Today we're pleased to welcome Pam Allyn to the blog! Pam is a literacy expert, author, the Executive Director and Founder of LitWorld, and an ambassador for Scholastic's Open a World of Possible initiative. Pam is taking over our Twitter account (@Scholastic) this Thursday at 12pm ET to talk about her favorite subject, reading! With the Summer Reading Challenge coming to an end, and the school year beginning for many kids across the country, now is the perfect time to have this important conversation. Thanks, Pam!
A wish I have for every child is one that goes across 365 days a year, that image of “summer reading”: that fearless reading, choice-driven, completely absorbed kind of reading experiences that can happen when we give a child the opportunity to build and create an authentic, eclectic reading life.
I hope you’ll join me for a Twitter chat on the deepest essence of summer reading 365, how we can make it happen for our kids, and how we can keep it going, at 12pm ET on August 6th. I’ll be taking over @Scholastic to chat with parents and teachers, librarians and all those who love kids and want them to have the love of reading! Here are three ideas I’ll cover during the chat.
Celebrate children’s voices and choices. Give students ownership over their reading lives. We can do this at home andin classrooms by giving children daily time for independent reading, and empowering them to choose the titles, authors and genres that most inspire and excite them. We can cultivate forever readers (the kind that sneak out a flashlight after bedtime to read under the covers!) by giving them abundant opportunities to read what they truly love to read, even if it’s the back of the cereal box!
Read aloud. Making reading aloud a daily ritual at home and school carries on the summer feeling of coming together around a campfire to tell stories in community. The pure joy of it combined with the extraordinary academic benefits makes reading aloud a powerful force for growth and depth.
Celebrate change. Great readers are always changing, from what they want to read to how much they want to challenge themselves. Give your child/student a chance to acknowledge that change and growth. Invite open-ended, reflective questions like: “How are you changing as a reader?” “What kinds of new authors do you want to discover?” “What is one goal you have for yourself as a reader?”
Summer reading can be 365 reading. Let’s make it happen, for our children, for all children, always! See you on Twitter!
