We have two new books to recommend today. Speaking Volumes: How to Get Students Discussing 
Books--And Much More by Barry Gilmore (Heinemann, 2006) includes numerous strategies for involving students in discussions as well as exercises to build discussion skills and even some attention to technology-based discussions. One of the most difficult things for new teachers to do is have productive discussions that are more than just teacher-talk punctuated by an occasional student response. Gilmore's books will get you started.
In her new book The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical 
Readers (Scholastic, 2007) Nancie Atwell argues that we can't expect our students to become readers if we don't give them time to read, interesting things to read, and an environment that supports reading. "This book is nothing less than a manifesto," Atwell writes. "Here is my evidence, gathered over twenty years of working directly and successfully with all kinds of kids, that it's reading that makes readers."
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