Carol Talanges - Blog 5 - Routman Ch. 3

I truly related to chapter 3 Share your Reading Life. I have found that the best way to engage students and to encourage them to develop a love of reading is to simply share what I love about reading and what books that I have enjoyed the most. I do not think that it is an accident that when I state that Ronald Dahl is my favorite author that within a week my entire collection is checked out and that I have students who cannot wait to now conference with me and talk about the books that I have shared were my favorite at their age. Just last month I wanted to read Wonder as an option for our new read aloud. I simply had the book on my desk and the next day I noticed that three of my students had checked it out for themselves. We often do not think about how we are the best model in our classroom for an avid reader.

This chapter has reminded me that I should not only develop reading as fun and exciting at the beginning of the year when I am hooking students on reading workshop, but it is something I must do all year to keep my students engaged. Routman states “ I deliberately use my influence as a teacher and role model to foster a love of reading along with excellent reading habits”. She perfectly states what we all know to be true but often forget to do in our daily classroom lives. We get caught up in goals, logs, comprehension skills and creating awesome mini lessons and often forget that our number one goal is to develop a love of reading. I want my students to see reading as an adventure through different time periods and worlds and I must use my own reading habits to develop that love in their hearts as well.

One section that impacted me and made me look at my own practice is the section on demonstrating your pleasure in reading. Routman states “too many of our students are reading because they have to, not because they want to” and this is a though that I cannot stand as a teacher. I want all of my students to enjoy what they are reading and I love when my students are angry with me when we have to move on from our ELA time. Routmans solution is simple; think about what gives us pleasure as readers and bring that joy into the classroom and share it with our students! How simple… I think that I am going to start a Talanges Picks section in my classroom and make it a point to weekly discuss what I love about what I am currently reading to help keep students excited about what they are reading.