Confer # 4 - Routman (2003), Ch. 3 : Share Your Reading Life

 

          After reading from Routman’s Share Your Reading Life, I was really drawn into this chapter especially when the author was describing how important it was to start off the school year by talking to your students about the importance of reading. I liked everything she did with her students especially when she brought in all the books that she was reading at that point in time. I read a lot at home for relaxation and pleasure and there have been times in the past school years that I have brought the books that I was reading into my classroom to show the students. I would always do this when we used to have DEAR time. When I did this, I felt like the students really were excited and interested in what I was reading. I haven’t done that this school year yet but I plan to.

I agree with the author that what you model for the students when it comes to reading will help them understand the importance of it. She gave many ideas for teachers to do in their classrooms and even independently like reading journals and reading logs where the parents are not responsible for them but the students are. Helping the students who struggle with what books they like will help them more likely learn to like reading than if you assigned a book or if they just had to find one. I also liked that she introduced different genres to her class and how they each focused on a different one as they chose their books.

The biggest hurdle that I would have as a classroom teacher is sticking to a continuous reading journal for myself and remembering to write everything down from a book that I just read. I like it for the students to do as they read a book but I can relate to not exactly wanting to do it for all books read. It also made me realize that I do not give my students enough time to spend reading independently and that I need to work on that because how important reading is to becoming a successful individual.