District Wide Information

The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller

This summer I heard about The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller, then read the book in a couple of days and was energized.  This, along with Camp Read-a-lot (a program through the MELSA libraries in the Cities) helped me to decide how I wanted to change the High School Reading Incentive Program.  In essence, Donalyn is a 6th grade teacher that requires her students to read up to 40 books in a school year. She encourages her students, but does not penalize them if they do not read 40 books.  She has a gift to help her readers develop a love of reading.  Her students pass the Texas state reading test.  As our district continues to work together to help students grow as readers and increase achievement test scores, students and teachers need to read, read, read.  Teachers need to read too so a conversation begins to develop as well as a culture of excitement in sharing what you and your students are reading.  This helps students develop a list of what books they want to read next.  It is important for students to make a list of what they read throughout the year to help them realize that they do read a lot!

If you are interested in reading this book, each school library media center has a copy in the professional collection.  Contact the media assistant to check out the copy in your building.