http://carolinebyline.blogspot.com/2013/06/an-interview-with-donalyn-miller-author.html

An interview with Donalyn Miller - where she explains her philosophies and classroom methods.

Favorite Titles

What are your favorite  new or "well-loved" children's books appropriate for our elementary school level?  Please share!

Reading Logs - Yes or No?

From page 141:  "The reality is that you can never mandate or monitor how much reading your students are doing at home.  ...Logs are a reward for students who have strong home support for reading, but a punishment for those who don't...  The students thought it was a pain to maintain, it was a sign that I did not trust they were reading when they said they were....Students are accomplished readers when they are able to express their feelings about the books they have read, not to point to the number of hours they have spent "doing time" with a book."

Ms. Miller says that students should be given time in the day to read, and should be encouraged to read books that they will want to read at home - not have to.  She also gives her class an assigned number of books to read each year (40 for her 6th grade class) in varying genres.

I am sure we've all had challenges with reading logs.  What are ways we can promote and verify reading without assigning reading logs?

Whole Class Novels - Yes or No?

From page 124:  "No one piece of text can meet the needs of all students...Reading a whole class novel takes too long - how many other books could have been read in that time?...Laboring over a novel reduces comprehension by making it harder for the student to fall into a story...We are ignoring student interest in what they like to read."

An alternative?  (Many teachers at our school do this now!)  Ms. Miller suggests "Book Clubs" -  selecting one theme and gathering a wide range of texts on this topic. After previewing book choices, students list their top three picks and the teacher assigns goups.  Short stories, plays, poetry, visual media and read alouds on this same theme can be used for whole class skill instruction and discussion.  The students then can practice and apply the focus skill in their Book Club reading.

Have you ever had Book Clubs in your room?  What were the advantages?  What were the challenges?

Student Choice

From page 84:  "By allowing and encouraging students to read what they want, I also endorse their culture and their interests - something we do not do enough in school....Lucy Calkins in The Art of Teaching Writing reminds us 'Our workshops will not feel alive and significant if our students sit through it bored and uninvolved, waiting for the bell to ring and life to begin.'  Teachers lose crediblity with students when they ignore their cultural trends and issues that interest them and instead design classroom instruction around books that are 'good for you'...Are we teaching books or teaching readers?

How can we chose books that are interesting and culturally/socially relevant - and include classic literature as suggested in the Common Core lists? 

Time to Read

How can we find more time for silent reading?  In the Book Whisperer, it is suggested that students read whenever they can.  They read upon arrival to the classroom. They take books to assemblies and the picture day set up in case there is down time.  They always have a book at their desk ready to go.  When students are finished with an assignment, they know to read.  "If you finish your assignment earlier than others, should your reward be more work? ...What do adults do when they finish their work for the day?  They reward themselves by snuggling up with their books."

How can we find time for more independent reading in our school day?

Developing Readers

On pages 24 and 25: Students who do not read regularly become weaker readers with each subsequent year....no matter the intervention, developing readers must spend substantial instructional time actually reading if they are to attain reading competence....Time and time again, I have seen a heavy dose of independent reading, paired with explicit instruction in reading strategies, transform nonreaders into readers.

How do we provide time for interventions, but also time for sustained independent reading?