have no problem with them rounding out their book diets with some candy books.
If you’re looking to buy books for your home collection, check out your local library book sale or try a 2nd hand book shop. Taking kids to buy some bargain books of their very own is a great way to get them excited about reading.
Step Five
Set aside Reading Time. Thirty minutes a day minimum, OR an hour-long Home Reading Workshop if possible.
Now that you have your book buffets and everyone knows why reading is so fantastic, let’s get to the best part—reading. Reading for thirty minutes a day is a great goal, but if you really want to boost the love of reading in your home, try a Home Reading Workshop. It takes an hour, and it will be worth every minute.
Next week I will share my post about how to do your own Home Reading Workshop. (If you want that info right now, I included it in my FREE Reading Plan Packet.) For now, get started on the first four steps of the reading plan. Let those steps really sink in, get some great books for your buffets, and look for more info about the Home Reading Workshop soon. (We’ve been doing reading workshops at our house for the past two weeks, and it’s been a game changer for my kids. They're setting aside the candy books and devouring substance books. I'm so proud of them, and they are proud of themselves!)
Articles to Come – Make sure to subscribe if you want to receive these articles by e-mail
Home Reading Workshop – My favorite sixty minutes of the day
15 Simple Ideas To Help You Raise Devoted Readers – little habits that make a big difference
A Book is a Book— so does it really matter what you read? (Yes) Plus, the fiction vs. nonfiction debate.
Reading and Brain Function
Does it Really Matter how long you read? (Yes!)
Books Vs Screens—the debate, the answers, and how to find balance.
Blah Blah Blah – the nasty condition of being overfed and malnourished with mental
junkfood
Choice – Should kids get to choose their own books? (Yes, kind of.) Plus, more on the
the three types of books – Candy, Substance, and Veggie
Reading Revolution – Taking a Stand and Calling for Change in Our School District and Community
Reading Challenges – Helping reluctant readers and those with learning disabilities.
Five Steps to Help Kids Read Better Books, for Longer, with More Joy
Step One
Get to know the statistics regarding reading, and show them to your kids. Hopefully it will help them get on board when they find out how powerful reading is.
Step Two
Teach your kids about the three categories of books, and help them understand the importance of all three. (The categories are candy, substance, and veggie. I’ll describe each of them further down)
Step Three
Create a Reading Profile for your child, then create a quality book buffet for them to choose from
Step Four
Stock up on books for your book buffet.
Step Five
Set aside Reading Time. Thirty minutes a day minimum, OR an hour-long Home Reading Workshop if possible. Deep breaths! Depending on your lifestyle and the time of year, you won’t be able to do the hour-long reading workshop. That’s okay! We only do the hour-long workshops during the summer. If you don’t have an hour to devote to a reading workshop, you can still make a great impact on your kids by doing steps 1-4. Then make time for your kids to read on their own for 30 minutes a day. Hopefully 30 minutes of reading each day will become a lifelong habit.
I wrote a whole separate article on how to do a Home Reading Workshop and I will post it next week. If you can fit it in, a reading workshop is a simple and exciting step to help you raise devoted readers.
The Five Steps Explained
I made a FREE Reading Plan Packet that will help you with these five steps. It has the info. from this blog, plus charts and worksheets and everything else you need to get started with the reading plan in your home. Feel free to download it, print the pages you are interested in, use them, and share them! Always feel free to contact me if you have questions.
Step One
Get to know the statistics regarding reading, and show them to your kids. (Find stats in my previous article) (or in the reading plan packet) Discuss with your kids WHY these stats are true. Why does reading (particularly reading for pleasure) matter so much? You might not know all the reasons why, but it definitely makes for a good discussion.
Step Two
Teach your kids about the three categories of books, and help them understand the importance of all three. I named these categories (based on Leslie Funkhouser’s method) so that my kids could easily understand them and relate what they know about food to what they know about books.
Candy Books
These books are easy, leisurely reads. We all need a few candy books in our lives, but we need to be careful to push outside of the comforts of candy. These books often have lazy writing, watery plots, convenient endings, hollow characters, and crude humor. Many books that are written with characters from popular tv shows or movies fit this category, as do comic books and Guinness Books of World Records. The publisher knows they will sell, so why bother with “nutrients?” (Our family loves Guinness Books of World Records, by the way. But if it was all my kids read, they would sure be missing out.)
Substance Books
Most of what we read should be from this category. These books are both comfortable and nourishing. They have tight and descriptive writing, complicated plots, thought-provoking conflicts, creative endings, relatable characters, and insights that cause toy to think and want to discuss. Substance books can also be nonfiction titles that teach and inspire. The more substance books kids read, the more they will recognize the difference between these books and the candy books they used to grab for. (Yes, picture books can be substance books. Mo Willems, Eric Carle, and Kevin Henkes books are example of simple picture books that are brilliantly written, even if they do get annoying to read day after day. Other substance examples include Newberry and other award winners, biographies, poems, classic fairy tales and fables.
Veggie Books
These are a little harder to swallow, but we still need a few of them in our lives. Just like carrots go down better with ranch dressing, veggie books might need a little assistance to help kids get through them. Kids might require help from a dictionary or parent to understand certain words or phrases from veggie books. Some of the concepts will be too hard to grasp on their own. It could also be helpful to listen to an audiobook version of read aloud at a slower pace to help with comprehension. If kids are forced to endure too many of these books, they will feel frustrated and it will begin to poison their love of reading. Make sure to praise kids when they read veggie books, reminding them that if they will keep reading and practicing, someday these books won’t seem so tough. Reading is like any skill worth having. It takes practice, and it becomes more fun the better you get!
