I was blown away… Reading this book prompted me to make a number of changes in the way I taught reading last year. One of the first things I did was to find the “interest-alyzer” online and at the beginning of the year, I got some very valuable information about the kinds of books my students enjoyed. I found that even when I didn’t have time to recommend a good read, I could have them chat with classmates who enjoyed the same genre for suggestions. Little book clubs of sorts naturally sprung up in my classroom – A beautiful thing!

I also gave my students a book challenge of 20 books for the year – one they could meet if they read about one book every two weeks. I was looping with my class, so I had the benefit of watching reluctant readers who struggled to read 3 or 4 books during the year in 3rd grade blossom into voracious readers – meeting and even exceeding the challenge in 4th grade!!

I’m glad Donalyn is headed toward 4th grade this fall, and hope she’ll join us on Monday nights for #4thchat on Twitter so I can keep learning from her! Thanks for posting.