Have you been looking for a way to get your students excited about reading? Monthly reading challenges are a fun way to encourage them to spend more time reading. Reading challenges will also help them build reading comprehension, improve their fluency, and develop a lifelong love of books. Keep reading to find out how to set up a reading challenge in your classroom.
How to Set Up a Reading Challenge
Setting up a reading challenge for your students doesn’t have to be difficult. There are just a few things you need to do before starting the challenge. Follow these steps to plan the perfect reading challenge.
#1 – Decide on the goal of the reading challenge.
You can set goals for your whole class or for individual students. The goals can be based on the number of books or the number of minutes your students read. You can have your students complete the reading in the classroom, at home, or a combination of the two.
#2 – Choose a way to track your students’ progress.
You want your students to stay motivated for the whole month. One way to do that is to give them a visual way to track their progress. I like to choose something related to the month. For example, in December, my students get to decorate a snowman. For each book they read, they get to add a body part or accessory to their snowman.
#3 – Have your students read and respond to their books.
One of the most frequent questions I get about reading challenges is how to know if your students actually read the books. I like to have my students complete short response sheets. Just have your students answer a few questions about the book they read. You can usually tell if they really read and understood it from their answers. If it seems like they were “fake reading,” do a quick book conference with them and have them retell the story. If they aren’t able to remember the important parts, ask them to “reread” it before they receive credit for it.
#4 – Celebrate your students’ accomplishments.
This last step is a really important one. At the end of the month, see which students reached their goals. I like to give them a certificate and a small prize as a reward. If your whole class achieves the goal, you can even have a special celebration.
Benefits of Reading Challenges
There are many benefits to using reading challenges in your classroom.
- Your students will become self-motivated readers. Before I started using reading challenges, I sometimes felt like I was forcing my students to read. They would complain every time I asked them to take out a book and read. They never got their reading logs signed for homework. Then, I started my first reading challenge, and all of that changed. They took out books to read in the morning, when they finished work early, and when they were waiting for dismissal. Parents even emailed me to tell me how much their children were reading at home.
- Reading challenges work with any reading program. Whether your school district uses a reading workshop model or a reading program, you can make reading challenges work for your class. If you have silent reading time during the school day, your students can use that time to read books for the challenge. If there’s no time for reading built into your schedule, your students can do their reading at home. Just make sure the goals they set are reasonable for the amount of time they will have to read.
- Your students’ reading comprehension, fluency, and accuracy will improve. The more time your students spend reading, the better they will get at it. We often hear the saying “Practice makes perfect” when we’re talking about playing an instrument or a sport. However, this is also true for reading. Your students will build comprehension, fluency, and accuracy skills as they read and respond to more books.
- Your students will develop a lifelong love of reading. This is my favorite benefit of reading challenges. Even students who hated reading when they entered third grade left loving it because of reading challenges. They found books and series they enjoyed and realized that reading was really fun!
Monthly Reading Challenges
If you want to try some reading challenges that are completely ready for you to use, start by downloading the free Reading Superstars Reading Challenge. It will work for any month of the year, and it is an easy way to get started with reading challenges. Then, check out the reading challenges for the different months of the year.
- January – Curl Up with a Good Book Challenge
- February – We Love Reading Challenge
- March – Can You Read the Rainbow? Challenge
- April – Garden of Books Challenge
- May – Read Around the World Challenge
- June – Here’s the Scoop Challenge
- September – Flying Into a New School Year Challenge
- October – Pick a Patch of Books Challenge
- November – Gobbling Up Books Challenge
- December – Reading Is “Snow” Much Fun Challenge
You can get the whole year of reading challenges in this Reading Challenges Bundle.
What Do You Think?
Have you ever tried a reading challenge with your students?
Let us know in the comments.
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