Chapter 3: Share Your Reading Life

Chapter 3 of the Reading Essentials text is all about sharing your reading life as a model for your students.  Routman explains how at the beginning of the school year you should introduce yourself as a reader and share your enthusiasm of reading with your class. There should be a class brainstorming session and discussion of why we read.  Try to guide the students to understand how important reading is in a person's life both professionally and personally.

Then share your own reading life.  You need to make it visible to the students, let them see the actual reading materials you are currently reading.  Talk about what you are reading, what the book is about, how the reading is going, what I am learning, and what I hope to learn.  Include reading you are currently doing as well as reading you are planning to do next.  I have actually have done this activity with a previous class.  I bring in a tote or box with examples of all the types of reading I do.  This includes books I'm reading for pleasure, for my UNM classes, for my own professional inquiry, magazines I read through, newspapers, children's books I'm reading for my classroom, and anything else that I can bring.  I point out that I am reading more than one book at a time for different reasons.  The students really response to this demonstration of my reading and it gets them thinking about what reading they are or could be doing.

When you encounter those reluctant readers purposefully search for their interests to help them find books that they will more likely want to read.  Look for sports, hobbies, animals, whatever the student has a passion for.  I have let student read their video game instructions, hunting magazines, whatever it takes to get them started and help them realize that they can read.

Talk about your books at home, your home library.  Bring in pictures if you can to share how many books you have and how they are organized.  Ask students about the books they have at their homes.  Try to get a sense of how many books they may have.  Research tells us the more books a child has in their home, the better he/she will do in school.  Talk about the school library then lead the discussion to the classroom library.  This can be an opportunity to let the students organize the classroom library which allows them the chance to have ownership in the classroom and familiarize themselves with the variety of books found there. 

Let the class discussion move toward favorite authors and books they have read.  Sometimes this can be eye-opening as you discover the limited reading experiences some students may have.  I like to have the students bring in a favorite book they have recently read.  I think I will add an activity to allow them to do some research about the author of this book...not a complete author study, but an opportunity to find out interesting facts and other books this author has written.

Talk about how we choose books through recommendations, browsing, favorite authors or series, etc.  Discuss the variety of genres available.  Don't forget to talk about how to abandon books that are too easy, too difficult, or not interesting.   

The purpose of sharing your reading life with your students is to help create a passion for reading and show your students how you think about what you read.  When you have a book you love, let your students know it and give them the opportunity to do the same.