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No More Fake Reading: Merging the Classics With Independent Reading to Create Joyful, Lifelong Readers (Corwin Literacy) 1st Edition
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For middle and high school teachers, it’s one of today’s most vexing problems: How do you motivate students with varied interests and little appetite for classic literature to stop faking their way through texts and start advancing as skilled, engaged readers?
Independent reading is an important part of the answer, but it’s just that ― a part of the whole. In this groundbreaking book, Berit Gordon offers the complete solution, a blended model that combines the benefits of classic literature with the motivational power of choice reading.
With the blended model, teachers lead close examinations of key passages from classic texts, guiding students to an understanding of important reading strategies they can transfer to their choice books. Teachers gain a platform for demonstrating the critical reading skills students so urgently require, and students thrive on reading what they want to read.
In this research backed book, Gordon leads you step by step to classroom success with the blended model, showing:
- The basics of getting your classroom library up and running
- How to build a blended curriculum for both fiction and non fiction units, keeping relevant standards in mind
- Tips and resources to help with day to day planning
- Ideas for selecting class novel passages that provide essential cultural capital and bolster students’ reading skills
- Strategies for bringing talk into your blended reading classroom
- How to reach the crucial learning goal of transfer
- A practical, user friendly approach for assessing each student’s progress
No More Fake Reading gives you all the tools you need to put the blended model to work for your students and transform your classroom into a vibrant reading environment.
Berit Gordon coaches teachers as they nurture lifelong readers and writers. Her path as an educator began in the classroom in the Dominican Republic before teaching in New York City public schools. She also taught at the Teachers College of Columbia University in English Education. She currently works as a literacy consultant in grades 3 12 and lives in Maplewood, New Jersey with her husband and three children.
- ISBN-101506365515
- ISBN-13978-1506365510
- Edition1st
- PublisherCorwin
- Publication dateAugust 18, 2017
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions7.38 x 0.65 x 9.13 inches
- Print length288 pages
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Berit Gordon is the best word whisperer, lighting a love for words in even the most reluctant of readers and writers. Her techniques created an atmosphere of electricity in a classroom that had lost its spark for communication. Many books that I′ve read only speak to the strategy and provide anchor charts. Berit goes further and explains the what, why, how, and when of the strategy in use. This is key. Berit is key. For many of us, we know what we want our students to do. We just need a little direction to get there. Berit provides the map, serves as GPS, and leads us to the place where our classrooms are now abuzz with engaged readers and inspired writers." -- Wendy Platt
"While I had spent over 20 years implementing book clubs and independent reading in my Language Arts classroom, I had never quite approached it in the same way Berit Gordon outlined in No More Fake Reading. Now, my students are reading at least double the previous required amount, and they are thrilled with the large amount of choice. I found it effortless to create a curriculum where I match in-class texts with independent reading. The students find the more challenging texts enjoyable when sampling them rather than haranguing through the truly difficult ones or just reading spark notes!"
-- Rose Leonard, English Teacher
"After attending an eye-opening workshop with Berit Gordon, I followed her lead and tried something new with my Freshmen College Prep Students. I’d been teaching Great Expectations to this age group for years and it was always a challenge for them and for me. The assigned nightly reading went unread, and if they did read, they did not understand it. Every day felt exhausting, as I would re-teach the previous night’s assignment. This year, using Berit’s ideas as a guide, I opted to use the novel as an in-class text, analyzing passages to teach close reading skills while the students chose books to read on their own … Students delved into these high interest, contemporary books and made consistent, meaningful connections between Great Expectations and their independent novels. They wrote literary essays about their choice books, and took a test on Great Expectations, for which they received extremely high marks, demonstrating their mastery of a sophisticated (and previously dreaded!) text. The experiment was a huge success! Working through a complex text together with focused instruction enabled students to engage with a difficult book, and appreciate it in a way they never had before. Interestingly, they enjoyed Dickens so much that I taught more of the book than I had originally planned!"
-- Ellin Glassband, High School Teacher
"How can we inspire reading and critical thinking in a time of widespread student distraction and disengagement? Berit Gordon helps bridge the gap between theory and action with classroom-friendly strategies that work. Test them out, and like me, you may find your students begging for more time to read."
-- Jessica Miller, English Teacher and Literacy Coach
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Corwin
- Publication date : August 18, 2017
- Edition : 1st
- Language : English
- Print length : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1506365515
- ISBN-13 : 978-1506365510
- Item Weight : 1.3 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.38 x 0.65 x 9.13 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #256,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Berit Gordon believes that every student deserves a rock star teacher, and she's dedicated her career to making that possible. As a teacher, consultant, and speaker, she shares practical strategies that transform overwhelmed educators into confident classroom leaders. Having taught at all levels from elementary through college, including working with new teachers at Columbia University Teachers College, she brings deep classroom experience to supporting educators through the daily challenges and rewards of this demanding profession. Her workshops, presentations, and books (including The Joyful Teacher, No More Fake Reading, and The New Teacher Handbook) offer practical, research-backed support that helps educators thrive rather than survive.
