How to Get Your Students Excited About Reading!

March is right around the corner, which means we’ll be celebrating March is Reading Month! However, it’s important to not only promote reading during the month of March, but all year long. In fact, I felt this an important topic to write about because I have seen recent reports about the National Assessment of Educational Progress scores in reading dropping to a “new low.” You can read more about that in this article, “Reading Scores Fall to New Low on NAEP, Fueled by Declines for Struggling Students,” written by Sara Schwartz from Education Week.

With the heavy push for the science of reading and how hard we have been pushing students to improve in reading, this news is disheartening. I think some of this still has something to do with the COVID pandemic, but more than that, I think it has to do with a decline in reading for the love of reading.

How many of you are forced to have students read at “their level” and are forced to read books selected by a curriculum with no time left for students to actually read what they want to read? Are reading logs required homework by you, your school, or your district? All of these things contribute to students not enjoying reading and, sometimes, even growing into haters of reading.

While it is important to note not all reading logs are detrimental to students becoming readers. I do have a basic reading log for students’ parents to initial that they read that night just so I can keep track of how much outside of school reading is completed. Because it is well documented that to improve reading, students need to be reading. However, I do not have a required amount of minutes and I do not require it do be done nightly. I encourage my students to read at home, provide a book to read each night, and they get rewarded when they do complete it. However, they do not have any consequence for not completing the reading log and the reading log only needs parent initials. The title is not required, nor a summary, or length of time spent reading.

I point this out because reading logs almost killed my own children’s love of reading. I had to take matters into my own hands as a parent and say we’re not doing this, you can read what you want when you want.

So with all this stacked against our students to turn them into readers, how do we get them excited about reading? Because once we do that, student reading skills will improve!

The simplest answer is every child is a reader. You just have to find the right book. And I am going to give you some tips to do that right now, so you can turn your students into readers, too!

Tips For Getting Students Excited About Reading!

1. Have students complete a reading inventory at the beginning of the year. I have my students complete one and it is so helpful for finding out their interests. I have different ones based on the grade level they are in, along with what their reading skills are like at the beginning of the year. Here a couple free ones that I use!

2. Make sure when you have students select books for independent reading, they get to choose them! Don’t pick out books for your students. You can guide them towards books that you feel they are capable of reading and may interest them, but that is it. If you must select reading material, include 1-2 books you choose, but then let them choose 1-2. They don’t even have to be on their level. They can be easier or harder. Either will be good for your student when they are choosing a book they are interested in!

3. Provide a wide range of books in your classroom library to select from. Include fiction and nonfiction titles on a variety of topics with a variety of characters, even in multiple languages. Use those reading inventories to help you! I know it can be difficult to do this where book banning is coming into play. I will be addressing this topic next week, so stay tuned. If you’re looking for ways to get books, check out my post on the Top 10 Ways To Build Your Classroom Library on a Budget!

4. Encourage students to talk about their favorite books or book characters. Have book talks and let students share with you and each other what they like to read. You could even let them post the titles of favorite books on a bulletin board. This can act as a recommendation board for when students are looking for a new book to read!

5. Find time to fit in reading for pleasure. I know it’s hard, but you can do it! Reading aloud to students for just the pleasure of reading, without questions to answer after can be so freeing for students to just enjoy a story. It could be a chapter a day at the end of the day, a book read while waiting in line, or time on a half day where schedules are messed up any way. Just find the time to do it. Read some of your favorites, read some new ones, and some of their favorites. This will be some of your most cherished times together!

6. Give books as gifts! If you are able to, give books as gifts. My students get a book for their birthday, a book or more at the holidays, and a book at the end of the year. I am able to do this due to a grant I received. You can do the same, but there are other ways to get books for your students. See #3 above for ideas!

7. Share your favorite books, within reason. I make sure to let my students know that I am a reader. And I’m not talking about just sharing my favorite children’s books. I’m talking the adult books I read. I will share a title and, usually, a few sentences of what it is about. Child-friendly descriptions, of course. You are a model for being a reader! So many adults nowadays do not read books. Be that adult model for your students. That will make all the difference for many!

End Comments

I’ll tell you I feel the best when a student comes to me and says they found a book they love or they share that they like/love reading! This happened just the other day with a second grader and my heart soared. Yes, it’s my job to teach students to read, but more than that, it is to turn my students into readers by getting them excited about reading! In fact, my son told me that finding books that kids like to read is my superpower. I hope this post will help to make it your superpower, too! Because that is how to make change happen. Not forcing students to read, not a scripted curriculum designed to improved reading scores, but turning students into kids who want to read!

Let me know in the comments if you have any tips that have worked for you! Also, check out my post March is Reading Month: 10 Awesome Activities and stay tuned for next week’s post on the hot topic of book banning.