I do not promote reading to my students because it is good for them or because it is required for school success. I advocate reading because it is enjoyable and enriching. - Donalyn Miller, pg 106, The Book Whisperer
Chapter 5 is entitled Walking the Walk, meaning you shouldn't be a hypocrite with your students. If your teaching them to read you should actually read yourself. Now I do walk the walk. I love to read and I read a lot. I'm what I call a binge reader. I will stay up all night reading a great book and then not pick up another book for a week or two. So some of the suggestions in this chapter like committing to a certain amount of reading per day, I don't know how well that would work for me. Setting a certain amount of time to read each day would make it seem more like a chore or something to check off my do to list, (and I love my to do lists) than reading for the enjoyment of it. But when I was reading this chapter and thought about my response I started to wonder if that's part of the reason why reading is seen as work than as enjoyable.
Now I am a big fan of having reading time set aside in the classroom. I only began to like to read during my later elementary school years. Before then I really disliked the time spent reading. Of course after I started to like to read I loved the time. The reason why I think that having Sustained Silent Reading or whatever you want to call it is because unless kids are given time they might never make that discovery.
One of the suggestions in this chapter is that you also create your own readers notebook each year to have a record of what you read. One year instead of having a notebook I used a new bookmark for each book I read and wrote the title on the back. By the end of the year I was absolutely amazed at how many bookmarks I had collected.
Reading this chapter has introduced me to a great blog about Children's Books. Jen Robinson's Book Page looks like a great place to find out some great new children's reads. You can also check out her 10 reasons why you should read children's books as an adult list.
Now I am a big fan of having reading time set aside in the classroom. I only began to like to read during my later elementary school years. Before then I really disliked the time spent reading. Of course after I started to like to read I loved the time. The reason why I think that having Sustained Silent Reading or whatever you want to call it is because unless kids are given time they might never make that discovery.
One of the suggestions in this chapter is that you also create your own readers notebook each year to have a record of what you read. One year instead of having a notebook I used a new bookmark for each book I read and wrote the title on the back. By the end of the year I was absolutely amazed at how many bookmarks I had collected.
Reading this chapter has introduced me to a great blog about Children's Books. Jen Robinson's Book Page looks like a great place to find out some great new children's reads. You can also check out her 10 reasons why you should read children's books as an adult list.
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