Jayna Lehrer Blog Post #2 Reading Essentials Chapter 3 – Share your Reading Life

 

While reading this article I couldn’t help but reflect upon my elementary school years and a particular teacher who really took my love for reading to a whole new level. I can still close my eyes and envision her reading corner being so inviting and comfortable. She had an oversized chair, floor lamp and a table cloth. What was the table cloth for you ask? Well, that was simply her “lap.” She would put part of the table cloth in her lap and then place the remaining part on the floor. We would then be called to crawl up in her lap for story time. She loved to read to us and we loved to listen. It was her love for books and reading that helped ignite a love for reading within myself.

Routman made the point that “our students admire us and seek to emulate us.” Because my former teacher made reading such an enjoyable experience for me, I then wanted to do the same for my students. I love escaping into a good book with my students. Setting up a safe, warm, cozy environment in my own classroom has been something that I have always strived to do. I am now currently working on adding to and organizing a classroom library for my students to have access to many different genres of books.

I also feel that it important to make sure that my students know about my reading experiences. Since my reading career currently consists of books such as Pinkalicious, Click Clack Moo, Where’s My Nose, etc, I plan on bringing my own daughter Gia, who is 3, into my classroom to share her favorite books with my students. I think that will make more of an impact than me just telling them about my reading habits at home with my children. Hopefully this will make them want to become a reader like her and give them the confidence to read. I look forward to trying to implement many of Routman’s other teaching tools in the near future.