How do you Grow a Reader?

Hmmmmm....this question has been on my mind since our class last week.  And honestly, I think it's an AWESOME question!  I'm even considering changing the name of my blog to The Reading Garden, but since I've already changed it once, I think I will wait until after this class is over.

This week I was able to volunteer in my daughter's first grade class and read with some of the struggling readers in her class.  Now, as a teacher, reading in my home is very important.  I practice sight words with my Kindergartener each night, listen to my daughters read their AR books, read to my 2 year old, and read aloud novels to my kindergartener and first grader.  BUT...as a teacher, I know this doesn't happen in every household every night.  To be honest, it is not an easy task for a mom to do this each night, but I KNOW the value of it.

In my fifth grade class last year, I finally came to the conclusion (well  I knew it all along) that teaching kids to read with a basal series just didn't cut it.  Kids become better readers by....READING!!!  So, while I wasn't able to ditch the series...grrrrr, I put much more time and investment into our independent reading time.  I tried to recruit volunteers...friends, parents, school personnel, anyone...to come and read one-on-one with my students.  I gave up using this time to complete random busy work to sit and read with each child.  The results were too hard to ignore.  My struggling readers became more interested in the books as I read a page, and they read a page and I modeled some "think alouds" and clarified confusing words or information.  And it was so valuable to see these struggling readers finish a book, get a good score on the AR test (not the most important goal but a worthy endeavor), and then race to the library to check out the next novel in the series or another book by the same author.

How do you grow a reader?  Read with them! Read to them!  Model! Model! Model!