Step Three
Create a Reading Profile for your child then create a quality book buffet for them to choose from.
This is the hardest step, but in my opinion it’s also the most important one. Your job is to get to know your child’s book cravings and then create a healthy buffet of book options for your child to choose from. If you let kids choose anything the library throws at them, they might end up loading their minds with bathroom humor and sloppy writing when they could be growing their brains and enriching their imaginations. But, if you try to force-feed quality books to your kids, they can lose interest and rebel rather than revere what they’re reading.
The goal is to provide a good array of options, encouraging small bites until your kids are ready to dig in. If they are struggling with a book, find out why (Is it too hard? Too boring? Too easy?), and then use those clues to help them select a better option.
It will require time and effort to create this book buffet and keep it stocked. Nancie Atwell (author, and award winning teacher) says she likes to keep a classroom library with 20 books per student at all times. This way, when a child abandons a book, there are plenty of back-up options. 20 books per child is a lot! Too many for me to manage, I think. My goal for now is 5 chapter books at a time for each child to choose from. (10 books for my six year old since his books are so short and he breezes through them. He is reading a mix of easy chapter books and picture books.)
Sometimes its obvious what your child prefers to read, but sometimes they need help finding their favorites. (Atwell says that boys in particular need help choosing good books.)
Start by having your child/children take this questionnaire and then discuss the responses together. (Most kids are able to fill out the questionnaire by around 2nd grade. Help them fill it out if needed, and then have your children re-fill it out each year.)
To choose selections for your book buffets:
- Consider the questionnaire your child filled out.
- Talk to the librarian or your child’s schoolteacher for book suggestions.
- Check your library website. They often have lists of book suggestions by genre, age, etc.
- Look for award winners like Newberry Medal, ALA Top Ten Best Books, School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, Kirkus Review Editor’s Choice, or starred reviews in Booklist, The Horn Book, or Publishers Weekly.
- Look into selections from NPR’s Morning Edition Book Club.
- After your kids finish a book, have them rate it and tell you how they felt about it. Their responses will be your best clues in helping select new options for their book buffet. Read reviews on amazon.com and goodreads.com, looking for books that are similar to other books your child enjoyed.
Try to stretch your kids and introduce them to lots of genres. Give graphic novels a try or hit the nonfiction section. Youth nonfiction books are full of rich illustrations and photographs where kids can learn about everything from cooking to foreign countries to real pirates to guinea pigs. Also look into, poems, biographies, etc.
Letting kids choose their own books is a hot topic, and it’s something I’ve thought a lot about. To read more about my thoughts along with what the experts are saying, check out my article about book choice. (coming soon)
Step Four
Stock up on books for your book buffet.
Once you have your list of ten books per child, place the books on hold at the library and the magical library fairies will have them waiting for you to pick up. (Don't you just love the library? It's one of those things that is easy to take for granted.)
In the old days before I started intentionally building book buffets for my kids, we could easily spend an hour at the library and come home with zero substance books. While I know that exploring the library is important and fun, I’ve learned that choosing books in advance and placing them on hold is a much better way to use the library. Sure, the kids still browse the library and pick out a few books of their own. I have no problem with them rounding out their book diets with some candy books.
If you’re looking to buy books for your home collection, check out your local library book sale or try a 2nd hand book shop. Taking kids to buy some bargain books of their very own is a great way to get them excited about reading.
Step Five
Set aside Reading Time. Thirty minutes a day minimum, OR an hour-long Home Reading Workshop if possible.
Now that you have your book buffets and everyone knows why reading is so fantastic, let’s get to the best part—reading. Reading for thirty minutes a day is a great goal, but if you really want to boost the love of reading in your home, try a Home Reading Workshop. It takes an hour, and it will be worth every minute.
Next week I will share my post about how to do your own Home Reading Workshop. (If you want that info right now, I included it in my FREE Reading Plan Packet.) For now, get started on the first four steps of the reading plan. Let those steps really sink in, get some great books for your buffets, and look for more info about the Home Reading Workshop soon. (We’ve been doing reading workshops at our house for the past two weeks, and it’s been a game changer for my kids. They're setting aside the candy books and devouring substance books. I'm so proud of them, and they are proud of themselves!)
Articles to Come – Make sure to subscribe if you want to receive these articles by e-mail
Home Reading Workshop – My favorite sixty minutes of the day
15 Simple Ideas To Help You Raise Devoted Readers – little habits that make a big difference
A Book is a Book— so does it really matter what you read? (Yes) Plus, the fiction vs. nonfiction debate.
Reading and Brain Function
Does it Really Matter how long you read? (Yes!)
Books Vs Screens—the debate, the answers, and how to find balance.
Blah Blah Blah – the nasty condition of being overfed and malnourished with mental
junkfood
Choice – Should kids get to choose their own books? (Yes, kind of.) Plus, more on the
the three types of books – Candy, Substance, and Veggie
Reading Revolution – Taking a Stand and Calling for Change in Our School District and Community
Reading Challenges – Helping reluctant readers and those with learning disabilities.