Igniting a Passion for Reading

For the past few months, elementary teachers in my district have been passing around copies of Steven Layne's new book Igniting a Passion for Reading .  At my school, as grade-level teams and individual teachers read the book, I noticed a few low-key discussions about it.  Some teams began making  plans to incorporate a few of the ideas into their classrooms -- discussions and plans, but not much action.

Things changed dramatically when Steven Layne came to do a presentation at a district staff development day a few weeks back.  From the get-go, this guy had everyone in the palm of his hand -- There is something about him that gets you excited. The most resounding thing about Steven Layne is that he is a teacher.  He has been in a real classroom, he has worked with real kids -- in the trenches.  Yes, he is now a college professor and an author and a consultant (the word makes your stomach turn, doesn't it?), but this doesn't matter.  When he speaks, he speaks the teacher's language and does so in such a way that makes me almost jealous.  He connects.  


In the three hour session, Layne shared many of the tricks that have worked for him over the years.  He told his story and encouraged teachers to make their own.  From the Golden Book Shelf to the First Read Club to the Reading Lounge he pumped these folks up in such a way that I've never seen before.  During a break, before the session was even through, I had one of our teachers come up to me to say that we needed to put together a committee at our school to work on implementing Steven Layne's ideas across grade levels...and she would be glad to serve on it -- did you catch that? --  A TEACHER CAME TO ME TO SAY THAT WE NEED TO START A NEW COMMITTEE AT OUR SCHOOL AND THAT SHE WOULD SERVE ON IT !!!  I must say that this has never happened in my 15 years in education.


While the book cover clearly says Igniting a Passion for Reading, I truly never imagined what this actually meant until this man stood in front of a few hundred already amazing classroom teachers and made their blood start flowing.   As he spoke, you could see the smoke rising from the heads of the audience as the wheels inside their brains were spinning out of control -- folks were making mental plans as to what they were going to do to ignite a passion for reading in their own classrooms and at their schools.

By the time the kids returned to school after Thanksgiving, teachers had Golden Book Shelves in their classrooms, they were meeting with the librarian to plan for their class to do a book shopping spree, and trying to decide where to put the school's reading lounge.  I must confess that Layne to got me as well.  Before he finished speaking that day, I had gone online to Amazon and ordered several of my favorite books so that I could share them with students in the coming days.

If you are a teacher or administrator and have not read this book, please stop reading my blog immediately and get yourself a copy.  It is a really quick read.  If you have an opportunity to hear Steven Layne speak in person, don't pass it up.

I have included a few pictures below of our librarian's first stab at a First Read Club.  The plan is to get kids excited about reading by allowing them to be the FIRST PERSON EVER to check out a new library book -- we even put a bookplate in front of the book in honor of the child who first read it.  After this particular second grade class visited the library and chose their "First Read" book the teacher said that even the most reluctant readers were giddy with anticipation to dig in to them!