Welcome


Welcome to our Reading Promises Blog for families at Sinking Springs Elementary! Thank you for stopping by to read, learn, and share with us.

The purpose of this blog is to connect the readers of this blog and their reading promise experiences. The Reading Promise Project is based upon the reading streak author Alice Ozma chronicles in her real life memoir, The Reading Promise, between her and her father. What started as a seemingly lofty goal of 100 consecutive nights of reading together when Alice was in fourth grade, turned into a streak lasting until Alice's first day of college, 3,218 days. Our project aims to inspire as many others as possible to create reading promises of their own.

If you are a Sinking Springs parent or student, I hope that you will use this blog as a way to communicate with other families about your reading streak experiences. Tell us stories from your daily reading experiences, what books you've loved and what books you've passed up. Share your successes with us to celebrate and your challenges with us to collaborate on solutions. What little magical moments have arisen because of the commitment you've made to reading with your family? What books have you found that are must-reads for other families?

If you are a new visitor to our blog, I invite you to join our conversation and share your thoughts and experiences! From what I've learned by following Alice Ozma on various social media networks, our readers are not the first, nor the last to be inspired to begin reading streaks. I've seen other stories about amazing family reading moments and the readers at our school would love to hear about thoughts, experiences, suggestions, successes, and challenges from anyone else out there who is taking the same journey or just interesting in sharing his/her thoughts. Contribute to our conversation! Become a part of our online community of readers. We'd love to have you.

Join us in the effort to make reading a special part of your everyday life. Make a promise to read with your family, your classroom, your friends, your loved ones.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Calling All Classrooms!

It's that time of year again! The Back to School season has already begun for many of you, or if you're like myself, it is quickly approaching. (Tomorrow already?! Really?!)

This year, why not participate in a project to promote literacy skills, encourage the value of reading, and prepare your students to be 21st century learners by connecting them to a global network of peers?


Creating a reading promise with your classroom this year focuses around something that you probably already do with your students on a daily basis any way-- read! The only difference is that by making a conscious effort to start the conversation and commit to a reading promise with your class, you are putting a spotlight on the value of reading for your students. Seeing how long you can make your streak last will help to build motivation and enthusiasm for reading together. Your students will become aware of the reading taking place in your classroom, and hopefully, look forward to the challenge of continuing their streak.

One of the best parts about this project? You can make the rules to fit your reading promise and your learners. There is no right or wrong way to read with your students. As you start bring up the discussion about your reading promise (Look for an upcoming post with more details about this!), develop the rules that suit your preferences. You can decide if 5 minutes is enough to count for reading together, or if 10 would be better. Maybe even more. What types of materials will count toward your reading streak- chapter books, pictures books, text books, magazines, articles? Up to you! Who will do the reading if you are absent from school? Will it count if a substitute reads to the class or will you use some more creative means to keep the streak alive-- Skype, audio recordings, etc.? You decide!

Whatever rules work for your reading promise, work for the project. Are you reading together? If the answer is yes, then you are good to go!

As classrooms start to join our Reading Promise community, the stories and ideas that are shared on this blog will serve to inspire and motivate others. It is also my hope that as students become excited about their classroom reading streaks, that enthusiasm and interest will spread to their homes and allow them to begin additional, longer lasting reading promises with their families. 

If you are interested in joining us on this journey and making a promise to commit to reading with your class every day, sign up using the Google form to connect with us. Have your class become Guest Bloggers and post about their streak stories or favorite books they've enjoyed along the way.

I hope to hear from all of you soon and learn about your literary journeys.

Happy Reading!
Mrs. Hartman

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