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 enlarge | Author: Donalyn Miller
Creator: Jeff Anderson
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
Buy New: $14.68
You Save: $8.27 (36%)
(as of 7/30/10 10:25 PDT - Details)
New (42) Used (24) from $14.41
Rating:  64 reviews
Sales Rank: 278
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 10.2 x 7 x 0.7
ISBN: 0470372273
Dewey Decimal Number: 372.6
EAN: 9780470372272
ASIN: 0470372273
Publication Date: March 16, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Donalyn Miller says she has yet to meet a child she couldn't turn into a reader. No matter how far behind Miller's students might be when they reach her 6th grade classroom, they end up reading an average of 40 to 50 books a year. Miller's unconventional approach dispenses with drills and worksheets that make reading a chore. Instead, she helps students navigate the world of literature and gives them time to read books they pick out themselves. Her love of books and teaching is both infectious and inspiring. The book includes a dynamite list of recommended "kid lit" that helps parents and teachers find the books that students really like to read.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 64
In Less Than a Week, I Became a Book Whisperer, Too March 15, 2009
paisleymonsoon (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
34 out of 34 found this review helpful
How do you awaken the inner reader in someone? You teach them to read for pleasure. It sounds like such a simple concept really. Forcing spinach down a kid's throat doesn't make a kid love spinach any more than forcing boring books down a kid's throat. But serving that spinach in a souffle and giving a kid a book that they enjoy just might work.
The author pulled me in from the beginning by being a reflection of what I'd like to see myself be as a literature teacher. Mainly, she's able to turn non-readers into readers and to turn book loathers into book lovers. Her 6th grade class is challenged to read 40 books each year and most go even beyond that goal. But I work with adult ESL students in an American literature class. Could her methods work for them as well? In one week, I've already noticed an excitement from my book loathers when I announce that it's time for pleasure reading in class. They know that if they don't like something, they're not going to be forced to read it for "pleasure". And that seems to make all the difference to them.
I felt the need to underline passages and write in the margins of this book (a rarity for me) as I read. Miller talks about how important it is that students read to become good readers. This is why she feels so strongly about giving free reading time in class. She also feels that teachers should re-evaluate class activities to determine whether such activities are accomplishing anything or are mere busy work that could be replaced by reading time. She also expresses the importance of reading leading to private dialogue or "whispering" between student and teacher and between student and student. This whispering can be accomplished through letters back and forth between student and teacher and from individual student-teacher conferences. It can also be accomplished through book reviews and class projects like book commercials.
Miller seems to have reached many of the same conclusions I've reached within the past couple of years. For example, I recently added a class library from among my own books and let students choose their own novel to read rather than reading a group novel. However, many of the things I've felt haven't been working for my class but have had no solution to are things Miller was able to find a solution for. For example, she gives alternative ideas to students stumbling over reading aloud in class round-robin-style. And she discusses alternatives to reading logs which students aren't likely to keep up with. I also added many of her beginning-of-the-year interest survey questions to the survey I had been using to give me a deeper insight into my students' minds.
I'm excited by the possibilities this book has offered me for the teaching of my class. I feel that every reading and literature teacher should take the time to read this book. I think that any open-minded, book-loving reading teacher with enough time can use the strategies in this book to help their students develop a genuine love for reading.
Every educator should read this book! March 2, 2009
L. K. Messner
22 out of 22 found this review helpful
Donalyn Miller gets it. She understands perfectly why many of our kids don't like reading any more, and she has the answer. You'd think Congress would be knocking down her door by now. Let's hope it happens soon.
In the mean time, anyone who considers himself or herself a teacher needs to read THE BOOK WHISPERER. It's a book that gets right to the heart of what makes us readers and how to instill that love of words and stories in our kids. Miller goes right after so-called "tried and true" methods like comprehension tests, book reports, whole class required novels, and test preparation workbooks not just with empty criticism but with solid research that supports reading time and student choice. More importantly, she provides a healthy list of more kid-friendly, reading-friendly alternative strategies that teachers can use in their classrooms right away.
