Awakening the inner reader in every child.
What a great teacher she is. I hope many teachers read this book and get moved by it.
Quotes:
As often happens to well-intentioned teachers, my plans fell apart when my students showed up. ... he unit was a work of art, a culmination of everything I had learned about good teaching, and I was proud of it. It was a disaster.
If you ever think you have all the answers, it’s time to retire.
Instead of standing on stage each day, dispensing knowledge to my young charges, I should guide them as they approach their own understandings.
Reading is both a cognitive and an emotional journey. I discovered that it was my job as a teacher to equip the travelers, teach them how to read a map, and show them what to do when they get lost, but ultimately, the journey is theirs alone.
I realized that every lesson, conference, response, and assignment I taught must lead students away from me and toward their autonomy as literate people.
Reading changes your life. Reading unlocks worlds unknown or forgotten, taking travelers around the world and through time. Reading helps you escape the confines of school and pursue your own education. Through characters—the saints and sinners, real or imagined—reading shows you how to be a better human being.
Mark Twain reminds us, “The man who does not read great books is no better than the man who can’t.”
I try to take every chance I get to read in school because mostly school is quite boring. When I read in class it fills up the little hole in my heart (JUST KIDDING!!!). —Jon
talking about books is vital to a reading community
THE RIGHTS OF THE READER BY DANIEL PENNAC 1. The right to not read. 2. The right to skip pages. 3. The right to not finish. 4. The right to reread. 5. The right to read anything. 6. The right to escapism. 7. The right to read anywhere. 8. The right to browse. 9. The right to read out loud. 10. The right not to defend your tastes.
When my principal interviews candidates for a teaching position at my school, regardless of whether it’s a language arts position, he always asks them to discuss the last book they read.
Every student that moves through our classes is not destined to become an English literature major, and we cannot gear our teaching as if they were.
The reality is that you can never mandate or monitor how much reading your students are doing at home.
They are in sixth grade! What about having an enriching, powerful, glorious year in sixth grade? The purpose of school should not be to prepare students for more school. We should be seeking to have fully engaged students now.
It is hard to fight the culture even when what you see in your classroom every day tells you that you are getting it right.
Hands down, the students who read the most are the best at every part of school—reading, writing, researching, content-specific knowledge, all of it (Krashen, 2004). They are the best test takers, too.
Instead of leaving these students to simmer on the back burner while we struggle to educate our poor readers, why not teach all of our students to adopt the attitudes and behaviors of the best readers?
This is how I show my students that I love them—by putting books in their hands, by noticing what they are about, and finding books that tell them, “I know. I know. I know how it is. I know who you are, and even though we may never speak of it, read this book, and know that I understand you.” We speak in this language of books passing back and forth, books that say, “You are a dreamer; read this.” “You are hurting inside; read this.” “You need a good laugh; read this.”
I have purchased every book in our class library with my own money.
Gifted readers should read fiction close to their age level and nonfiction at their advanced reading level (Halsted, 2002).
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