Hopes & Dreams

At the beginning of every school year, I always spend the first few days with my fourth grade students discussing our hopes and dreams for the year. This idea is based on the Responsive Classroom approach to developing a positive learning environment with students. We read some books together (More Than Anything Else by Marie Bradby is one of my favorites for this!) and students think about the hopes and dreams that they have for the upcoming year. It is a great conversation for helping children to think about their goals and what actions will help to achieve them.

If you are joining us here and reading this post, hopefully it is because you are interested in taking on the challenge of starting a Reading Promise streak of your own. One of the first things to consider when creating a Reading Promise are the hopes and dreams of the members participating. Why are you embarking on this journey? Your ideas might be different from your child's ideas. That's ok! Discuss both! What do you hope to gain from this experience? Is this an opportunity to read more books, spend more time together, try out different genres, become better readers, discuss reading together more? When you envision yourself a month from now, six months from now, a year or more from now, what do you hope that you have accomplished? Ideally, think of how long you want to try to continue your streak. Alice and her father originally only planned on 100 days. Setting small, achievable goals will help to build confidence and enthusiasm.

Maybe you want to spend the first few days of your streak talking about this with your children, students, friends, etc. and reading books based around this theme. If you're looking for some ideas of books that match this idea, Responsive Classroom has a list of suggested books that they've found related to inspiring hopes and dreams. They also have a Hopes and Dreams Pinterest board devoted to the same topic. Check out their lists and see what you think. You may even have some ideas of your own. If you do, please share!!

Discussing your hopes and dreams related to the Reading Promise challenge will help you and your promise members to establish some goals. In turn, having some clear goals will help to keep you focused and on track with what your promise.

The hopes and dreams discussion also makes a great segue into giving children the some ownership in their learning to help create rules that will help them to achieve everyone's hopes and dreams (which, coincidentally, will be one of next steps in the Reading Promise process that we discuss).

What are your hopes and dreams for your Reading Promise? Share them with us! Can't wait to hear how these promises will inspire each of your families and classrooms.

Happy Reading!
Mrs. Hartman