Truly, this book is a model for getting kids back to books they love, and it provides a great model for classroom teachers to follow. For those who aren't sure where to start, there are plenty of anecdotes, sample student interactions, and useful classroom forms to get new teachers started.
I'm both a children's author and a National Board Certified middle school English teacher, and I found myself nodding my way through these pages to the very end. Miller's ideas -- and they're ideas that smart teachers all over our country are using in various ways -- have the power to make a real difference in education.
Inspiration to get those kids reading! March 15, 2009
Stephen Richmond (Newton, Massachusetts)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
Books are criticized all the time for what they lack. Even prolific and enormously successful J. K. Rowling has been bashed for everything from selling out to commercialization to satanism and devil worship. How gratifying to find in this tight book lots of reasons kids should be reading and lots of ways to get them to do so. Miller's approach is a bit different. She wildly embraces the concept of kids making their own reading choices and reading independently. No moronic worksheets for comprehension or cribbed book reports here, just lots of suggestions for the classroom library and lots of ways for kids to talk about their choices intelligently to adults and especially to other kids, spreading the word quite literally. Courageously, Miller even admits to developing her classroom library entirely at her own expense and invites others to do so as well. She says it's really the only way to create a sufficiently extensive library with ever shrinking school budgets and shrunken head administrators who are more interested in competency testing scores than in children learning to read. She also provides some inexpensive and even free methods of acquiring books. This is great stuff, highly recommended, and THE reading inspiration book for this genreration.
Life changing March 19, 2009
S. Kay Murphy (Mt. Baldy, CA USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
As a reader and a teacher, I loved this book. I was actually put off by the title (could we stop with the "fill-in-the-blank Whisperer" titles, please?), but once I started the book, I had a hard time putting it down. As a teacher, everything Miller said made sense. She is spot on in terms of the studies she cites--yes, the most important thing we can do to make our students better readers & writers is to simply let them read--and she presents her material in an engaging, fluent voice. My classroom, I believe, will be revolutionized by her suggestions. My high school kids already have a time for silent reading, but I will be implementing many of Miller's techniques come the new school year, which I think will enhance our 15 minutes of SSR. I'm thrilled that I stumbled upon this little book, and I recommend it to all teachers, especially those hard-working elementary school teachers. Put it on your summer reading list! It's a must read!!
Good Book for Teachers and Parents to Help Children Love to Read March 15, 2009
C. Stephans
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
In the past 7 or 8 years, I've reviewed over 350 books on Amazon; however, prior to college I could count the books I had read on one hand. All through school I never learned to enjoy reading or how to choose books I would like. Reading was just something I had to do when it was assigned--unless I could get around it.
Donalyn Miller seeks to change this very situation by helping her students learn to love to read. Based on her results, she is extremely successful in developing life-long readers, something that is unfortunately not the norm in our culture. In The Book Whisperer, Miller shares how she helps her students love to read.
The audience for this book is mainly teachers. I think Parents like me will also find this book worthwhile and enlightening. Teachers will probably see things in the book they already now, and they will see things they didn't know and can employ in their classrooms. Miller contradicts some standard teaching methods for 5th-8th graders. For example, Miller helps students choose book based on their tastes and interests rather than making all students read a classic novel together over several weeks. She has her own extensive library in her room. Students help one another pick out books. Also she shows how independent reading time in class is important and effective for students.
Her most significant attribute for writing this book is her own love for books and reading. She knows books, especially books for students. She includes a list of about 100 books that her students recommend for other children. For parents and children, this list is helpful to have.
Miller provides practical suggestions of how to implement a practice like hers in your classroom. She shows what works and what doesn't. She teaches how to track students' activities and progress.
If you want to learn how to awaken the "inner reader" in children or students, this is a good place to start.
Craig Stephans, author of Shakespeare On Spirituality: Life-Changing Wisdom from Shakespeare's Plays
Showing reviews 1-5 of 64
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