We know that one defining distinction between readers and non-readers is that readers make plans for their reading (thank you, Penny Kittle, for this nugget!), so at Everett we're building systems that can support all of our readers to plan their next book choices. We want to eradicate that too-familiar phenomenon in which kids spend their reading time in class wandering the classroom library aimlessly to make their next book choice; instead, when students finish a book and it's time to choose the next one, they should have plans for what that might be so that they can get right to it! Certainly this is what my reading life is like: I have a stack of books on my bedside table, an ongoing list of recommendations from friends, and if all else fails, my Goodreads "to read" list, so when I finish a book I have plenty from which to choose and usually the only question is what sort of reading mood I'm in. We want the same for all of our kids.
To this end, all of our Readers' Workshop classes encourage students to keep a list of "Someday Books," those books that they will want to read someday, and we try to populate those lists by providing students with suggestions via daily or weekly book talks. Typically both teachers and students give book talks, often on a rotational schedule. Lately, however, we've noticed that this system isn't hitting all of our students, and in fact is least likely to serve the needs of our most struggling readers (incidentally, those readers are also the least likely to have books at home, least likely to have friends who recommend books to them, etc).
A small group of teachers has decided to use our last PD Cycle of the year as time to investigate and combat this problem. First, they measured the number of students who have a plan for their next book choice, as well as those who made that plan based on a peer recommendation (we know how powerful peer recs are!). Percentages varied from 40-80% based on grade level and classroom. Next, they determined a "Theory of Action" to improve these numbers. It reads:
