Remember how you devoted time to creating community at the beginning of the school year? Maybe you read aloud multiple times a day, conducted Discovery Conferences to learn about each students’ reading identity, invited students to organize the classroom library in ways that made sense to them, or asked students to share their reading and writing dreams for the school year.
June can drag. The weather turns nice, and the sound of the ice cream truck music draws students’ attention to the world awaiting them outside. Yet June was my favorite month of the year. The students and I had gone on many learning journeys together, and June was joyful.
Here are some ways to make the most of it:
- Invite students to reorganize the library in preparation for next year’s class.
- What are class favorites?
- What books should be reserved for later in the school year?
- What books did no one read this year, and perhaps should not be in the library?
- What read alouds should the teacher definitely include next year?
- Conduct Discovery Conferences. Add the word “now” or “new” to the prompts and questions:
- How do you feel about yourself as a reader now?
- How do you feel about reading now?
- What are some new favorite books?
- What are your new strengths as a reader?
- Revisit the initial whole class inquiry into reading identity:
- How have we grown as readers?
- What allowed us to grow?
- What advice would we give to the students entering the grade next year?
- What do we want our new teachers to know about us as readers?
- Make summer plans for reading. (This involves the school providing books for students.)
- What do you want to read this summer?
- Where can you read this summer?
- With whom can you read this summer?
- What might get in the way of you being able to read this summer? What can you do?
- Invite students to visit you at the beginning of the school year to share their summer reading with you. This is not about having an ice cream party to “reward” students for reading. This is about honoring their authentic reading lives.
Harness all that end-of-year energy and provide the students opportunities to celebrate their reading growth. Celebrate your teaching. And then, enjoy summer.
Trusting Readers 