To Know and Nurture a Reader

What Folks Are Saying About: Shifting the Balance Find out what folks are saying about Shifting the Balance!

Challenge #3: Prepare displays, table baskets, book shelves, or stacks of enticing books.

Today's challenge includes one of my favorite ways to get kids and books connected in the first moments of the school year . . . Enticing table baskets! Check it out. How will you get great books in front of your readers from day one?

toknowandnurtureareader.com Challenge #3: Prepare displays, table baskets, book shelves, or stacks of enticing books for every age and stage that you work with. The purpose of this challenge is to ensure that every child come…

Cultivating a Community of Readers: 13 Things You Can Do Before the School Year Starts

Are you up for a challenge? Or two? Or 13 to make sure you greet your students "reader ready" this fall? First challenge posts on Friday!

toknowandnurtureareader.com The lazy days of summer are slipping away. The first day of school is just around the corner! And although we’re both working hard to soak up every last drop of these delightful summer days, …

This Week’s Quote, July 1, 2018

toknowandnurtureareader.com “At its best, conferring is the daily choice we make to give our wholehearted and undivided attention to one reader at a time, intentionally noticing, celebrating, and moving their reading li…

How did you choose this book?

This post is part of our ongoing series called Power Language for Conferring. To learn more about the series and find a quick link to our previous posts, please visit the Power Language page on this site. Today's power language for conferring: How did you choose this book? When do we use language like this? Since learning to find texts that they truly care about and want to read is such a critical component of self-selected independent reading, this is one of our favorite questions with readers at all ages and stages of development. [ 570 more words ]
http://toknowandnurtureareader.com/2018/06/27/how-did-you-choose-this-book/

toknowandnurtureareader.com This post is part of our ongoing series called Power Language for Conferring. To learn more about the series and find a quick link to our previous posts, please visit the Power Language page on th…

May I join you?

At its simplest, a conference is a conversation between two people: a conversation aimed at understanding, affirming, and extending what students are doing in their learning lives. But what makes some of these conversations almost magical while others fall flat? We believe the magic is in the language we use. Strategic language choices allow us to initiate, expand and elevate conversations with young learners in purposeful ways. [ 422 more words ]
http://toknowandnurtureareader.com/2018/06/20/may-i-join-you/

toknowandnurtureareader.com At its simplest, a conference is a conversation between two people: a conversation aimed at understanding, affirming, and extending what students are doing in their learning lives. But what makes s…

Coming Full Circle: A Thank You Note

Although we both love steaks bloody rare, legs shaved daily, and time by the water, the bedrock foundation of our partnership is built on a shared passion for nurturing readers through independent reading. Yet we didn't discover this shared passion by working side by side or meeting at a conference. Instead, we first because acquainted 140 characters at a time on the twitter chat. [ 545 more words ]
http://toknowandnurtureareader.com/2018/06/17/coming-full-circle-a-thank-you-note/

toknowandnurtureareader.com Although we both love steaks bloody rare, legs shaved daily, and time by the water, the bedrock foundation of our partnership is built on a shared passion for nurturing readers through independent …

Why Confer with Readers? 10 Compelling Reasons

Our wish for every reader is that they are supported by a teacher fiercely committed to conferring. Why this passionate commitment to conferring? Today, we share ten of our favorite reasons. We confer because we want to . . . KNOW readers. We confer because there’s so much we want and need to know about what goes on in the heads and hearts of the young readers we care about. [ 1,270 more word ]
http://toknowandnurtureareader.com/2018/05/13/why-confer-ten-of-our-favorite-reasons/

toknowandnurtureareader.com Our wish for every reader is that they are supported by a teacher fiercely committed to conferring. Why this passionate commitment to conferring? Today, we share ten of our favorite reasons. We co…

Some of my students just hop from book to book! What can I do to support them?

Question: A few of the readers in my class just seem unable to stick with a book from beginning to end. What can I do to help them commit? Daniel, a fourth grader, seems to have picked up and put down more books than almost any other student in his fourth-grade class this year. In fact, his teacher worries that he may not have finished a single book all year aside from the ones read in small groups or with book clubs. [ 1,437 more word ]
http://toknowandnurtureareader.com/2018/05/06/some-of-my-students-just-hop-from-book-to-book-what-can-i-do-to-support-them/

toknowandnurtureareader.com Question: A few of the readers in my class just seem unable to stick with a book from beginning to end. What can I do to help them commit? Daniel, a fourth grader, seems to have picked up and put d…

How can I use conferring to connect with students who are very new to English?

Since arriving in the country with her family just a few months ago, Renata’s days are filled with new and sometimes peculiar settings, people, smells, tastes, and expectations. Because Spanish is the language she’s grown up with, there are added layers of complexity that she must navigate in her new school as she tries to find entry points into conversation, social structures, and the academic curriculum of her second grade classroom. [ 2,889 more words ]
http://toknowandnurtureareader.com/2018/04/29/how-can-i-use-conferring-to-connect-with-students-who-are-very-new-to-english/

toknowandnurtureareader.com Since arriving in the country with her family just a few months ago, Renata’s days are filled with new and sometimes peculiar settings, people, smells, tastes, and expectations. Because Spanish is …

Book Choice: Magic Fairy Dust

We shared our thoughts about the importance of book choice on the CCIRA Colorado Reading blog this week.

ccira.blog By Christina Nosek and Kari Yates Christina glances around her classroom as she gathers her trusty clipboard and pencil case full of post-its and pens for conferring. She watches as her fifth grade…

How can I support readers who pick the same types of books over and over again?

