Angelica Guevara October Blog 3 Routman Chapter 3: Share Your Reading Life

Routman Chapter 3

In this Chapter Routman talks about how she introduces herself to her students as a reader. I really enjoyed this chapter. I wanted to quote every sentence and reflect on all of them, but I don’t know if that is even legal! So I chose the sentences that stood out the most to me and reflected on how they connect with me as an educator.

·         “Many students will not see and feel the power of reading without your enthusiasm and modeling”

TRUTH…I AGREE. I remember the different ways in which I learned how to read and the teachers I learned the most from were the ones that showed excitement in what they were teaching.  You can bet I was falling asleep on the ones that used the monotone voice and the lack of interest in what they were teaching. I always use voices annotation, facial expressions, and even body language when I want the children to get into the literature I am reading to them. I see them using the same excitement when they are reading something they are enjoying. Some even run to tell me about the book they are reading and they know I will show interest in what they bring to my attention

·         “Even students with reading disabilities can become proficient readers if their interest in the subject is great enough.”

Although this may be hard, it is true. These children have to work extra hard to achieve this. Most of my students come to me with little to no interest in reading. Most likely for two reasons. The first reason is their lack of exposure to literature and the second is their difficulty in processing literacy comprehension. So, as educators we have to model how much fun reading can be, we have to teach them about different genres, and we have to feed off of what the children’s interests are. I do all of this with our reading club. Sometimes we are in a reading club with other classes and other times we do a reading club with only the students in our class. Routman writes about the influence book clubs have on her life and how being in a reading club helps her find interest in books she may like to read. Having a reading club gives the kids an extra push to want to read. They want to read and earn points, rewards, and enjoy the competition of reading more books than others. The more books the top reader reads, the more books the rest of the class will read to try to catch up. The reading club also opens conversation amongst the children and suggestions about what they read and what they liked.