Reading is an adventure! March is National Reading Month, a great chance to remember how exciting and magical reading can be.
Have you decided how you’ll celebrate National Reading Month in your school or classroom? Let us help! Try our tips for fun ways to get everybody reading.
- Travel With Your Mind
Reading can transport you instantly, from wherever you may be to wherever you can imagine. Try using reading to launch exciting adventures and explore the world. Allow everyone to close their eyes and randomly choose a spot on a map or globe, and then read about that place! Or read stories about explorers, travelers, adventurers, survivors, researchers, and pioneers. - Pick Fun Topics
Your students can choose the subjects that interest them. It can be whatever they find fascinating: otters, dinosaurs, rocks, rainbows, anything. Then read books, stories, and articles related to the topic, and have fun with topic-related activities! - Go Through Your Books
Get the whole class to help you choose books from your classroom library. Read whatever looks interesting to you as you go along! You’ll all be surprised what fascinating things you’ll uncover. - Do a Reading Challenge
Check out our helpful instructions for doing a reading challenge at your school! The goal is just for everybody to read more and have fun. - Read Aloud
Even if it’s only for 15 minutes each day, choose a book and read it aloud! Reading aloud develops fundamental reading skills, promotes social interactions, and improves vocabulary, word recognition, listening comprehension, and cognitive development. - Try Reading Rewards
Everybody appreciates incentives. What’s better than a prize for a job well done? Rewards for your students’ reading accomplishments can be anything from a pizza party to special certificates or anything else your students would enjoy. - Read Something You Love
Ask your students to tell you their favorite books: maybe their favorite choice from this month or this year, or maybe their favorite book of all time. Then use National Reading Month to share and read everyone’s favorite stories!Bonus tip:
If students are comfortable, they can explain the reasons why they love the book they’ve chosen. It can be 1) a great chance to learn more about each other, and also 2) an opportunity for you to demonstrate the idea that everyone has their own tastes, their own unique reasoning for the choices they make, their own individual approach to answering any question.Extra challenge for higher reading levels:
Have the whole class choose one favorite from the books you’ve assigned to them this year. Then read it a second time, as a class. The question is: what's different about the second read? What changes about your perception of a story upon re-reading it? What things did you notice that you didn’t notice the first time?
The importance of reading extends far beyond educational development. Reading improves memory, increases cognitive function, builds empathy, lowers stress, and promotes positive mental health. Enjoy all the benefits of reading during National Reading Month and throughout the year!
