Michelle Butler - BLog #2 - Routman Ch. 3

Blog #2

I really enjoyed this article. Reading is truely a "gift" that should be cherrished and nourished every day! Although I have to admit I am guilty of "not" sharing my reading life at home or at school. This is definitely an area that needs improvement for me. It really goes back to the old saying, "Monkey see, Monkey do" - and this is the case for everything - even reading. At home, on a rare occasion, my children might catch me thumbing through a magazine or reading a new recipe I want to try out. Noah and I sit/lay down and read every night. So I am supporting his reading. How often do they see me sit down and enjoy a really bood book, or read my bible? Not very often! If I find time to even do that - maybe on the weekends - it is usally reserved for the time of night when the house is quiet and every one is in bed. Have I modeled to my own children the importance and luxury of reading ? No!

They same thing would apply to my classroom. Do my students ever see me sit down and read a book of my own? No! Do I ever stop what I am doing and crawl under the tiki hut in our classroom reading area and read with my students? Rarely! Do I model reading? Yes - during our read aloud time each day. As all early childhood teachers do, I identify the title and arthor, model how to identify the genre of the book, I model turing the pages, tracking with my finger, doing picture walks, making predictions, checking for comprehension, identifying the main character, plot and setting of the story. I model how to summarize the story and engage in post-reading activities.

Years ago, while teaching at another school, we had a scheduled reading time during the school day every day called "DEAR" - Drop Everything And Read! For these 15 minutes each day, everyone in every class was required to stop what they were doing and read a book for 15 minutes. What I enjoyed about this and what I think students learned from this is that reading is important! All of our students, even our emergent readers and struggling readers, looked forward to this time each day. I remember clearly sitting on the reading rug with my Middle Schoolers and reading MY book. After the 15 minutes was over, we would continue to sit on the rug and talk about reading. They were always so interested in what I was reading and they would ask me great questions about my book. Then I would reciprocate and ask them questions about their books.

My "take away" from this article is that I need to make "my reading life" more visable to my students. I need to show them how to connect world reading with school reading. My action plan will be:

1. Bring my book from home and share it.

2. Let my students see me read too.

3. Talk about my reading life at home.

4. Model/teach/discuss "life skills"reading. - newspapers, magazines, posters, signs, texts, e-mail, letters, etc.

5. Spend more time on the reading rug in our classroom - modeling reading for pleasure.

6. Attemp to find a 10 block of time for our own DEAR time.

7. Learn that it is ok to stop what I am doing at home and allow my children to see me enjoy a good book!