Stepping Out of the Boat!

I have worked in a departmentalized upper elementary setup since my second year of teaching.  As a new teacher, I followed what was expected when it came to curriculum.  With each year, I felt more comfortable to change it up and stretch my creative wings.  I began to see flaws with the reading program at the time and felt chained to a teachers manual.  We were teaching stories and the test instead of skills. I was discouraged and dreading reading just as much as my students.

As if on cue, TpT shows up on the scene!  What a breath of fresh air!  Teachers daring to do what's best for their students.  Teachers sharing ideas and materials.  One seller in particular impacted my reading instruction the most: Erin Cobb!  Using her interactive notebooks gave me some freedom while still using the latest curriculum adoption.  I slowly branched out and quit using the textbook all together.  Students couldn't wait to read the next chapters of our books and enjoyed cutting and gluing and coloring notes.  

My students loved using the notes.  I have middle school students who say they kept their interactive notebooks and used them in middle school.  These notebooks are the core of my classroom instruction.

But I still felt like something else was missing.  

THE LOVE OF READING was missing!!!!  That's when I read The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller.  For two years now, I've used class sets of books and taught using the interactive notebooks.  I monitored independent reading using AR.  I was already rocking the boat by not teaching the adopted curriculum, but Donalyn Miller wanted me to jump out of the boat all together!!!

So here's the deal.  I need help taking my first step out of the boat.  I feel like I have a good start.  How do you plan?  How do you keep your students accountable?  What order do you teach everything?  Do you still use class novels?  Read alouds?  What TpT resources would you suggest?  What do you do with your students who just won't read?

I always tell parents my goal each year is to have my students fall in love with reading.  You'll be hard pressed to find someone who loves reading that isn't good at it.  All it takes is the right book.

Can't wait to hear from you!