On Reading

"No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance" -Townsend

"The man who does not read great books is no better than the man who can't" -Twain

Thanks to a suggestion by Peggy, I recently read The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller and have had "reading" on the brain. Miller is a school teacher and her philosophy is basically this...if you want to teach students to read, then make (or let) them read. I agree with her complaint that so much of school curriculum consists of teaching students how to read without ever letting them put it into action. The excerpts and short stories from standard reading books, read together as a class do little to get kids excited about reading. She requires her students to read 40 books during the school year. Most students come into her 6th grade classroom having read 2-3 books the previous year. I believe the best way to teach comprehension, spelling, vocabulary, and writing is to read, read, read. Each student must read some from several different genre and keep a reading journal. She corresponds with them in their journal, commenting, asking questions, giving future reading suggestions and taking suggestions from them. My kids have had a couple of teachers do this and it made the school year so exciting for them. It is similar to being in a book club. When you are going to discuss a book you pay better attention and it is so exciting to find someone who loves or hates a book as much as you do. She notes that a 2007 survey indicated that the average American adult reads only 4 books per year, in addition 25% of the adults surveyed did not read one book. She says "We have created a culture of reading poverty in which a vicious cycle of aliteracy has the potential to devolve into illiteracy for many students. By allowing students to pass through our classrooms without learning to love reading, we are creating adults (who then become parents and teachers) who don't read much. They may be capable of reading well enough to perform academic and informational reading, but they do not love to read and have few life reading habits to model for children." One of my kids favorite teachers, Mrs. Roland - 7th grade, has a reading day each week. She teaches the students for two periods each day and every Wednesday one period is devoted to reading. At first, I was so surprised by this, simply because my kids had never spent long periods of time reading in the classroom. And, I'm embarrassed to admit, I felt that maybe she wasn't doing her job, because to me, reading is a luxury. Maybe I was just jealous because they got a full hour every week devoted to uninterrupted reading. I would love to spend one hour a week, uninterrupted and reading...how about every day? True luxury! I don't think I was a great reader as a kid, but it is definitely something I've come to love and see great value in helping my kids read. My personal reading successes come from joining a book club. I have loved this group of women, simply because they are dear friends of mine and because we all love to read. Knowing that each month I'll get to talk about a book helps me actually think about and remember what I'm reading. Recently I transferred my book log to Goodreads and found that since August 2005 I've read 136 books, not counting church books or scriptures. I was absolutely tickled to see that I'm reading about 26 books per year. I think that as my kids get older I will have more time for reading and studying, something that gives me great pleasure. So, my purse holds a book and there's a stack of books on my nightstand. I'm going to follow the advise of Horace Mann, "Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year." Do you think I can do 40 books by next October 1st?