Angelica Guevara October Blog #2 Miller and Moss Read, Read, I Need to Read We Need to Read

Miller and Moss Section 2

Miller and Moss wrote, “Whether in school, out of school, or both children reading on their own is an established educational practice…”  As I read Miller and Moss’ book my belief of how important reading is not just to school age children but also to young toddlers is validated as a mother and a teacher. In this section we are told that the National Reading Panel (NRP) believes there is a correlation to IR and academic achievement, but that there is no proof that IR causes improved achievement. Well, not all student are raised or inherit the act of loving how to read. Recently I was reading the Kids Health journal and in it the author said that the children who were actively exposed to language have social and educational advantages over their peers and reading is one of the best exposures to language. We as parents have to expose our toddlers to literacy. Teachers have to support that or introduce the students who haven’t had that exposure as soon as they walk into our classroom. Most students that are read to at home learn the behavior they need to express during reading activities because it becomes a routine for them. They know they need to sit quietly, focus on what is being read, analyze the ideas of the book and comprehend the sequential pattern of the beginning, middle, and ending of the book.  We have already discussed how imperative it is for our children to have choices available for their reading pleasure. Miller and Moss point out how we as teachers can help students choose from appropriate books so that the children can get books they are interested in but that are also challenging enough for them to learn new skills including new vocabulary. I find that I redo my classroom library every year. As a self –contained teacher I do not always have the same cognitive level in my room every year. I constantly have to change my book buckets by level of difficulty and genre. This is very important in order for the children to pick books they can read and books they will learn from. Doing this gives the students a pathway to meet the goals they have to follow in the common core academic standards and their IEPs.   If we don’t keep our library updated we are not modeling good choices for our students and we are not guiding them to make appropriate book choices. This will lead to fake reading and poor learning experience. We also have to make time to set a routine in the classroom in order for the environment to be conducive for independent reading. Yes we have a lot we teach in one school day, but reading is a root we need to plant in order for children to succeed in all academic areas. When I taught kindergarten I could tell who the students that were not read to at home were. They had no idea how to behave during reading time. I found that reading books to them that caught their interest helped them to sit and pay attention. We need to continue to do that throughout our students’ academic career. We need to find time to allow them to read, we need to allow them to read what they enjoy, and we need to monitor and help guide them by being involved in their reading process.