Like many of you, I try desperately to balance a variety of roles. I am a mommy and a teacher (in addition to wife, daughter, sister, friend, house keeper, cook, personal shopper, general contractor, small business owner, blogger, writer, photography dabbler, gardener, librarian, and organizer extraordinaire. Oh, and I also occasionally enjoy sleeping.)
So with that reality in mind, I have an announcement to make. Ahem.
I recently started reading for pleasure again. I will pause as you grasp the enormity of this personal triumph. I have read (almost) an entire book over the course of the last week without falling asleep after every paragraph! Huzzah! And I am loving it!
Maybe it sounds silly, but I just about forgot what it feels like to think about a book during the quiet moments of my day, to look forward to jumping back into my book as I brush my teeth or to think about quick minutes where I can sneak in another page or two. I have missed this part of myself—the reader.
Regardless of my current time-crunched reality, I consider myself an avid reader. As a child, I made weekly visits to the library with my mother and read every night before bed. I curled up with a book without being told I had to and discovered all sorts of authors and series on my own. I read with my mother, my friends, and my teachers. I read alone. Bottom line? I read a lot. Like a lot, a lot. And, if I may toot my own horn, I am a good reader. While I may not balance doing the dishes, getting to the gym, sending emails, and planning lessons all that well every day, I do manage to read emails, professional articles and books, blogs, and books to my kids all on a daily basis. Are you picking up what I'm putting down? I read a lot. I love to read. I consider myself a reader. I fight for time to read.
What about those students in our class who are not reading a lot? Those who don't go to the library, read at home, have examples of avid readers in their lives and possibly only read during the time allotted to them at school? Sure, some of them will jump through the necessary hoops to be considered "proficient" and some of them will not. But fast forward a few years, when all the tests are behind them, are those same kids still reading? They might be proficient but are they really reading? Do they fight for reading time, wonder about topics they care about, imagine the characters from their books or balance a variety of texts each day? Are they readers?
The great Donalynn Miller writes to us about reading volume, citing the sheer amount children read on a regular basis will not only improve their ability to read, but has the potential to instill a true love of reading. Isn't this the goal? Think about your day, are you providing your students with enough time to feel what it is like to truly sink into their reading and linger in a book? Are our classrooms centered around developing a love of reading and the habits of a true reader? Do we sneak in extra reading minutes, extra read-alouds, extra time to chat about books because we just can't help ourselves? Or are we dutifully and mechanically checking a box, taking care to ensure our students have read the prescribed number of minutes a day?
I know most of you value the importance of developing true readers who have an active reading life. But, if you take a hard look at your day, is that core value reflected in your daily schedule and the way you use time in your classroom?
Despite being asked to, we can't do it all. We really can't do it all in a single school day. However, across the weeks and months, we can be sure that our time in the classroom reflects what we care about most as teachers. How are you ensuring that your current lovelies will grow to be future nerdlies who continue to triumph as readers?
Jennifer Scoggin (a.k.a. Mrs. Mimi) is the director of the Connecticut branch of LitLife and a consultant in schools. She holds a doctorate in curriculum and teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University, and has been an IRA member since 2011. She's the author of the upcoming Be Fabulous:
The Reading Teacher's Guide to Reclaiming Your Happiness in the Classroom and It's Not All Flowers and Sausages: My Adventures in Second Grade, which sprung from her popular blog of the same name.