Kristen Duncan Blog Post #6 Routman Ch. 3 Share Your Reading Life

                Reading is key.  Reading is what we focus on most and want to make sure our students do well in.  We emphasize “read for fun, read for homework, read during silent reading, read, read, read…now let’s talk about what you read”.  We never actually talk about what WE as teachers have read.  We quiz them, and conference with them about what THEY read, but make it very little about us.  I feel like our students to some degree like what we like.  I like basketball, therefore we play a lot of basketball and my students will tell you “I like basketball”, mainly because they see it a lot.  They are exposed to it.  Same goes for teachers when it comes to reading.  When we talk about our reading life, our interest in books, the books we enjoy; students become more interested.  “She likes it so maybe I should enjoy it too”.  Instead of always talking about what our students read, we should tell them what we read over the weekend.  We should talk about our favorite books and the authors we like to read from.  Reading when our kids have silent independent reading could also be an option.  Students model what we do and learn from watching and demonstration, so by them watching us enjoy a good book at silent reading time they might tend to do the same thing.  Talking about summer reading can also be an encouragement to students.  Tell them your plans on what you are going to read this summer, and then ask them theirs.  Have a discussion based on past, present, and future reading.  I think sharing with our students about our reading habits, libraries, and interests is very beneficial and is a good teaching approach when teaching how to have a passion for reading.