Encouraging reading in 2D

I absolutely love reading and have been an avid reader since I was a child. It drives me crazy that not every reads!! The things you learn and places you go are life changing and my only important goal this year was to light the reading fire in every single one of my children. So how do you light the fire? Here are my tips:

Classroom Library

In 2D we have a classroom library that is absolutely PACKED with books and the children have the opportunity to read to themselves nearly every day. If students are interested in a book, I'll let them take it home (So far I haven't lost any books). The library has tons of cushions and a wide variety of books to cater for all interests. If they want to read about science, that's fine! If they want to read about tanks and trucks, that's fine too! They are still reading!

Bye Bye Leveled Readers for Independent Readers

This is probably controversial but once my students reach a certain level in PM Benchmarks and are considered an independent reader, I don't have them read leveled books at home. Instead they can read books they are actually interested in. I personally find the leveled readers boring (Shock I know!) and as a reader myself, I'm way more motivated to read something I am interested in. I let students take home books from the library instead or from our classroom library. Reading is supposed to be enjoyable! Let's remember that when we set these books for our kiddies

Fluency Games

My students LOVE practicing their fluency because it involves stop watches, competing and games! The boys are especially in love with the stop watches and to cater for all my groups, I use a few different fluency

 activities.

Click here to grab a copy

I use this product with my advanced group. As you can see they love it!! And it's very kinaesthetic which is fantastic.

 Wrestling and stop watches???? My boys DIE for this centre!!! And the girls also love it. They each read through the passages 4 times and the person with the lowest time at the end receives Harry Potter money. Click here to grab a copy! I use this for my middle readers

For my low readers (I have 3 who are low and 2 who are working two grades below level) I use this amazing packet (Grab it here)

Just today I started my lowest reader on these and PRAISE THE LORD she actually has gone from sounding out EVERY SINGLE WORD to simply saying the word!!!!. Sure she didn't get them all but the improvement from the first few weeks of term actually makes me want to cry. And it's all due to the amazing, excellent, wonderful reading program Ready2Read by The Moffat Girls

Ready2Read Program

This is the level 2 pack, and my 3 low students have started on this pack just recently. Already they are learning how to decode words using blends and words they know, and this is amazing for them! They also LOVE the activities and are motivated to learn.

My two lowest students are up to unit 7 from Level 1 and their progress is nothing short of brilliant. I am so proud of them and the fact that they can now read fluency passages is a credit to the hard work they have put in. I thoroughly recommend these programs!!

Read to your children everyday

I read to my class everyday instead of Listen to Reading. We are currently reading Harry Potter (I'm totally obsessed) and the students love the tension and drama and characters and also the magic. So many of them now read Harry Potter in their own time which makes me SUPER excited!

Reader's Theatre

I've only just starting using Reader's Theatre in my class and my children LOVE it!! They perform for their class, rehearse constantly and literally beg to do reading groups so that they can do Readers Theatre. Next week, we are having a whole day of art to create props for their big performance next Friday. Reader's Theatre has so many benefits and honestly takes little prep time. There are so many great scripts on TpT and even my little shy ones love it! Great for confidence boosting :)

Reading is a big part of my life so I hope some of these tips help your students become avid readers :)