The Nerdy Book Club: How
Teacher Readers Ignite
Classroom Reading
CommunitiesTCTELA 2013
Donalyn MillerAudrey Wilson-Youngblood
Cynthia Alaniz
www.slideshare.net/donalynm
@donalynbooks
Who is in your
reading communi
ty?
Benefits of Reading Communities
Increase how much you read.
Foster connections with other readers.
Challenge you to stretch.
Suggest titles for additional reading.
Encourage mindfulness about what you read and share.
Improve your enjoyment and appreciation for what you read.
Inspire you to write.
“Reading Teacher (RT): a
teacher who reads and a reader
who teaches”
Commeyras, Bisplinghoff and Olson (2003)
“Students should have guidance
and frequent opportunities to
work with teachers and other
students as a community of
learners, observing their
teachers as readers and writers.
—NCTE Position on the Teaching of English
Teachers who regularly read for pleasure
are more likely to use recommended
literacy
practices in their classrooms than those
teachers who do not engage in pleasure
reading.
They are more likely
to recognize that reading is a social
activity and to provide opportunity for
students to
talk about their reading.
Morrison, Jacobs, and Swinyard (1999); McKool & Gespass
(2009)
56% of unenthusiastic readers did not
have a teacher who shared a love of
reading, while 64% of enthusiastic
readers did have such a teacher.
Nathanson, Pruslow and Levitt (2008)
“…teachers who are engaged readers
are motivated to read, are both
strategic and knowledgeable readers,
and are socially interactive about what
they read. These qualities show up in
their classroom interactions and help
create students who are, in turn,
engaged readers.” Dreher (2002)
Every reader has value and a voice in our community.
“It’s a fact: people can survive
without books. People can
even have wonderful, full lives
without books. But they can’t
long endure without
community…”
—C. Alexander London