• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Brown Bag Teacher

Teach the Children. Love the Children. Change the World.

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Meet the Teacher
    • Disclosures
    • Professional Development
  • My Classroom
    • Back to School
    • Differentiated Instruction
    • Distance Learning
    • Management
    • Organization
    • Technology
  • 1st Grade
    • Art
    • Daily Five
    • Guided Math
    • Reading/Literacy
    • Science
    • Writing
  • 5th Grade
    • 1:1 iPads
    • Book Displays
    • Community Building
    • ELA
    • On Demand Writing
  • Shop
  • Blog

July 3, 2014

Building Excitement for Reading (Reading in the Wild: Chapter 2)

Happy Thursday, friends! Today marks the third week of our Reading in the Wild summer book study. If you are just joining us and missed the first week (Wild Readers Dedicate Time to Read) or second week (Creating a Workshop Schedule that Works for You), make sure to check them out!

In Reading in the Wild, Chapter 2: Wild Readers Self-Select Reading Material, Donalyn Miller shares about giving students the opportunity to share about books they are loving with their peers, as well as, ways to build excitement for reading. Making reading awesome and letting students share their reading helps develop reading preference, as well as, structured opportunities for self-selecting good-fit books! Today I wanted to zoom-in on the idea of building excitement and share how reading has become awesome in our classroom. 

Throughout the year, one staple in our classroom was our monthly book display. From bullying to banned literature, we loved welcoming new books into our classroom and learning about difficult topics through these displays. These displays were often large, in-your-face visuals that highlighted books that students may have not normally picked up to read. Below I’ve shared a few of my favorite displays. Click on the descriptions above each photo or the photos themselves to learn how each display evolved and what books were featured!

We celebrated Banned Book Week in mid-September and explored the idea that some books, some words have so much power or affect that people want to hide/keep them away from other people. It was a fabulous unit of study!
In October we focused on bullying and its effects, as we observed Bullying Prevention Month with this display.
One of my favorite displays was this beast. My boys LOVED war books, and requested a special war-themed display. With the help of my handy Xacto knife and a Sunday evening, my boys were in L.O.V.E. with our December World War II display!
Then, celebrating Black History Month in February, we focused on biographies and autobiographies as we, once again, explored how powerful words can be.
With UK pride in our hearts, my students and I created our own March Madness – Tournament of Books! To see the initial installment of our book bracket, click here. You can check out the results and process in a later post, here.
In addition to highlighting quality literature, one of the key components in creating a community of readers has been giving students the opportunity to share their favorite books with their friends. 5th graders are SO social and so talkative. Harnessing these ‘talents’ for reading have been crucial. In the fall, we hosted our first Book Museum using Augmented Reality. You can click here to read more about these Augmented Reality Book Talk on my guest post at All Things Upper Elementary!
Additionally, one of our favorite weekly traditions was the Book Raffle to introduce new books in our classroom. Miller talks about the book raffle in this chapter and I followed her set-up pretty closely. See our book raffle in action in this post! ๐Ÿ™‚

Finally, acting as Miller’s version of the book commercial, we used Book Blurbs to share about our favorite reads. Using a paper clip and tape, we attached these blurbs to books on our display shelves. As students looked for a new book, they had the opportunity to get their classmates’ opinions. Read more about these blurbs and snag the template here!

These are just a few of the ways I build excitement for reading and encourage students to self-select their reading material. Reading a book blurb, watching an Augmented Reality video, or winning a book raffle are all ways students have ownership of their reading. How do  you promote reading ownership in your classroom? What ways do you build excitement for reading? Please share by linking up your posts/ideas. If you’re not a blogger, that’s great, too! You can read/follow and comment. We want to hear your advice, thoughts, and ideas for the classroom, too. The more teachers we have joining, the more amazing our classrooms will be this fall! Next week, we will be reading Chapter 2:  Curating a Classroom Library.

An InLinkz Link-up

Join me for weekly classroom updates and free resources that are just-right for your guided math classroom!

Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

Related Posts

  • Curating a 5th Grade Classroom Library
  • Book Madness: A Tournament of Books
  • Our Favorite 5th Grade Books
  • 5th Grade Reading Logs & Book Series (Wild Readers Make Plans)

Filed Under: 5th Grade, Community Building, ELA Tagged With: 5th Grade, Library Display, Reading in the Wild

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bridget S says

    July 3, 2014 at 1:17 pm

    This is a great post!!! I love the book raffle!!! ๐Ÿ™‚

    I've noticed how important it is for students to see their teachers as readers! I love having students recommend books to me ๐Ÿ™‚

    Literacy Without Worksheets

    Reply
  2. 4th Grade Racers says

    July 3, 2014 at 3:50 pm

    Wow! I love your book displays! I am trying to think of a place in our room where they could happen, probably on a smaller scale.

    I also plan on implementing book raffles! I just loved that idea too!

