Valorie Whiteside blog post #2

While reading ‘Organizing an Outstanding Classroom Library’ my mind continuously accessed my own personal experience.  Routman states that, “too few students know how to select books they can read, the collection is often hard for students to penetrate.”  I thought about myself after reading this statement.  If I go to a book store or the library it may take me a half an hour to select the books that I want to read.  My eight year old son goes with me and it takes him even longer.  Classroom teachers don’t have 30 minutes to let student select books therefore organization of the classroom library becomes imperative!

Routman discusses how students having access to books that are interesting to them they develop positive attitudes about reading and read much more.  I couldn’t agree with this study more!  I think about my own reading experience. When I was in elementary school all the way through four years of college I ONLY read what was assigned to me by teachers and hated every minute of it!  I did not like to read.  Then I went overseas where all of the television was in another language.  I went to the book store and selected a book that I was interested in.  This book had about 300 pages.  It took me around two weeks to read it.  That was when I fell in love with reading.  From that point I was hooked.  I started reading 5 & 6 hundred page books in three for four days.  I read the entire Twilight series in two weeks.  I now know from experience that you have to be able to read text that you WANT to read in order to develop a love of reading.

I also agree with Routman when he says that students enjoy nonfiction magazines.  Sports Illustrated for Kids was the first reading material that one of my sons actually enjoyed.  The kids in my class love reading Time for Kids.

The Book Share idea discussed in the book is an excellent idea.  Even though we do not want kids to be followers, they often are. When a child sees other children enjoying a certain book series they want to be in on the excitement as well.  I have seen this with my own child.  First with Pete the Cat series and now with the I Survived series. 

I’m not sure if I agree with the statement that children’s author Katherine Paterson states when she says that, “Is there anything on the World Wide Web that can nourish a child intellectually and spiritually in the sense that the best of our books can?”  I believe that the internet is very important for readers.  I believe that the more resources we have the more we are able to maintain student engagement.  There are many websites that promote reading.  One website that I use frequently is Starfall.  My students absolutely love reading books on that website.  I believe that integrating technology is extremely important for educators to be able to reach multiple learning styles.  All in all, this was a very interesting chapter.