Presented by Billy Spicer, Instructional Coach, Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95, IL
Sponsored by myON

Watch the Recording

If you view the recording and would like a CE certificate, join the Building a Community of Readers community and go to the CE Quizzes link in the Community Toolbox.

Educators play a vital role in curating lifelong literacy among their learners, but how exactly can they best help their students cultivate a love for reading? The work begins and ends in crafting an environment that inspires readers. Building a reading community that supports engagement with text in the form of reading, writing, listening, connecting and speaking is a pathway educators can take to create such an environment. Within an active and meaningful reading environment educators can dive into practices that inspire students to read more, stress the importance of picking books (and abandoning them!), and the role of personalized reading.

In this edWebinar, Instructional Coach at Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95 in Illinois Billy Spicer shares practices to learn how to:

• Unpack students’ current mindset around reading
• Help students build and maintain their unique reading identity
• Abandon harmful labels and categories for readers
• Create avenues to promote a growth mindset in reading
• Plan sacred time for readers to discuss and process what they’re reading
• Create entry points for student choice and voice
• Foster true engagement for independent reading versus strategic compliance
• Leverage reading challenges

Shift happens, but it can sometimes feel incredibly scary! When educators take a risk in rethinking an element of their practice it can lead to uncertainty and anxiety. Elementary and middle school educators and librarians are invited to watch this edWebinar. Learn to breathe easy and seek out some entry points to create a community of readers within your classrooms.

About the Presenters

Billy Spicer currently teaches in Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95 in suburban Chicago, IL. After 10 years teaching grades three to five, Billy now serves students and teachers as an instructional coach. He recently spent time with the Shedd Aquarium in the Bahamas where he lived on a research vessel for a week conducting scientific inquiry. Earlier in his career, he worked at Walt Disney World for the Animal Programs department in entertaining, educating, and inspiring conservation action. Billy facilitates a passion for literacy, passionate learning, and social media to discover creative ways for students to meet their individual learning needs. He believes that authentic and purposeful technology integration is a non-negotiable aspect in providing students with the tools to be successful. Billy earned his BA in elementary education at Illinois State University and an MA in literacy and reading from Benedictine University. To learn more about his interests and passions in and out of the classroom, follow him on Twitter @MrBillySpicer.

Join the Building a Community of Readers community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, view past edWebinars, take a quiz to receive a CE certificate for a past edWebinar, and access free resources.

myON is a student-centered, personalized literacy platform that offers unlimited access to thousands of enhanced digital books. Titles are dynamically matched to each individual student’s interests, grade and Lexile® reading level. Literacy tools and embedded supports foster engagement and achievement. Teachers can assign reading, writing and robust projects to support curriculum and differentiate instruction 3/4 and monitor student progress 3/4 within the myON platform.