How I Introduce the 40-book challenge to My Students

Let's read about Amelia Earhart.

I’ll send you this free "Who was Amelia Earhart?" novel study that you can print off and use with your students today.
​
Enter your name and email address below to snag it!

I promise I won't spam you. Unsubscribe if you need to!

Built with ConvertKit

So you want to complete the 40 book challenge with your class? Let’s chat for a minute about how you can introduce the challenge to your students in a way that will get them excited about reading.

The first year I did the challenge, I simply told my students we were each going to read 40 books that year. I talked about the genres they would read from, and how many books that would mean they would read on average per week. I then answered any questions that they might have had. I didn’t get much buy-in from my students at the beginning. Many of them felt it was “just another thing my teacher is making me do.” Over the years, I’ve realized that there are some small and simple things that I can do, in order to make my students become more excited to complete this challenge.

1. Tell a Story

Rachelle, over at What the Teacher Wants on Instagram, did the 40-book challenge with her 6th graders and had a brilliant idea for introducing it to them. She started off by telling them a story about two girls that wanted to be on the basketball team. One girl went out and practiced shooting baskets each morning. She spent a lot of time working on her dribbling and ball-handling skills. The other girl really wanted to be on the basketball team too, but when she got home from school every day, she sat on the couch and watched Netflix and ate Cheetos. Which girl do you think made it onto the basketball team? It isn’t difficult for the students to figure this one out. 

When I did this with my students, I told a similar story. I changed the sport to soccer because that's what interests more of my students. They loved the story though. Adding some fun "pump up" music really got my kids invested in what I was talking about. (I played the Space Jam theme song for them-they loved it!)

2. Help Students Discover the “Why” Behind the 40 Book Challenge

This part is so important in order to get your students excited about the challenge. If you’ve worked with children in any capacity, you know that they want to know why we do things. The same holds true with this challenge.

Now, once I told the story, we talked about what it could have to do with reading. Students were able to pick up the more we practice reading, the better we get. I tell the students about how each year we set goals. I see many students set a goal to become better readers. But they never figure out how exactly they are going to do that. I tell them about how I want them all to become better readers, even if they do think that they are "a pretty good reader" to begin with. We talk about how becoming a better reader means practicing reading. As we read 40 books throughout the school year, we will become better readers. By using a story to teach my students, they became more invested in the challenge because they knew why we were doing what we were doing.

3. Be Excited About the Challenge

Have you ever noticed that students will pick up on your energy? If you aren’t having a good day, how much more likely is it that your students will feel that and will also tend to drag themselves down? The opposite is also true. If you were very excited about something, and you communicate your excitement to them, students will often mirror your excitement and energy. 

In order for your students to be excited about reading 40 books, you need to be excited about it too (even if you really aren't). One of my colleagues really didn't enjoy reading, but her students had no idea. She made it seem like the most amazing thing in the world to them. She was a phenomenal actress in her classroom when it came to reading. 

I tell my students that I will be participating with them too, and I'm so thrilled to be able to read so many new and amazing books. I talk about the wonderful places I will visit and the new characters I will meet as I read with them.

4. Plan for Time to Answer Questions

Your students will have questions about the challenge. Make sure you have planned a time to answer those questions with your students. Spend some time thinking about the types of questions your students might ask. I'm compiling a list of frequently asked questions and will have a blog post ready for you soon!

Want More Info on the Challenge?

This is Part 2 in a 6-part series about the 40 book challenge. Each week I'll post a new blog post that talks about one of the aspects of the challenge. Check out these blog posts to learn more!

Part 1: Why I Ditched Reading Logs and What I Do Instead

Part 3: How to Track the 40-Book Challenge

Part 4: Creating a Book Tasting Experience for the 40-Book Challenge

Part 5: FAQ about the 40-Book Challenge

Why I Ditched Reading Logs and Started the 40 Book Challenge Instead

Let's read about Amelia Earhart.

I’ll send you this free "Who was Amelia Earhart?" novel study that you can print off and use with your students today.
​
Enter your name and email address below to snag it!

I promise I won't spam you. Unsubscribe if you need to!

Built with ConvertKit

“I became a teacher to prepare kids for standardized testing,” said no teacher ever. I personally have a myriad of different reasons contributing to my current career choice, as I’m sure each educator does. One of the big reasons I became a teacher was because I love to read, and I wanted to share the joy of reading with children. I never realized how much my teacher life would change once I discovered the 40 book challenge.

