ReadWriteThink: May 1, 2009: May is Get Caught Reading Month!

May 1, 2009

		Celebrat- ing its 10th annivers- ary, Get Caught Reading is a nationwide public service campaign launched by the Association of American Publishers to remind people of all ages how much fun it is to read. May is officially Get Caught Reading month, but the celebration lasts throughout the year. Get Caught Reading is supported by hundreds of celebrities, including LL Cool J, Dylan and Cole Sprouse, and the newest addition, Olivia the Pig. Image courtesy of Association of American Publishers

May is Get Caught Reading Month!

CLASSROOM ACTIVITY

Celebrate Get Caught Reading Month with a reading-related service project. Try one of these activities with your students:

Plan an intergenerational reading day. Invite seniors to visit your school, or arrange a trip for your students to a local senior center. Have students select books to read to adults, and invite adults to share a favorite story with students. Extend an ongoing invitation to guest readers, perhaps on a monthly basis.
Organize a book drive to collect new or nearly new books to supplement your classroom or school library, or to donate to families or a local children’s hospital.

Be sure to have a camera on hand to “catch your students reading” on film throughout the month. You can also have students organize a community “Get Caught Reading” campaign by taking photos of members of their families and community figures (firefighters, grocers, local police officers, etc.) caught reading, and creating a school display.

Lesson Plans

Reading Everywhere with Dr. Seuss
In this lesson, students in grades K–2 create a book modeled on Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham. In the process, they discover all the special places they can read.

A Daily DEAR Program: Drop Everything, and Read!
This lesson for grades 3–5 outlines a plan for a daily independent reading program.

Is This the Right Book for Me? Strategies for Beginning Readers
This lesson introduces beginning readers to book-matching strategies that help them select appropriate books independently.

Boys Read: Considering Courage in Novels
This lesson motivates middle school boys to read by examining courage in novels. In the companion lesson Girls Read: Online Literature Circles, multicultural literature with strong female protagonists serves as the focus for e-mail exchanges and classroom discussions.

Web Links

Get Caught Reading
The Get Caught Reading website offers resources for teachers, librarians, and kids. Look for literacy fact sheets, artwork, and information on getting involved.

Family Literacy: How To Kit
The Northwest Territories Literacy Council offers this reproducible guide to Get Caught Reading. Included are ideas for promoting this and other literacy programs, as well as reproducible bookmarks and posters.

Reading Connects: Practical Ideas
Reading Connects offers this page, filled with suggestions for promoting reading at school.

KidsReads.com
KidsReads.com helps kids select books that appeal to them by offering kid-friendly reviews and information about children’s books and authors. The information is searchable by author, series, and special features. The companion site Teenreads.com focuses on young adult literature.

Texts

Beers, Kylene and Teri Lesesne, eds. 2001. Books for You: An Annotated Booklist for Senior High. NCTE.
This book for high school students, teachers, and librarians offers an annotated list of over 1,000 books, arranged in topical chapters and indexed.

Bouchard, David. 2004. For the Love of Reading. Orca Book Publishers.
Parents and teachers can supplement their libraries with children’s books suggested in this text. It features an annotated listing of over 500 books for infants, children, and teens.

Backes, Laura. 2001. Best Books for Kids Who (Think They) Hate to Read. Prima Lifestyles.
Find dozens of books to help foster a love of reading in children ages 7–14. Included are practical advice for encouraging children to read, book descriptions, and title and author indexes.