Question: I have some readers who pick the same book or types of books again and again. Shouldn’t I be pushing them toward more variety? Juan is on a mission to know as much as he can about outer space. Day after day in his second-grade classroom, he immerses himself in books about space. Every single informational book he’s read in the past month has been about space. [ 1,578 more word ]

http://toknowandnurtureareader.com/2018/04/22/4-22-18-what-do-i-do-when-students-pick-the-same-books-over-and-over-again/

toknowandnurtureareader.com Question: I have some readers who pick the same book or types of books again and again. Shouldn’t I be pushing them toward more variety? Juan is on a mission to know as much as he can about outer s…

We're so happy to see our updated book cover now live on the Stenhouse site! https://www.stenhouse.com/content/know-and-nurture-reader

Help! My students want to choose books I’m afraid are too hard!

Help! My students want to choose books I'm afraid are too hard! As Carmen looks around her third-grade classroom, she sees her peers reading chapter books like Clementine, The One and Only Ivan, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and even Harry Potter. She mentioned to her teacher, Mr. Chen, that everyone's books seem "so fat and brainy" and the books she's reading look like "baby books." Most of her peer's current reads exceed 100, 200, and even 300 pages. [ 1,536 more word ]

http://toknowandnurtureareader.com/2018/04/15/how-might-i-use-conferring-to-support-students-reading-significantly-below-grade-level/

toknowandnurtureareader.com Help! My students want to choose books I’m afraid are too hard! As Carmen looks around her third-grade classroom, she sees her peers reading chapter books like Clementine, The One and Only Iv…

How do I Confer with a Student Who’s Reading a Book That I Haven’t Read?

Hi all! We're so excited you've joined us to explore more about conferring with readers! This week's post is all about conferring with readers when we're unfamiliar with the books they're reading. In Christina's class today, she conferred with readers who were reading these three books. In all three conferences, she used open ended questions like these: What made you decide to choose this book?... Tell me what you feel is something I should know about this book... Has your thinking changed since you started reading this book?...

More tips on conferring with readers when we're unfamiliar with their books can be found here: https://toknowandnurtureareader.com/2018/04/08/how-do-i-confer-with-a-student-w-reading-a-book-that-i-havent-read/

We'd also love to hear from you. What are some questions you have or ideas you'd like to share?

toknowandnurtureareader.com Question: I haven’t read the book myself, so how will I be able to confer with a reader about it? Sylvie’s fifth-grade students are voracious readers. On most days, at least one of her students bri…

How do I Confer with a Student Who’s Reading a Book That I Haven’t Read?

Question: I haven’t read the book myself, so how will I be able to confer with a reader about it? Sylvie’s fifth-grade students are voracious readers. On most days, at least one of her students brings a book into the classroom that is completely unfamiliar to her. Even though Sylvie has tried to keep up with her students’ book choices, she has found that it is just not possible to know every book that every child in her class is reading. [ 1,591 more word ]

http://toknowandnurtureareader.com/2018/04/08/how-do-i-confer-with-a-student-w-reading-a-book-that-i-havent-read/

toknowandnurtureareader.com Question: I haven’t read the book myself, so how will I be able to confer with a reader about it? Sylvie’s fifth-grade students are voracious readers. On most days, at least one of her students bri…

Here is the complete schedule for our current blog series. We're excited to hear from you! What are some other tricky parts of conferring that are on your mind? https://toknowandnurtureareader.com/

Tips to Help Students Develop the Independence They Need So You Can Confer

Our first blog post in the Tackling the Tricky Parts of Conferring Series is up!

toknowandnurtureareader.com I want to regularly confer with every reader in my classroom. But, how can I respond to students who persistently seek my attention while I’m trying to confer with others?

To Know and Nurture a Reader

Our new blog is up and running! Check out our schedule of topics to come. https://toknowandnurtureareader.com/

toknowandnurtureareader.com Welcome from Kari & Christina Published on March 26, 2018 by cnosekliteracyLeave a comment Welcome to our blog, To Know and Nurture a Reader! We’re so glad to have you join us. A couple years ago, we began a writing journey together with the goal of supporting educators in creating a joyful confe...

To Know and Nurture a Reader

We are so excited to announce the launch of our blog, To Know and Nurture a Reader!

toknowandnurtureareader.com Welcome from Kari & Christina Published on March 26, 2018 by cnosekliteracyLeave a comment Welcome to our blog, To Know and Nurture a Reader! We’re so glad to have you join us. A couple years ago, we began a writing journey together with the goal of supporting educators in creating a joyful confe...