Monday, September 28, 2015

Yurko's August blog



Routman (2003), Ch. 3:  Share Your Reading Life

I felt the opposite from the author about books' and reading growing up. I would “fake” read all the time. So, I feel that allows me to connect to my students about who I am and who they are as a reader.  I feel that my past makes me more relate able to the students.  Now, on the other hand I love to read.  The author mentioned that she talks to her students about why they read.  This question gets the normal responses and when I ask that question so do I.  Then like her I talk about all the other reasons you can read and that really opens up the student’s eyes. Also reading can take you places you can’t even imagine going to.  You can read a book and you are transported to King Arthur’s Court or the bottom of the ocean.
 I had a parent teacher conference last week and I showed the parent their students’ scores.  The parent was shocked about the reading score for the ACT Aspire test.  To be honest I was too.  This student reading all the time!! So I asked what types of books the student reads at home.  I wanted to see if the student was only reading one type of genera of book.  Comes to find out that the student does.  I suggested that the student create a library for them self or create a book journal.  My classroom library has many different kinds of books for the student to pick from. The more exposure the students get to all types of books the better.

2 comments:

  1. Jessica, I love that you took time to investigate what and how that student was reading at home. This gave you lots of insight to that student's particular needs. You also made the connection with the parent and probably affected an improvement in the reading environment at home! Way to go!

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  2. Hi Jessica,
    I appreciate you sharing your reading life with us and with your students. I think it is important to share with them our experiences as a student and most of all, I believe it is important that we share with them a love of reading. By modeling the books we choose to read for enjoyment and opening up a conversation about all the reasons why we read a variety of genres and the positive benefits can be a powerful tool in motivating our students to want to read. I appreciate how you helped your student who was reading a lot see the need to read more widely in a variety of genres. I want to suggest that you offer the strategy you shared with her and her parents to all of your students. Allowing each student the opportunity to create a text set and to write in response to their reading will help all of our students grow. Sincerely, Dawn

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