When I was told during my first year of teaching that kids couldn’t read books “just to read books,” I was disappointed. How would my students learn to love reading if there was always some assignment or quiz looming at the end of a chapter? How would my students get lost on a fantastical journey if they had to make sure they could identify the theme and cite evidence from the text at the end? But, I was the new teacher, and as the rule-follower I was, I listened to my mentors.

For 3 years, everything we read in my classroom had a purpose. I made sure that my classroom library was leveled appropriately, and that my students only read books on their independent reading level, because “that’s how they would become better readers.” When some of my students wanted to read Harry Potter, I told them to put it back and find a different book because it would be “too hard” for them.

I made sure my students were reading every night by sending home reading logs that required a parent's signature. Surely, I thought, this was the way to make sure my students became the best readers they could be.

But there was a small voice in the back of my head that kept telling me "there's a better way to do this."

And then, the summer after my 3rd year of teaching, I checked out “The Book Whisperer” from the library. 

How the 40 Book Challenge Changed My Teaching

First, if you have not read this book yet and teach reading in any way, shape, or form, GO READ IT NOW! Seriously, stop reading this, then come back once you’ve finished it.

As I read this book, I felt free. Finally, there was someone who agreed with me, that kids could read “just for fun.” Not only that, but perhaps some of the best ways to reach my reluctant readers was to give them the chance to select what book they wanted, and let them read it, just for fun. This book was going to change my life and the lives of my students.

The next school year, my reading logs went into the recycling bin. Instead, my students were introduced to the 40 book challenge. Simply put, I challenged each of my students to read 40 books throughout the course of the school year. I gave them a list of how many books from each genre type they should read, started a “Books I have read” list in their notebooks, and we got on our way.

Instead of nightly reading logs, students were tracking the number of books they read. And let's be honest: if they managed to read 40 books throughout the school year, they were probably reading the 20+ minutes they needed to at home too. I didn't need parents to rush to sign some reading log just to prove to me that their child read the night before (when half of the time the parents were lying too). I felt so liberated in this new approach to reading.

And so it began. Even though it was my first year of implementing the challenge, I consider it a success. I didn’t have all of my students read 40 books, but it was a part of our class culture, and several of my students read more than they did the year before. The biggest payoff though was when I saw students who were disenchanted with reading fall in love with a book. Just one book. And they learned that maybe reading isn’t the worst thing on the planet. 

I also learned so many things over the years of doing the challenge that has allowed me to make it easier for my students to complete. Now, I’m sharing what I’ve learned with you.

Want More Info on the Challenge?

This is Part 1 in a 5-part series about the 40 book challenge. Each week I'll post a new blog post that talks about one of the parts of the 40 book challenge. Check out these blog posts to learn more!

Part 2: Introducing the 40-Book Challenge to Your Students

Part 3: How to Track the 40-Book Challenge

Part 4: Creating a Book Tasting Experience for the 40-Book Challenge

Part 5: FAQ about the 40-Book Challenge

Want some help implementing the 40 Book Challenge in your class? Check out my reading tracker here to get started!

5 Ways to Build Relationships with Students

You know that feeling at the end of the school year, where you have gotten in the groove with your students? You know who they are, what they need, what they love, what struggles they have? You’ve put in so much time and effort to connect with your students, and then all of a sudden, the year is over. That blessed summer break comes and goes all too quickly, and then all of a sudden you are back in the classroom with 25 new faces looking up at you in anticipation of what the year will bring. You get to start to build relationships with students all over again.

Building relationships with students is vital. For some students, it can come really naturally. For others, you may feel that you were working the entire year so that the student knows and understands that there is somebody who cares about them. I have found that the first couple of weeks are crucial for building solid relationships that can last throughout the year. There are various activities that I like to do with my students to help them get to know me, and that helps me get to know them. 

Here are five things that I have done to build relationships with students:

1. Do a “brown bag” activity

This is always a fun one to do. On the first day of school, I bring a brown bag with 5 to 6 items that I feel represent me. As I pull each item out, I asked my students to make an inference about what that object says about me. For example, I love to play the piano. So one of the items that go into my brown bag is a small piano ornament that I got for Christmas. From this, my students are able to make inferences such as maybe she plays the piano. Or maybe she loves Christmas. Or maybe, it’s both.

After I’ve modeled the brown bag activity for my students, I sent them home with their own brown bags. They bring them back the next day filled with 5-6 items that represent them. Over the next couple of days, my students will take turns sharing out what they brought and why. This may feel like a major show and tell at the beginning of the year, but I promise that from this activity, you will gain so much insight into who your students are and what they like.

