A simple 10 minute phone call just inspired my summer reading challenge.

It is teacher appreciation week and my principal arranged for quite possibly my favorite gift of all time…a phone call from a teacher hero. Yep. I got a phone call from an educator who took time out of their day to talk with me about reading. In fact all of the teachers in my building received phone calls off and on all week thanking us for all that we do!

Donalyn Miller, author of the Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild, called me and another teacher on the phone. She thanked us for inspiring our students to read and asked how our year was winding down. It was at this point that the topic of packing up our classroom library came up. We discussed how we dread it because all those books sit there and even though we may have our library open over the summer, obstacles get in the way from making the experience worth while. From scheduling and maintenance work, having students in the classroom to check out books never goes the way it looks in our heads.  As we shared that we were getting ready to put our books away she asked if we ever considered sending books home with our kids over the summer.  In her research, she discovered that kids should be reading about 5 books during summer vacation in order to avoid regression in their reading. She said what better way to give kids good fit books, then by helping them select books from our classroom libraries.  Then after summer, they can return the books to our classrooms in a way that works best. We LOVED this idea! We did briefly discuss what happens if you loose books especially since there is a good possibility a lot of the books were purchased with our own money.  While some books may not be returned, isn’t’ it better that the books are in the hands of a child rather than sitting on a shelf collecting dust? We all thought yes!

That last week of school now had more purpose than any other year.  Seeing them react when they discovered I was trusting them to take books home over the summer was priceless. I spent it watching and guiding students to select good fit books to read over the summer. The excitement and buzz about books was incredible.

After their 5 books were selected, we had a mini conference. Our conversation centered around if their books were books they could read and understand, books they were interested in, and would all of these books be finished in 2 days or would it take them all summer. Then I took their picture with their books and posted it to Seesaw.  This allowed for more accountability in what books they were borrowing, as well as a way to connect with them over the summer.

I then sent home a letter home with families explaining our summer challenge.  The key for me too was providing students with a way to share their reading.  I encouraged them to post book reviews to the Padlet we had been using all year: #IMWAYR (It’s Monday What Are You Reading). Keep in mind, I wasn’t asking for any reports, or check ins but if they wanted to share their books, great!  I just wanted them to read and enjoy reading! Check out our Padlet here: https://padlet.com/spitzer/IMWAYR

While the inner control freak in me worried about what shape will the books would come back in and will they even read, was hard at first.  Their excitement and eagerness to select books quickly put that all at ease. At the end of the day it is about getting books in the hands of kids. Its about providing them with opportunities to fall in love with reading. If you are on the fence about this, don’t be.  You won’t be sorry!

**Thanks Donalyn Miller for inspiring me to take this leap AND taking 10 minutes of your day to talk on the phone! Thanks Mandy Ellis for setting up phone calls for us. This will go down as one of my favorite teaching gifts of all time!

**In the fall almost all of my books came to back to that classroom library (since I had changed roles to being an instructional technology coach) Those that didn’t I chalked up to…they were in a place where books were needed! 🙂