Impacting a Culture of Readers with Digital Tools

     I’ve always loved to read. Nose in a book. Dead to the world, alive in my mind. Ever since I could make out the words on a page, I’ve had my hand on a book. I wanted to pass on the love of reading to my own children. We spent hours with them in my lap, reading the same books and exploring new ones. There’s something special about sharing a book with someone and something even more special about sharing them with your kids.
     Unfortunately, my love of reading wasn’t passed onto my second grade son. I don’t know how it happened. Just one day he didn’t want to read. As a teacher, this was heartbreaking. As an avid reading, it was devastating. We talked about books he might like to read, (“Nah.”) or if we could take turns reading (“Do I have to?”), and I even enlisted the school media specialist for help.  
     Finally, one day, he couldn’t stop talking about a book he was reading. I was thrilled. “This is it,” I thought. “He’s finally back on track.” A few days later, I asked him about the book and what was happening and how it ended. I wanted to share in his excitement. His reply, “I never finished it, Mom. I got all my points for this semester. I’ll finish it next semester when I need the points again.” I was speechless.
     The truth is, reading lost its true purpose for my son. He was reading out of obligation to reach his nightly reading quota and to earn all of his points. Somewhere something had gone wrong.
     This spurred a conversation between my colleague, Lynn Kleinmeyer, and myself. We started to brainstorm ideas of tools that could impact a culture of reading. With today's technology, there are so many great ways for students to share what they're reading and how they connected with the book. Below you will find some of our ideas.
     Monica Burns has a great blog post about how to use book clubs with Flipgrid. You can also create a Flipgrid for students to recommend books to one another. Afterall, having a book to talk about often leads to even more interesting and engaging conversations!
     Seesaw has so many built-in tools that will allow students to share what they have read and how it has impacted them! You can find some other ideas from Kara Brem here. Don't forget you can use folders to create book clubs. Or, generate QR codes with student book talks.  Looking to connect globally? Set up your Seesaw blog and start talking about books with others all over the world.
     Use Cospaces for students to visually represent how they imagine the book’s world. Let them show their classmates around! Bonus: students can add coding to make the world interactive!
    With Scratch programming, the floor is low but the ceiling is high. Students can make book recommendations, retell the story, show a sequence of events, or share why they love the book--all with code.
    Students can jump into the book with green screen magic using Green Screen by DoInk. Let them add themselves as a character in their favorite book and share to a digital space.
   Retell a story in record time using stop motion (Stop Motion Studio, KomaKoma). Students can use Play-Doh, illustrations, or even act it out. So simple and so fun!
     Create a digital book using Google Slides (or use it with book clubs). Each slide can represent one book recommendation. Allow all students to have editing rights and allow them to create a slide that will get their classmates excited! Have you used one of the other tools? Have students link their creations onto the Slide for viewing!
     Want to help your readers connect with readers beyond their classroom? There are plenty of opportunities for collaboration with readers across the globe. For example, your class could select one of the Global Read Aloud 2018 books and connect with as many classes around the world as possible to discuss and share a love of reading.
     It’s time to start reenvisioning what reading looks like in our classrooms. Finding a variety of ways for our students to share about their reading and to get others excited about reading is imperative to growing passionate readers for the future. And let's not forget that it's okay to just let students read.

-Mindy Cairney & Lynn Kleinmeyer