    Reply
  3. Thrills in Third Grade says

    July 3, 2014 at 4:09 pm

    I wish I had a big wall for awesome bulletin boards like you do! I love your displays! I'm going to have to figure out a space to use this coming year for something like those. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Jamie
    Thrills in Third Grade

    Reply
  4. Wendy P says

    July 3, 2014 at 4:34 pm

    Awesome post. Very inspiring! I can't wait to start a few of these in my new classroom. I also love to read what my students recommend so I and talk with them about the book. They are often shocked when they realize I actually did read it.

    Reply
  5. JS says

    July 3, 2014 at 4:42 pm

    Thank you for your awesome ideas! I love these displays and activities to get kids psyched about books! What a great post!

    Reply
  6. Chelsea says

    July 3, 2014 at 5:04 pm

    Love all your ideas!! I will be "stealing" a few of them! Your book displays are wonderful and so interactive! The book museum is super fun and engaging too! Thanks for always sharing your fabulous ideas!

    Chelsea
    Fifth Grade Wit and
    Whimsy

    Reply
  7. Rachelle says

    July 3, 2014 at 5:37 pm

    Thanks for sharing these! I love the book display ideas. I know my kids will grab any book that has caution tape around it.

    Reply
  8. Deb Hanson says

    July 3, 2014 at 10:03 pm

    You have the best bulletin boards!! I love the Tournament of Books display you did in March. What a great way to build excitement over books!!

    Reply
  9. Joanne Miller says

    July 4, 2014 at 12:05 am

    You know how much I LOVE your book displays! Simply amazing! And, guess what??!! I'm going to try the book raffle this year! I can't wait for new books to arrive just to implement the raffle! Thanks again for organizing this book study!
    Joanne
    Head Over Heels For Teaching

    Reply
    • Kate says

      July 12, 2014 at 4:35 pm

      Yayayayayayay!! Your kids will love the book raffle? I cannot wait to see how your first one goes. ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply
  10. Think, Wonder, and Teach says

    July 4, 2014 at 1:14 am

    I love your books displays! They are amazing!!

    Misty
    Think, Wonder, & Teach

    Reply
  11. Karli Lomax says

    July 4, 2014 at 10:55 am

    Hi Catherine,
    What an excellent post! Lots of inspiring ideas! Even though I teach first grade, I can still modify and implement them to complement our reading workshop and "reading culture" in our classroom. Busy with summer travel, I haven't had the chance to read the other posts, but will make time to do so- this is a fabulous linky! Thanks for sharing ๐Ÿ™‚
    Happy 4th,
    Karli
    Creating a Thoughtful Classroom

    Reply
    • Kate says

      July 12, 2014 at 4:34 pm

      Thank you so much for your sweet words, Karli! You've made my day. ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply
  12. SchoolSupplyJunkie says

    July 4, 2014 at 8:30 pm

    These are absolutely fabulous ideas! I'm definitely going to borrow them. Thank you so much for sharing!

    Reply
  13. Hoots N' Hollers Flutters from Second Grade says

    July 7, 2014 at 1:57 am

    This looks like such a wonderful book! I have been hearing a lot about it lately. Loved all of your book display pics! Thanks so much for sharing.

    Smiles,
    Sarah

    Reply
  14. Carrie Garrison says

    July 11, 2014 at 1:28 pm

    Where in your room do you put these bulletin boards? Is it the wall on next to the genre wall? I was trying to figure that out, but not sure. I love this idea and will possibly try it this year!

    Reply
    • Kate says

      July 12, 2014 at 4:34 pm

      Hi Carrie! I usually put them above my nonfiction bookcase (that's where I have room) but will occasionally put them above above the series bookshelves

      Reply
  15. Marlene says

    July 12, 2014 at 6:57 pm

    Great ideas! Will be thinking how to use some of these in my 3rd grade class. I used to do book talks, which are like book commercials, and got away from it last year. Need to bring those back.

    Marlene
    I Heart Teaching Elementary

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

My name is Catherine Reed, and I am in my 8th year in elementary life, residing in small-town, Kentucky. ย I student taught in 1st grade and never ...

Read More

Find it Fast!

Join Me!

Join me for weekly classroom updates and free resources that are just-right for your guided math classroom!

Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

Don’t Miss These!

Working together to meet a goal builds classroom community & encourages teamwork. As a PBIS school, check our our 20 favorite nonfood, low-cost rewards!

20 Positive Behavior Rewards that Aren’t Food

Guided Reading offers students intentional reading instruction with texts that are just a little too hard! From lesson planning to benchmarking students to word work activities, check out these awesome ideas to make Guided Reading work!

Guided Reading: 1st Grade Style

Weekly Lesson Planning Routine

Overwhelmed by math centers? Check out these SIMPLE ideas for create predictable patterns and routines that allow for streamlined planning!

Managing Math Centers

Wordless Picture Books

Categories

Archives

Footer

Follow on Instagram
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins
Error: There is no connected account for the user 856217913.
  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Join Me!

Join me for weekly classroom updates and free resources that are just-right for your guided math classroom!

Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

The Brown Bag Teacher © 2021Built with and Genesis Framework by Bellano Web Studio