Walking the Walk.....hmmmm (On a personal note, I am off to my cottage for two glorious weeks of fun in the sun and family time so I hope all my posts come out alright!)
I love that I can picture myself in the very same discussion Miller outlines at the beginning of Chapter 5 because I have been in it many times myself (including discussing some of the books she mentions)...how validating is that?
On page 107 Miller states, "[b]y allowing students to pass through our classrooms without learning to love reading, we are creating adults (who then become parents and teachers) who don't read much... they do not love to read and have few lifelong reading habits to model for children." Wow. This brings to mind the time I told my husband that I didn't care if he didn't read as long as he frequently held books in front of our children and modeled reading. It's just so important and I must admit that in the 6 months we have been parents he has read more books than he probably has in his whole life (nevermind that they are picture books).
I have no doubt that I am a fantastic example of an adult who loves reading for my students (I am not being egotistical...LOL). I always have a book on me, I am always talking about books, I read a lot of YA. I walk the walk.
Next year when I am asking my students to read 40 books and according to the genre requirement I think it would be only fitting if I did the same. I plan to have my own Reader's Notebook in my class and track my own reading. Walk the walk!
My one goal is to read more literature at the level of my Grade 4's. I was very good at this when I taught 7 and 8 but slipped a bit last year when I started teaching Grade 4. I am going to set aside a page (or many) in my Reader's Notebook for students to recommend books to me and do my best to get through as many as I can.
Discussion Ideas:
1) Do you walk the walk?
- If yes, how so and what can you do to improve?
- If no, what's your plan now?
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
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3 Brilliant Teaching Thoughts:
Yesterday, my 14 year old son's xbox broke. He was bummed. He told me he "didn't know what he was going to do the rest of the summer!" We had to go to the library last night to return some books and TWO of the books we had requested for him (interest-led books) were ready. As there is a hold on the books, we can only keep them for two weeks. I told him "this is why your xbox broke .. you've got some reading to do." One is a memoir and one is a fantasy book. I told him about our reading requirements for this next school year and that these two books would count. We then sat and waited for my 5 year old to get out of dance camp. And I about teared up because he and I were sitting side by side READING! Awesome!!! Walk the Walk!
So enjoy your analysis of each chapter. Thanks for sharing.
Have a wonderful holiday!
Thanks for being a host to this book club. I have used reader's workshop for years, but am at a new private school teaching 6th and 8th grades. I am having problems getting admin and parents on board even though it is truly the only method that works. I think they just can't wrap their heads around how and why it works. Any suggestions?
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Beth