Washburn’s Blog Post 3: Routman, Reading Essentials (chapter 3): Share your reading life

Reading Routman just made me realize that Miller was right, we do learn about ourselves through reading books! While reading chapter three in Routman’s Reading Essentials, I learned something about myself, I learned that I never thought about sharing my reading life with my students. How excellent of an idea is that?! I read all the time, but I barely speak about it. Yes, most of my books are in Russian, but I am sure that the feeling of joy for reading an enjoyable text is universal. I read daily. To be completely honest, I will skip going to the movies or dinner with friends on a Friday night, because I prefer to read my book!

Until I read Routman, I never even imagined of sharing my passion for reading with my students. I can see how it would make a difference for them. If I display positive behavior when discussing my favorite books, my students may want to share what books interest them. I now understand why they don’t like their social studies textbook! Every single time I asked them to open it to any given page, I didn’t sound very passionate about it. Now, when I talk about my Russian books, I know my face says a lot more, because I can’t wait to read them when I get home.

One thing I need to improve on in my classroom is my classroom library. After reading Routman, I also realized that I do not have a variety of genres in my classroom library and it is not very well organized. I think that if I had a “beautiful” library, it may make a huge difference for my students.

I also like how Routman included images of his own notes in his book. He added pictures of his library in chapter three and that made me like him as a writer. As a reader, I felt a sense of connection to him as the writer. I know that if I pay attention to those small details, my students must do the same when they read what I include in my classroom library.