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Customers find this book to be an amazing resource for secondary educators, particularly ELA teachers, as it facilitates a love of reading in students. The book is easy to read.
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Customers find this book to be an amazing resource for secondary educators, particularly ELA teachers, who appreciate how it facilitates a love of reading in students.
"...the task may seem, there is a lot that can be done, and Berit offers great ideas in her book...." Read more
"...The book is filled with lots of ideas for charts, record-keeping, as well as unit and lesson-planning. A great way to energize your teaching!" Read more
"...I think it would be a great introductory book as a teacher transitions more into a workshop model...." Read more
"...Berit Gordon does a fabulous job of walking the reader through the steps of creating a culture of reading in a secondary classroom...." Read more
Customers find the book easy to read.
"...And what's best? Gordon's book is easy to read - as though a trusted colleague or mentor was sharing her best tips...." Read more
"An easy read with great resources and new ideas on how to implement practices in the ELA classroom. This is a book I will turn to again and again." Read more
"Actionable, Easy-to-Read, and Entertaining..." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2017Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseAs one writer put it, it's the 800-pound mockingbird in the ELA classroom (see William J. Broz). English teachers know that it's a problem, yet too often it is disregarded. Our students are not reading assigned texts, and even those who do only do so to preserve their "A" without gaining a genuine appreciation for the text, much less growth in their ability to think critically about a text. We dismiss the problem claiming that it is an issue that is to be solved by our elementary teacher colleagues. "It is too late by the time they get to me," some teachers say. Still, we achieve nothing by settling with the problem in our classrooms.
Berit Gordon offers one of the most practical approaches to begin solving this issue. I should emphasize the practicality that you'll find in this book, for many have written on the subject, and, yes, they offer strategies to overcome this great dilemma. However, Gordon's book, from beginning to end, is full of step-by-step instructions on how to fight against the fake-reading epidemic.
Berit takes readers through the process, from building up your classroom library with high-interest texts to reforming your instructional strategies with approaches that bridge student-interest reading and classical texts.
Any teacher who can accept the reality of the literacy environment that our students inhabit needs to buy this book. Perhaps like me, you are aware of the problem but feel helpless when faced with the challenge of changing the reading lifestyles of 100+ teenagers. As impossible as the task may seem, there is a lot that can be done, and Berit offers great ideas in her book.
After implementing her strategies in my class, I've seen students joyously return to reading. Yes, return, because many reflected on how much they missed reading. I think about my student who is working his way through his 6th book this school year after not reading a single book all last year.
Know that it can be done! If you're the teacher who's been looking for help, this book is for you. Buy it and say no to fake-reading in your classroom!
- Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2017Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseThis book is a must read for ELA teachers. While targeting middle and high school teachers, this book offers strategies that can be utilized in any ELA classroom. In order to become better at anything - you need to practice it. Our students aren't reading. Gordon's book offers practical, ready-to-use advice that will transform your class into actual readers. Her experience in coaching teachers and working in classrooms makes the book practical and authentic - not just full of theory. And what's best? Gordon's book is easy to read - as though a trusted colleague or mentor was sharing her best tips. The book is filled with lots of ideas for charts, record-keeping, as well as unit and lesson-planning. A great way to energize your teaching!
- Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2020Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseI have read all of the gurus on reading education. Every writer talked about in this book, I have read their work. What I loved about this book is that the rigor of the strategy is preserved, but written in a way that a teacher could easily access and implement it. I think it would be a great introductory book as a teacher transitions more into a workshop model. As someone who has done workshop for many years I found that the strategies offered presented them in a way that I could take back something new. If I were an instructional coach I would start here to build a strong reading community with teachers.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2017Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseThis book's title is what grabbed my attention, and the book's content met me right where my teacher heart is now. Berit Gordon does a fabulous job of walking the reader through the steps of creating a culture of reading in a secondary classroom. Her wit, expertise, and realistic understanding of tween and teen readers is inspiring. I will be using this text for professional development with teachers in my district. It is truly a handbook that will help us fix the brokenness of our current reading practices in middle and high school and instead cultivate independent readers who love books.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2018It is important to realize that one cannot teach the same way she was taught. Gordon gives ideas and allows a person to realize the way to make sure the students are reading. The number of resources she gives are fantastic.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2017Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseNo More Fake Reading is a gift to teachers! How can we get kids to really become readers? Give them opportunities to read what excites them. Yes, it's that simple. Berit Gordon's book offers an ingenious (and practical) approach for increasing kids' reading and making it more authentic. It is a MUST read. Buy it today and get one for a friend! It's a terrific book.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2019Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseI really like this book. Plenty of practical advice. Excellent questions to ask students about their reading experience. I read this in a day and a half and dog-eared half of it.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2020Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseAs educators, we know the importance of our students reading and reading tons. Well, NO MORE FAKE READING is full of actionable, easy-to-apply tips for teachers to facilitate a love of reading in our students. A must-read for any teacher that craves to forge a deeper connection with his or her students through a love of reading.