2. Try out this “One Thing” activity

Another thing that I think is really important to building relationships in the classroom is where the students really get to know each other. It is a fairly simple activity, but it yields powerful results. In this activity, I give them a bunch of sentence starters for them to complete. They are:

• One thing I love is…
• One thing that makes me sad is…
• One thing that makes me laugh is…
• One thing I want to be better at is…
• One thing that makes me upset is…
• One thing I’m afraid of is…

I print out each sentence starter on a separate piece of paper, and then I put them around my room. At each sentence starter, there are pieces of paper where students can write down their responses. I tell my students to NOT write their names on the paper because I want them to feel like they can be honest in their answers. 

Over the next few days, I share out their answers anonymously. I’ve gotten some silly answers to these, but I’ve also received some serious answers too, such as “One thing that makes me angry is when my parents fight.” Or, “One thing that makes me sad is when I lost my turtle.” By doing this activity, my students see that they aren’t the only ones who experience strong emotions when something happens to them.

You can easily do this activity on your own, but if you want, I have all the sentence starters already typed up for you ready to go. All you need to do is print them off, put them up around your room, and your students will be ready to do this activity. I also have a digital version on a Google Form for you as well if that works better for you. Click here to check it out!

3. Become Pen Pals with Your Students 

One of my favorite things to do with my students is to write letters back and forth with them. Each week I have my students write me a letter. This letter often isn’t very long, but it gives me a chance to communicate in a different way with my students. When I first introduced the letter to them at the beginning of the year, they seemed a little apprehensive. However, as the weeks went on my students really loves getting to write to me. 

The thing about this activity though, is that you have to be willing to write back. You don’t have to write very much, but by creating that dialogue through writing with your students, you will help them in multiple ways. 

1. They will become better writers.
2. You will get to know what they like.
3. They get to ask you questions, helping them to know who you are.
4. Ultimately this helps to build a relationship with them.

I’ve had some students that have been extremely shy, and her struggle to talk to me about anything. But when they get a chance to write things down, they feel like they are able to express themselves. This is a chance for students to tell me things that they might not want other people to hear.

Sometimes my students can’t think of anything to write, so I always give them sentence starters. Some of the ideas I give them are:

• One thing I like to do at recess is…
• Some of my friends are…
• What is your favorite…?
• One thing I wish I could do better is…

I change up the sentence starters from week to week depending on whatever it is we are working on. If you want to do this with your students, I have a free weekly letter packet that you can sign up for here. I’ll send it straight to your email, so it doesn’t get lost.

4. Take an Extra Recess to Play with Your Students

The beginning of the year is a great time to take an extra recess or two. Students are still trying to adjust to being back in school after being at home the whole summer. I love taking my kids outside. The first thing I do is watch and observe who plays with who. I watch to see who has lots of friends, and who doesn’t seem to have very many friends. Even though I’m not often out at recess with my students, I take this time at the beginning of the year to make those observations about my students. 

I also like to join in with my students. To do this, I like to have some type of game in mind that we can all play together as a class. Whether it’s something like playing horse on the basketball court or playing some sort of tag, this is a fun way for students to know that you enjoy having fun too.

5. Start using student interests in class right at the beginning of the year.

Another thing you can do to build relationships is to take note of students' interests and start talking about them. A few years ago, I had a student that I could tell, really struggled with math. On the first day of school, I could see him starting to shut down when we did a small math problem from the year before. I knew that math was going to be a difficult subject for him. So I did whatever I could to get him more interested in math. I noticed one day that he was wearing A Stranger Things T-shirt. I asked him if he like Stranger Things, and he told me that he loved it! 

Well, what do you know? The next day one of our math problems was about a guy named Steve who worked at an ice cream shop. If you’ve watched season 3 of Stranger Things, you know what I’m talking about. My student was thrilled to see something he loved being used in math. And you know what, he paid more attention that day. Does that mean he became a math genius? No. He still struggled throughout the year. But I was able to capture his attention, and we continued to go on to have several more conversations about Stranger Things throughout the year.

Building relationships takes time, but it is the foundation of what we do as teachers. It goes back to that old saying that “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” 

I have seen this in my career. There have been times when I haven’t been able to build relationships with students like I should have. And it was hard. Since then, taking the time to foster those relationships with students has been critical to me. Obviously, these are not the only ways to build relationships with students. These are just some ideas that I love to use in my classroom. 

What are some ways that you build relationships with your students? Leave a comment below.

Happy teaching!