Promoting Reading with Your Students

Though it isn't always popular with my administrators, promoting independent reading is one of my greatest passions in the classroom. Reading has meant so much to me since I first began reciting my childhood favorites, pretending I could read them aloud.

One of the first steps is to create an attractive place to feature reading in your classroom. A book display, some reading posters, and a plant or a little dish of candy go a long way.

One fun way to make posters is to use the Big Huge Labs online motivational poster tool. It's super easy to upload a photo of yourself or your students and then make their favorite book a recommended read with the caption. I put up a free guide to making these posters over at Teachers Pay Teachers.

I just made a series of fun posters for older students too. After years of recommending books and hearing from my students about their favorites, I tried to focus on some of their favorites with these posters.

If the posters get your students fired up for more recommendations, send them along to read reviews my students have posted here and here. It's always nice when students can share their ideas directly with other students!