Making the Classroom Book Friendly

Reading: The Key to the Past, Present and Future

By Heather Skipworth Craven


When I look back upon my different classes of students over the years, I vividly recall something that has continually amazed and fascinated me. The last eight years of my teaching experience were spent in classrooms with students who had severe behavior/emotional disorders. Needless to say, these children didn't respond to traditional teaching methods. Some days a tenuous hold on control was all we could manage to produce. But even on the most difficult of days, my students would submit to and embrace listening to the reading of a story. It seemed no matter how severe a child's issues were, he or she would manage to become enraptured in the pages of our most recent book. And so often a child deep in the throes of a behavioral crisis would be able to escape and calm himself inside a story. It has been all too heart wrenching to work with students whose disorders made learning to read an enormous obstacle. I have watched many a 2nd or 3rd grade child struggle to read through a primer book independently for the first time. The looks of pride and supreme accomplishment on their faces over shadowed our days of anger and frustration.


I've always been intrigued by the ongoing debate about the best method of teaching reading. Be it phonics, whole language, language experience, the proverbial list goes on. I've learned through trial, error, and my own student's frustration that there is no catch all, "one size fits all" method of teaching reading. It is a matter of getting to know your students' unique learning styles and perception of language. That task can be at the very least a juggling act not only for our students who struggle, but also for those students who have seemingly been avid readers since birth and present the need to be consistently challenged.


There are many ways a teacher can structure her classroom reading environment to meet the needs of her student's different learning styles. The following are suggestions to creating that type of environment:

• Make your classroom a "print rich" environment. Offer a wide variety of books, magazines, and posters; create word walls, and word and story games.
  
• Offer manipulatives for younger children such as letter blocks, puzzles, and magnet boards.
  
• Create a story center with recorded books, and provide opportunities for students to record and listen to their own reading.
  
• Use a bulletin board to feature "books of the month", student stories and illustrations, or simple reading activities.
  
• Establish a daily "DEAR" (drop everything and read) time for silent or buddy reading.
  
• Develop a classroom book file. Have students offer input about their favorite kinds of books in an interest inventory, and then gather books on different subjects, such as animals, humor, fairy tales, virtues such as honesty, trust, etc.
  
• Start out a new month by having kids observe the new colors and decorations in the room and brainstorm holiday, weather and seasonal words associated with the new month. Begin each month by making a seasonal word list from the kid's observations. The list can be used as a basis for choosing books, writing, spelling, etc.
  
• Preserve your students' writing by giving them the opportunity to write, edit and publish their own books. Spotlight students' books by having an "author's chair" which gives them an opportunity to read and share their books with others.
  
• For students in grades K-1, read short passages aloud, invite authors to visit, and use reading volunteers. Global students often lose interest quickly when taught solely through analytic approaches, such as phonics. Provide many hands-on games for skills practice, some whole-class and small-group time with the teacher, some choice of reading materials, and lots of movement. Centers are ideal, and so are informal areas (couches, pillows, soft light, rugs).
  
• For students in grades 3-4, teach reading using strategies similar to those for grades K-1, with the addition of more visual techniques (boardwork, filmstrips, posters), greater choice of reading materials to increase motivation, and more choice regarding partners.
  
• For students in grades 4-6, teach reading using strategies similar to those for grades 2-3, with the addition of more auditory techniques (interviews, reporting, discussions), more analytic material (nonfiction, newspapers, magazines), greater choice of reading materials to increase motivation, more choices of how to work and with whom, more interaction with peers, and somewhat less movement.
  

I believe that before one can implement any method of teaching reading, a key component is to develop what I consider an innate fascination with language and the printed word that is within most children. In this millennial age of high technology and computerized learning tools, there is still no substitute for the printed page. Reading is the key our children need to unlock their history, present and future.