Passionate Reading and Reading Challenges

My goal as a reading teacher is to foster a true passion for reading in my students. One of the best ways to do that is to be passionate about reading myself. To that end - I make it a top priority to read children's books constantly. Being intimately familiar with the books my students read allows me to make meaningful recommendations and have genuine conversations with my students about their reading and thinking.

However, I've only made passionate reading a priority in my classroom in the last year. Perhaps marrying a middle school language arts teacher has something to do with that =)  Anyway, this summer I read nearly 100 children's books and have seriously updated my classroom library. I've made it a priority to schedule daily independent reading and frequent individual conferences. I talk with my students about books constantly - and boy do they respond! My students are readers!!!

As an extension of my growing passion for reading, I've decided to embark on 3 reading challenges for 2013. Here are the challenges I've chosen:

The TBR Pile Challenge - Choose any 12 books from your To Be Read Pile. The books must be chosen before January 1, 2013. This challenge is hosted by Roof Beam Reader. Join the challenge here.

The Stand Alone Reading Challenge - I read a lot of books in a series, but there are so many great stand alone books. This challenge is to read 15 young adult or children's novels that stand alone before December 31, 2013. The challenge is sponsored by Icey Books and I Like These Books. Join the challenge here.

And now the big one!

The 365 Book Challenge - The goal is that 3 family members and I will read at least 365 books in 2013. That's right - 4 readers, 365 books, 1 year. My personal goal is to read 125 of those. This challenge doesn't appear to be hosted anywhere, but I read about it on a reading blog somewhere and thought it would be wonderfully challenging. Fun times!


To keep up with my progress please check the Reading Challenges link at the top of the page.