Jaime Steading's Blog Post 3--Routman Chapt. 3: Share Your Reading Life

Routman says, "I deliberately use my influence as a teacher and role model to foster a love of reading along with excellent reading habits."  This chapter is full of some great ideas on how to be a positive role model for your students, as well as, ways to improve your own reading experiences as a person and not just as a teacher.  Routman begins with a discussion she has with her students about why we should read.  I love the fact that she guides the discussion to the importance of reading for pleasure. Students often get so caught up in the fact that school is for learning and making us smarter that they fail to realize that some of the things we learn in school not only do those things, but can lead us on a path to find something we love to do.  I think this is an important thing for us to remember, as teachers, to take the time to tell and show our students.

Another idea that Routman shares is to let your students know what you are reading and what you will read next.  This is something I need to do a better job of, not only with my students, but with my personal children as well.  I do a lot of reading during the summer, but not during the school year.  I have very little time to read and I find myself missing that time.  My own children see me reading school related books, but they very rarely see me read for pleasure during the school year.  This is something I need to improve upon.

One thing that our school did this year was to offer a book club for fourth and fifth graders.  I loved this!  It forced me to read a book for pleasure during the school year and it gave me some personal time with my own child to talk about a book that we both read and loved.  This was very special and I hope we continue to offer this and it continues to grow.  This reiterated to me the importance of these share times and book talks in the classroom, which is another idea that Routman shares.  One way she says you can do this is to create a list of authors or books or make a bulletin board out of recommended books.  I would love to incorporate this into my classroom.  I am always looking for ways to get my students to expand their interests.

The final thing that Routman discusses in the chapter is reading logs.  I thought it was interesting that she does not necessarily agree with recording how many minutes or how many pages you have read. She discusses how one principal said reading had become a chore and something her students dreaded because of all of the requirements being placed on them.  I think this is a valid point and something we should definitely research further.  I want my students to read for pleasure.  I don't want it to become a chore or burdensome.  However, there does need to be some accountability at the same time.  I wonder if we let the students create their own log, would it become more meaningful for them and still give us the accountability we feel we need?