One of the take-away ideas from the first chapter of Donalyn Miller’s and Susan Kelley’s, “Reading in the Wild”, was the idea that students don’t have to read continuously for 30 minutes as what many teachers have asked from their students. I remember that in middle school my language arts teacher will ask all of us to read at least 30 to 60 minutes but it was sometimes difficult for me to find a place that was quiet enough to concentrate on my reading and other times I would get easily distracted. It never occurred to me that I could read by taking breaks here and there. I enjoyed Miller’s idea of reading emergencies because it gives students the opportunity to find more time to read. I think this idea will help students become lifelong readers instead of just being readers in a school setting. I also like her idea about reading itineraries because it allows students to reflect on which locations are better for them to read. I am thinking of applying these ideas in my classroom one day because these are lifelong tools that students will need to keep on reading.
I am excited in teaching reading because I love reading and I feel that reading is essential for a student to have because a book can make a student reflect on their lives and can help them escape their life for a while. I like the idea of giving students the opportunity to choose their own books because when you give students freedom in reading they will be more likely to enjoy it. I know from personal experience that this technique works because my high school English teacher implemented this idea in his classroom and it allowed me to love and appreciate reading.
Something that worries me about teaching reading is finding better ways or techniques that I will use to motivate my students into loving reading. I know that many people don’t like reading and I feel that it will be hard to change a student’s mindset if they weren’t exposed to the idea that they all can be considered as readers. It may be hard to show students that reading could be for them since they might think that they may not have the skills to be a great reader. When I volunteered at Rosedale Elementary some students wouldn’t want to try reading some books because they thought that they would never get English or Spanish. In these situations I don’t know how I can help students be more open to reading besides giving them words of encouragement. It is sad to hear that students might not want to read because they think they are not at the correct “level” of reading.
Another thing that worries me is time management in helping students to find what works well for them in their reading. I have volunteered in schools before and I feel that sometimes teachers don’t have enough time to help all of their students since they only have a limited time with them. I don’t know how these teachers were able to take the time and patience to observe their students and check if there students were actually reading or not. It’s inspirational that they were able to manage their time well and even though it may seem like a lot of work I think I can do the same. Overall, I enjoyed reading what Miller and Kelley had to say about some of the tools that we as future teachers can use to help our students become “readers in the wild”.
