What teaching strategies could possibly lead 21st-century teens to a love of reading?
Following the advice of Doug Fisher, a few simple strategies became the key to the success of Starbooks. A practice called shared reading played a central role in actively teaching middle school students to fall in love with reading. Shared reading requires that each student have a copy of the book, and as the teacher reads the text aloud, the students follow along silently, keeping their eyes on text. Shared reading allows the teacher to model the habits of expert readers. Teachers were able to demonstrate the power of the written word to move them to laughter, anger, or tears. This example sets a powerful model for young readers to follow. Shared reading also paces the reading selection so that the book is read from cover to cover. Many students reported that because of shared reading, Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie was the first novel they had ever completely read. Shared reading was coupled with the think-aloud strategy to help teachers not only model the behavior of strong reader
