Angela Speer's December Blog Post #5; Routman (2003), Ch. 3:Share Your Reading Life

To begin, Routman discusses "examining your own reading life" to begin the year. (23). In this course, we began writing about our reading lives in order to relate to the students that we were going to be teaching. Prior to reading this article, I found that I too, have told my students that reading will make them smarter, their vocabulary will become strong, they are preparing to the be the best third graders and they will learn more and more. These ideas were similar to page 24 of Routman’s book. My goal in education is to educate my students to be the brightest, most well rounded, readers. I know and understand that those students that develop “lifelong habits” of reading will grow to be all of these things plus more. (Routman, 24). I agree that we, as educators, need to allow the students to see our reading life come alive. The students need to know that I read every day even on the internet, the newspaper and books from my home library. I feel that they also enjoy listening to me talk about being a writer. They ask questions about my writing and I gladly discuss it with them. One thing that I notice now that I have Easton, is that they all want to know about his library and his love for reading. While he is only 15 months old, he loves to listen to me or his dada read books aloud. He loves my expressions throughout the stories, and he enjoys helping me turn the page and point to the words. I am growing a lifelong reader!!! 

I have found that the students loved watching me read books at the beginning of the year, I especially had quite a few take note that I would read multiple books throughout the reading workshop to display exactly what Routman discusses on page 26.She wants us to allow the students to see that we read multiple text at the same time.

Routman discusses, “Help that student find a book that interests him [or her].” She also discusses when “teachers and students work together to establish rich and diverse classroom libraries, finding a book to read ceases to be a problem.” (26) I agree and want to know what my students are interested in. They are allowed to bring in books to share and add to our collection at any time. Even if the book is too hard for most of the class, I want them to be lifelong readers, and I must allow their interest to come first at times.

Routman talks about her personal library at home on page 27 and I laugh because if you all saw my library, you would like that we are pack rats. We have so many books in our bookcases that they are packed in every way possible. I do, however, find that Easton’s is becoming the same because I want him to have every children’s book on the face of the planet. Routman states, “Kindergarten students who do well in school own more than fifty book, at a minimum!” (27). I too agree with this statement and want Easton to be the smartest student in all of his classes. In my class, I encourage each parent that I have met with to get a library card for their student. So that their libraries are as a door of opportunities. This is due to most of my students not having the money to buy loads of books.

Routman discusses talking about book clubs.(30). I want my students to be part of one so in our classroom we are working on reading great books and sharing through "Book Talks" or share times. I feel that this has encouraged my students to want to read books and to write about what they read. I have also found that in the beginning of the year, my students were reading the same books over and over, which is fine for a while, but they needed to “read a variety of genres” (32) We discussed this through mini lessons and then made a chart of the genres of our classroom library again. We also discussed different genres that we may encounter while reading. Routman created a fifth-grade genre list and I also did this with my second grade class.(33) I had to help with some because they only felt comfortable with fiction and nonfiction. Some are still only comfortable with these two, but at least they have be exposed to more.

I hope that by the end of this year, I will feel confident that my students have learned to love reading and appreciate the books that they read. I also pray that they read their little hearts out to continue to grow over the summer. I hope that they will grow as readers until one day, they too can pass it on. I also pray that Easton loves reading and that our home library continues to grow until we cannot fit more books in our home.