In Community With Readers

Book excerpt: “Whole-class reading instruction has the power to harness the collective knowledge of the reading community that will foster independent readers and thinkers as they move through their literate lives.” What is the true purpose of whole-group reading instruction? Is it possible to teach standards and skills while also creating a community in which students are free to bring their whole selves into the work of reading? And how do we make this vision an everyday reality in our grades 3-6 classrooms? Elementary educators Lynsey Burkins and Franki Sibberson answer these questions and more in In Community With Readers: Transforming Reading Instruction with Read-Alouds and Minilessons. Burkins and Sibberson invite us into their classrooms as they redesign read-alouds and minilessons to support readers in whole-group reading instruction. Inside this book you’ll find: ● Ideas for co-creating a community aligned to standards and grounded in readers’ identity, independence, and agency ● A day-by-day look into what read-alouds and minilessons look like across a reading unit ● Practical and meaningful routines for helping students co-construct an understanding of the standards, the books they read, and one another’s ideas ● Planning and note-taking templates designed to center both the standards we teach and the ideas our students bring to these standards ● An illustrated step-by-step guide to the first eight weeks of whole-group reading instruction In this book, Burkins and Sibberson push back on the idea that whole-group reading instruction must be teacher-centered skill and drill, and instead offer us a way to create a truly meaningful whole-group reading community.