Readers…Poster Freebie & Reading Praise

Each year I hang reading strategy posters up in my classroom.  I refer to the posters throughout the year as I remind my students that a reader’s mind is always busy making connections, predicting, asking questions, inferring, visualizing, and summarizing while reading.

Every year I’ve used posters that say “Good Readers…Predict…Make Connections…etc.” 

This year, I took out the word “Good.”

No, I haven’t lost my mind and want my students to be “bad” readers.  But I decided I did not want to to label a reader as “good” because that tells children that some readers are “bad.”  We all have readers who struggle.  Some will always struggle.  Struggling readers not only struggle with reading skills, they struggle with their confidence and self-esteem as a young reader.  If I teach my students that “good readers visualize” I may unknowingly create the impression that if a student struggles with visualizing, he or she must not be a “good” reader.   I want my students to walk through my classroom door knowing they are already readers – without any labeling.  

Perhaps this seems like a small and trivial detail to put into making a set of freebie posters, but I believe it holds truth for how we commend our students and praise them in reading.  Children, especially at the K-3 level, are still gaining confidence – daily – in their reading skills.  They need to be constantly reinforced in order to maintain and gain a love and thrill of learning. Instead of over-using the words “good” or “great”, try reinforcing the specific reading skills your children succeed at:

“When you went back and reread, you figured that word out!”
“You asked some great questions about the ending of that book.”
“Your voice had a lot of expression in it when you read.”
“Your connection helped you understand the character better.”

When we give specific feedback, we reinforce the student in a targeted reading skill.  More importantly, we continue to build their confidence and self-esteem as developing readers. 

You can find my FREE What Do Readers Do? Classroom Poster Set in my TpT store by clicking the picture below or clicking {HERE} to download!  ðŸ™‚  

Enjoy! 🙂 

Happy Learning,

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