AP Corner

The Joy of Reading

This week is Read Across America Week! This has always been one of my favorite weeks, as we celebrate different books and the joy of reading. As educators, many of us have strong feelings around reading and those associations carry into our classrooms.  There are books I loved as a child, like A Little Princess, Make Way for Ducklings, and Heidi, which I want to share with our students today. There are books I loved exploring with my students, such as Esperanza Rising, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and Where the Sidewalk Ends. There are even books I’ve loved as an adult (which I read and re-read all the time), like The Power of One, Eva Luna, and All the Light We Cannot See.

For most of my life, I’ve been surrounded by books. Reading was something I enjoyed, not something I was forced to do. So, how do we help students find the joy in reading? One of the best ways is through read aloud. Finding books that you love and know well and sharing them with your class models our love of reading. Another way is to guide students into finding books they are excited about—whether they are fiction, non-fiction, at their level, or above or below their reading level. When students have the opportunity to read books they’re excited about, they are more able to find the joy in reading.

Happy Read Across America Week!

Important Reminders:

• 3rd- 5th Grades: Star Ren is open this week. Please make sure that students understand the purpose and the importance of this assessment. It can be used to RFEP students who are ELs, it will be shared with their parents at SLCs, and we will be using it for planning instructional supports.
• ELPAC is coming up during the month of March. I will be meeting with teams this week to review the plan for administering the ELPAC in every grade level.