Lindsey Layton Blog Post #2: Routman Chapter 3 - Share Your Reading Life

            I found Chapter 3 in Routman’s Reading Essentials a very informative chapter for me as reading teacher, as a person that loves to read, and a mother of two boys that absolutely love reading.  A quote from this chapter that really stuck out to me was, “Many students will not see and feel the power of reading without your enthusiasm and modeling.  While excellent teaching is essential, without time to practice and read extensively, students will not become readers.”  I feel this is a very powerful and true statement.  In order for students to understand what expectations are expected of them, modeling is essential, especially for toddlers and elementary aged children.  Reading is a step by step process that begins with modeling how to properly hold a book to picking the right fit book for each reader. 

            I always talking to my students about my own children’s reading habits and how they pick out books.  I will talk to my students about how my family and I visit our local library, how we spend time picking out good fit books, and just spending quality time together.  I also encourage my students to get their own library cards and visit the local county libraries with their families. By sharing my own children’s reading stories with my classroom students, I feel it helps my students make connections with authors and simple things that can be done to promote literacy and reading in their own lives and families. 

            This chapter also discussed how many students have difficulty identifying the different genres.  Within my own classroom, I find when I ask my students about genres, some of them are only able to identify fiction and nonfiction and unaware of the many other genres written.  Many of my students have not had a lot of exposure to different genres; therefore, I have tried to build up my classroom library with books that provide ample opportunities for students to explore themselves are readers.  During our reading instruction, I try to incorporate read alouds, as well as literature lessons that will impact students and provide them with a variety of different authors and genres.  As a teacher and mother, I truly believe reading is the building block to many other foundations in education.