In Community With Readers

This is the book I want for all teachers of reading. For those who know that teaching is really the work of deeply listening to and loving all kids. Franki and Lynsey show you their evolution as longtime teachers and center the kids in each teacherly decision. Before you begin your next year of teaching, start here.

—Nawal Qarooni, educator and author of Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations: Elevating Home Experiences and Classroom Practices for Collective Care

In Community With Readers invites us into a beloved reading community and supports us in planning whole-class reading instruction that centers freedom, love, and standards. Burkins and Sibberson show us how to shift the power dynamics in our instruction to co-create understanding and unpack standards alongside our students. They help us learn how to read standards with criticality, recognizing our biases and the impacts of systemic oppression. They provide classroom examples, step-by-step guides, planning ideas, and questions to view the standards through a lens of possibilities rather than limitations. This book is a call to action to cultivate joyful readers who are critical thinkers, compassionate listeners, truth seekers, and citizens who advocate for justice. This book is what teachers need, want, and aspire to create for their students every day.

—Clare Landrigan, literacy coach and co-author of It's All About the Books: How to Create Bookrooms and Classroom Libraries That Inspire Readers

Within these pages, Lynsey and Franki use artifacts from their and their students’ learning to share the why, what, and how of nurturing a beloved reading community. Their words show respect and care for a beloved teaching community, making this text an addition to my “menu of mentors” for those who are either new to the field or new to the practice of teaching with and learning from children.

—Keisha Smith-Carrington, Supervisor of Humanities and co-author of Read-Alouds with Heart: Literacy Lessons that Build Community, Comprehension, and Cultural Competency

Imagine a classroom where teachers and students joyfully and intellectually co-create a “beloved reading community” where all learners are invited, as one student put it, to “come join our family.” Masterful teachers Lynsey Burkins and Franki Sibberson have crafted a magnificent resource that provides us numerous tools, routines, strategies, and plans for co-constructing with students the deep questioning, analyzing, and listening skills that lead to authentic conversations around terrific texts. Intentional instruction and responsive teaching at its finest!

—Regie Routman, teacher and author of The Heart-Centered Teacher: Restoring Hope, Joy and Possibility in Uncertain Times

Rooted in a pedagogy of listening and reflection, Franki and Lynsey exemplify how to cultivate and sustain a beloved reading community where children's voices are honored as they co-construct meaning collectively. This book is a reminder of the marvelous brilliance that readers bring to our school community and the power of collective thinking.

—Stella Villalba, language and literacy educator and consultant

No matter where you are in your journey as an educator, In Community With Readers will leave you inspired. You’ll walk away eager to begin or continue pursuing the love and freedom that we know reading offers when experienced alongside those we find ourselves in community with.

—Antonia Adams, educator and book blogger @BlackGirlThatReads

What shines from every page of this book is a deep respect for children--their experiences, their opinions, and their inner lives. Lynsey and Franki create spaces where young readers can find intellectual and emotional safety and the freedom to be themselves. Many conversations about young readers do not include their voices. This book reminds us all that children's voices should be the loudest in the room.

—Donalyn Miller, reading advocate and author