Help Students Develop A Love of Reading Teaching Virtually

For many of you, this school year is taking an unexpected turn. So many schools, districts, and states are closing schools for the remainder of the year due to the COVID 19 global pandemic.

I’m sure you did not envision yourself teaching via “distance learning” for the final few months of school. This change is probably requiring you to rethink your teaching strategy… and as challenging as that might be, I want to encourage you that this season of distance learning might be just the thing your students need to fall in love with reading and become life long readers.

As a reading teacher, your number one goal should be to help your students develop a love of books and reading that will extend well past this school year. And the good news is that you can still accomplish that goal even in the midst of distance learning.

If you are looking for ideas, strategies, suggestions and creative ways to help your students love reading during distance learning, keep reading.

Here are 10 ideas to help your students fall in love with reading during distance learning:

Virtual Read Alouds – Students love being read to. Whether you are working your way through a chapter book, or using picture books for your mini-lessons, students love hearing a good story. This doesn’t have to change, even if you are currently doing distance learning, you can still give your students a virtual read aloud… and I would encourage you to do so as often as you can. Even though there are TONS of websites that offer videos or audio files of books being read aloud, they can’t replace you. Your students want to hear from you. They want to hear YOU read to them. So whether you take a video and email it to families or create a private youtube channel that you post videos of you reading or if you have all your students tune into zoom during a set time of the day, one of the best things you can do to get your students to love reading during this distance learning is to do a daily virtual read aloud!
Phone a friend – This idea will not only help your students get excited about reading, but it will also help them connect with their classmates during this season of social distancing. Find out which students have the ability to call, facetime, or skype with a classmate. Then, assign your students buddy reading partners each week and have them call a classmate and either read to them, read with them, or discuss a book that both of the students have read. Buddy reading doesn’t have to stop during distance learning. Phoning a friend to discuss a book will hold your students accountable to reading and will help them connect with their classmates.
Online Books Clubs – Create and facilitate online book clubs. If you had book clubs running in your classroom BEFORE distance learning, you most definitely can run book clubs DURING distance learning. Make sure that all students in the book club have access to the text. If you can’t find a novel or book that all students can access, consider using an article, online text, or video book for students to focus their discussion on. NEWSELA is a great resources for finding online texts. To make this more fun for your students, have them decide when and how they want to run their online book club. Maybe they want to meet for a zoom meeting to collaboratively read the text or just discuss what they read independently. Or maybe they want to read on their own and then post their thoughts to a platform like padlet or kidblog. Keep in mind that this season of social distancing and distance learning can feel just as stressful and uncertain for your students and the more control you can give them the better they will feel. It’s ok to be hands off with your online book clubs.
Have students listen to books online – In addition to your virtual read aloud, have your students listen to other books online. With so much extra time at home, your students can literally spend hours a day enjoying stories. This is a great chance for your struggling readers to find stories that they love listening to. I would encourage you to assign your students to a minimum of 30 minutes of “listening” a day. There are TONS of online sources you can share with your students. Here are a few of my favorites:
- VOOKS – While this is a paid subscription, you can sign-up for a free 30 day trial which might just be long enough to get you through the end of the school year.
- LIBBY – This is an app that allows you to checkout books or audiobooks from your local library. This is a great option if students don’t have access to a ton of books at home.
- Storyline Online – This is a great library of video read alouds. There are hundreds of popular picture books that are read by famous actors and actresses. You can assign certain books or let your students pick and choose what they want to listen to.
- EPIC – This is a huge library that offers books, learning videos, and quizzes and the best part is that they are offering free access through June 30th, 2020.
Do a 30 min a day for 30 day reading challenge – This is a great time to do a reading challenge with your students. I suggest doing 30 min a day for 30 days. Students can either read, re-read, listen to, or watch a book for 30 min a day for 30 days. This is such a great way for kids to build their reading stamina and really develop a love of reading. You can keep track of who completes the challenge and then do a virtual reading party at the end with all your students who complete the challenge. It’s a fun and easy way to get your kids excited about reading while at home.
Create a virtual space for students to share what they are reading – Your students, just like you, are craving social interaction. You can easily create a space for students to share what they are reading. When I was in the classroom I loved letting my students use Padlet or Kidblog as a way to share what they were reading with their classmates. You could use either of these platforms as a way to have your students log what they are reading or listening to during social distancing.
Try out digital resources – if you weren’t using digital resources before, this is a great opportunity for you to try out some new resources for virtual learning. Right now might be a really great time to see how you like using platforms like Google Classroom or Seesaw. You might find a new platform that you and your students love and then you will have just one more tool to start using next year when everything is back to normal.
Outdoor Reading – Getting outdoors is good for all of us. I would suggest assigning students to do their independent reading outdoors a few times a week. Students can read in their front yards, backyards, at a local park – anywhere that is out in nature. I would encourage students to take a picture of them reading outside and post it to a class discussion board somewhere as a way to hold them accountable as well as let them connect with and see what their classmates are up to.
Turn reading into a service project – Set up a service project where your students will call a family friend, grandparent, or someone else who might be lonely and feeling isolated during this time and have them read a story to them over the phone. You could even connect with a local nursing home or assisted living center and see if there is a way you could set up virtual reading so your students can read their favorite stories to people who can’t get visitors right now. If your students are given a chance to see how their reading will brighten and encourage someone’s day, think what a lasting impact that will have on how they view reading.
Host a Reading Camp or a One Day Read-a-thon – This season of social isolation and distance learning can feel like it will never end. Give your students something to look forward to by creating a one day special reading event. You could do a special reading camp or do a one day read-a-thon. To make this feel special considering sending your students an evite or an actual invitation in the mail with the details of the event. It doesn’t need to be fancy, just something special to help break up the monotony of this season.

I hope you are feeling encouraged and even a little bit excited about helping your students fall in love with reading during this season of distance learning. I’m so curious to know, which of these ideas are you going to try out with your students? Is there one or two that is jumping out at you? Don’t feel like you have to try them all, but I would definitely encourage you to try one or two that you think you can get started with this week. I am cheering you on and I can’t wait to hear how this season of distance learning helps your students fall more in love with reading.