Students HATE to READ!

Students hate to read!

I heard this refrain over and over again in conversations with teenagers and preteens. They don't like the books, the articles, the topics. They don't like to spend time reading and they generally DO NOT READ independently or by choice.

Teachers know this. We WISH it were different.

To me, reading is like breathing. I read because I NEED to know more and I ENJOY lessons I read from great books.

A Plan for SUPERCharging the Reading-Love

1. Make it an official expectation. Cape's Elementary schools have adopted the American Reading Company program that asks all students to read for 30 minutes each night. Let's extend that to middle school and high school.
2. Give choices. Students can choose what they read! Choose what they like with some parameters such at the level or genre of the book, article, blog or report. Promote reading in areas that are interesting then foster that growth.
3. Offer opportunities, recognition and rewards. Classroom, school-wide, district-wide. Celebrate readers and give them opportunities to share.

CTE/ARTS Speaking and Listening Workshop

In the fall we looked at ways that you could extend your students speaking and listening skills in your CTE/ARTS classroom. Each teacher received a book by Eric Palmer to read a chapter and think about how you may be able to use it in your specific classroom. 

Eric created PVLEGS for students to focus on improving speech. Here's the explanation of this from the Well Spoken book starting on page 58. 

Poise - appear calm and confident

Voice - speak every word clearly, use a volume just right for the space

Life - Express passion and emotions with your voice

Eye Contact - connect visually with your audience, look at each audience member

Gestures - Use hand motions, move your body, have an expressive face

Next Speaking and Listening Workshop: Jan 30 or 31

Your Assignment for our next workshop: review these ideas to demonstrate and discuss in our follow up CTE and Arts workshop on Jan 30 and 31. Each teacher will be asked to give a 2 minute presentation on that day using the ideas here. The presentation can be anything that you do in class to teach your students like introduce and idea, concept or project, demnostrate a skill or relate an experience.  Prizes for the best presentation!