Mrs. Gruhn's Book Whispering- 7th and 8th Graders Light a Fire in Reading
by Laurel Gruhn
October 23, 2009
Have you seen your student reading at home? You should because that is their homework every day. EVERY DAY! I have surrounded them with many many books, stacks of books to choose from, high interest, great books. With the inspiration of a "teacher" book entitled The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller, and encouragement from Ms. Horst, I'm seeing many students who have never read a book, or struggled to read, turning pages. You know it's tough to look at student reading test scores and wonder how to get higher scores when the key is as simple as this: give them time in the classroom to read, assign homework to read, and see where it leads. We read our books every day for 1/2 hour. They should spend that time or more at home. Parents can help their student by providing a good spot to do that.
I'm getting great results. Our aim is 30 books a piece this year. Some are just getting started. Some are about 1/3 of the way there. Check out the Mrs. Gruhn's Eighth Grade Readers blog to see what they have to say.
