There's a lot of conversation happening lately around student reading stamina. Rose Horowitch's Atlantic article, "The Elite College Students who Can't Read Books," helped stir the pot. I'm sure you've seen evidence of the same issues she brings up - that students are struggling to stay focused through books, and often come to you having read a lot of excerpts and short pieces rather than full novels. Test-prep, phone culture, COVID - there are all kinds of reasons, but the bottom line for you as a teacher is, what can you do about it?

Today's request for our new "Plan My Lesson" series comes from a teacher looking for ways to help her students build their reading stamina. She's wondering how she can help her students work toward longer reads and more of 'em.

Perhaps you're wondering the same? This is a big question, and we're just planning one lesson. But let's zoom in on a snapshot of a class that could help students move toward longer, more-engaged reading sessions. We'll start, like The Odyssey, in medias res.

Related Links:

Episode 196: How Caitlin's Verse Novel Book Clubs Engaged Seniors 'Til the End: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2023/06/how-caitlins-verse-novel-book-clubs-engaged-seniors-til-the-end.html

How to Host a Book Tasting: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2019/03/how-to-host-book-tasting-free-resource.html

Episode 204: Students Need Diverse Texts and Choice, with Dr. Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica and Dr. Allison Briceño: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2023/07/students-need-diverse-texts-and-choice-heres-help.html

The Dos and Don'ts of Donors Choose: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2019/01/the-dos-and-donts-of-donors-choose-for.html

Go Further:

Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast.

Launch your choice reading program with all my favorite tools and recs, and grab the free toolkit.

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