Blog Post 5-December
Routman Chapter 3: Share Your
Reading Life
Molly Peake
I totally agree with the
importance Routman places on educators sharing his/her personal reading habits
with students. My student’s excitement
and enthusiasm for reading could be and cane be driven by my own excitement and
enthusiasm for reading. My thoughts are
if students see me reading and hear me explain what I have read, how much I
have read, and that I am excited to turn the page to see what will happen next,
my students will jump on the same train that I am on for the love of
reading. I recommend books to my
students based on my experience, past experience from students, and
recommendations from my own children.
Also, making a connection while reading is important. While reading aloud in class or in a small
group, I sometimes pause in mid page to make a text to text connection. A lot of my students now are reading the I
Survived series. We have been studying
the Revolutionary War in social studies.
We just read the book, Palmetto: Symbol of Courage. For our weekly writing, the students came up
with the idea to write how they survived the Battle of Fort Moultrie. I have never seen students so enthused to
write and write as much as they did.
This sparked the students who have not read any of the I Survived series
to try one. I love the excitement that I
have for reading is now bubbling in most of my students and that it is carrying
over into other subjects as well.
Molly, I LOVE the fact that your kids started writing an I Survived book on the Revolutionary War. What a great way to take their understanding from the content area and put it into writing. It's great that your kids are giving recommendations to each other for reading. Your help in this is also instrumental. Knowing what kids are reading by reading yourself and using your kids is an excellent way to give suggestions to your readers. Once they see that you're taking an interest in their preferences, they will be more willing to try out new books and stick with them.
ReplyDeleteKudos to your students for taking the initiative to write their own I Survived story! It sounds like they are really making connections and running with them.
ReplyDeleteI get really excited when my students want to read the books that are recommended to them either by a classmate or by me. We love talking about what we are reading.
Hi Molly,
ReplyDeleteMy own children love the I Survived book series and I appreciate so much the opportunities you are giving your students to choose their own books for independent reading and to let those same texts and topics influence their writing.