Is there no end to the stress a writing assignment creates in a student? I'm 50 years old, hold multiple degrees related to literacy - and yet as I prepare to offer closing thoughts on my reading of Donalyn Miller's Book Whisperer and the book study I participated in, I'm anxious: How long does it have to be? Headings, really? (This phenomenon is not unlike the idea that I still get nervous when I'm called to the principal's office.)
Oh - and it's worth mentioning that as I finally got around to getting my ideas in black symbols on a white page and went back to review the expectations. . . I'm not entirely sure this isn't late. (Heaven help me; I am my students).
Much of my anxiety comes from my failure to prepare to write as I read. The good news is - this is because I was completely engaged in the content while reading. I was making meaning, having epiphanies, and celebrating moments of I do that.
My takeaways include a great feeling of satisfaction - not only that my thinking about literacy and how to encourage reading in young adults aligns with that of Miller's, but also that many of my actions mimic Miller's. I am doing something right.
Ideas I continue to grapple with include the idea of helping students to develop a love of reading, necessity of classroom libraries, and whole class-single title reading.
- I don't believe anyone can make someone else learn to love reading. I don't think reading is that for everyone. But I completely believe that I can help people appreciate everything reading can do for them and respect the power of reading.
- Probably because I'm a teacher librarian I am frustrated by the attention classroom libraries get. Great for the classroom teacher who adequately stocks that library with diverse, timely, quality materials. But every school should have a school library that is cared for by a trained librarian who works with a budget. Classroom teachers: Take your classes to the library regularly. Help students know when/how to access the library outside of your class.
- I am all about choice reading. I encourage it; I deliberately teach skills related to book selection. I hope all my students always have a book with them (at the very least when they come to my classroom). But. . . I think there is a time and place for whole class reading of a single title (as well a cause for caution, for sure). There are benefits to discussing the same words. And there is a benefit to forcing (unfortunate word) students to read something they may not have read on their own.
