Reading Into the Wild Response

I really enjoyed reading the first chapter of Reading in the Wild. Miller talks about how we can find little time throughout our day to read and I think that is important for people to realize. You don’t need to sit down for a certain amount of time to read but instead take some time here and there. If you bring a book with you, then you may realize how much extra time you have throughout the day to just read a little bit. I really liked how Miller put silent reading into her daily lesson plan. While it is important for children to read outside of school it is also important for them to read at school. Children have busy lives outside of school so allowing time for them to also read at school gives them more time to learn to enjoy reading.

While allowing them time at school to read is important it is also important to allow them a choice of what they are reading. Miller talks about student who are “fake readers” and as I was reading all the things that these students would do it made me realize I was a “fake reader” throughout middle school and high school. I hated reading during these school years and avoided it at all costs because I was always being forced to read certain books. In high school when we were assigned books to read I don’t think I ever finished one of them because they were never books that interested me. Being told what I “had” to read all throughout school just made me hate it in general until I got to college. During my freshman English class we had more of a choice of what we wanted to read so I actually picked a book I enjoyed and this changed my whole outlook on it. When you give students the option of reading what they like they are going to want to do it more. If they are being forced to read something it’s going to be more of a punishment.

The thing that seems challenging when it comes to teaching my own class is going to be how to get nonreaders to want to read. Reading isn’t for everyone but I hope that when I have my own class they at least enjoy it a little. The worst is when you force someone to read something they don’t want to read so like Miller I will have many different options of books for my children to chose from. I hope by doing that the nonreaders can enjoy it more and not look at it as something they hate doing like I did. With this comes what I am most excited about. I can’t wait to get my students excited about reading. Since I grew up hating it to now loving it I hope to change the outlook on reading. I want my future class to be able to want to read as much as possible and get excited when they finish a book or pick up a new one.