1st Edition
In Community With Readers Transforming Reading Instruction with Read-Alouds and Minilessons
“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.
1 Building Identity, Independence, and Agency for Readers through Whole-Class Instruction 2 Shifting Power and Control in Minilessons and Read Aloud 3 Getting to Know the Standards 4 Getting to Know Books 5 Getting to Know Your Students by Listening With Love and Intention 6 A Close Look at a Minilesson Cycle 7 A Close Look at a Read Aloud 8 Planning Intentionally for the First Eight Weeks of School
Biography
Lynsey Burkins is a proud educator who has worked for children for the past twenty years. She works toward creating anti-racist spaces where children feel free, have agency, and know they are loved. She believes books are primary vehicles to help children become more free. Lynsey received her master's degree from The Ohio State University in Language, Literacy, and Culture. She is the co-author of Classroom Design for Student Agency.
Franki Sibberson is a literacy leader with over thirty years of experience as an elementary classroom teacher in Ohio. Franki served as president of the National Council of Teachers of English. She is the co-author of several books, including Beyond Leveled Books, Still Learning to Read, and Classroom Design for Student Agency.
This is the book I want for all teachers of reading. For those who know that teaching is really the work of deeply listening to and loving all kids. Franki and Lynsey show you their evolution as longtime teachers and center the kids in each teacherly decision. Before you begin your next year of teaching, start here.
—Nawal Qarooni, educator and author of Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations: Elevating Home Experiences and Classroom Practices for Collective Care
In Community With Readers invites us into a beloved reading community and supports us in planning whole-class reading instruction that centers freedom, love, and standards. Burkins and Sibberson show us how to shift the power dynamics in our instruction to co-create understanding and unpack standards alongside our students. They help us learn how to read standards with criticality, recognizing our biases and the impacts of systemic oppression. They provide classroom examples, step-by-step guides, planning ideas, and questions to view the standards through a lens of possibilities rather than limitations. This book is a call to action to cultivate joyful readers who are critical thinkers, compassionate listeners, truth seekers, and citizens who advocate for justice. This book is what teachers need, want, and aspire to create for their students every day.
—Clare Landrigan, literacy coach and co-author of It's All About the Books: How to Create Bookrooms and Classroom Libraries That Inspire Readers
Within these pages, Lynsey and Franki use artifacts from their and their students’ learning to share the why, what, and how of nurturing a beloved reading community. Their words show respect and care for a beloved teaching community, making this text an addition to my “menu of mentors” for those who are either new to the field or new to the practice of teaching with and learning from children.
—Keisha Smith-Carrington, Supervisor of Humanities and co-author of Read-Alouds with Heart: Literacy Lessons that Build Community, Comprehension, and Cultural Competency
Imagine a classroom where teachers and students joyfully and intellectually co-create a “beloved reading community” where all learners are invited, as one student put it, to “come join our family.” Masterful teachers Lynsey Burkins and Franki Sibberson have crafted a magnificent resource that provides us numerous tools, routines, strategies, and plans for co-constructing with students the deep questioning, analyzing, and listening skills that lead to authentic conversations around terrific texts. Intentional instruction and responsive teaching at its finest!
—Regie Routman, teacher and author of The Heart-Centered Teacher: Restoring Hope, Joy and Possibility in Uncertain Times
Rooted in a pedagogy of listening and reflection, Franki and Lynsey exemplify how to cultivate and sustain a beloved reading community where children's voices are honored as they co-construct meaning collectively. This book is a reminder of the marvelous brilliance that readers bring to our school community and the power of collective thinking.
—Stella Villalba, language and literacy educator and consultant
No matter where you are in your journey as an educator, In Community With Readers will leave you inspired. You’ll walk away eager to begin or continue pursuing the love and freedom that we know reading offers when experienced alongside those we find ourselves in community with.
—Antonia Adams, educator and book blogger @BlackGirlThatReads
What shines from every page of this book is a deep respect for children--their experiences, their opinions, and their inner lives. Lynsey and Franki create spaces where young readers can find intellectual and emotional safety and the freedom to be themselves. Many conversations about young readers do not include their voices. This book reminds us all that children's voices should be the loudest in the room.
—Donalyn Miller, reading advocate and author
