Sarah Barker: Blog 2

What are your take-away ideas from the Miller text so far? What ideas are resonating? What seems challenging? What are you most excited about in terms of teaching reading? Most afraid of?

Miller’s text is packed with take away ideas! I’m really enjoying reading her ideas on how to motivate students to become “wild” readers. It’s apparent that Miller truly loves reading and is passionate about instilling this love for books in her students, something I hope to accomplish as well. One of the most important ideas I’ve taken from the text so far would be to encourage reading in those edge times. I had never thought about all the times I’m stuck waiting and how much time I could be spending reading a book. I like that she had students write down times when they had “reading emergencies” to show students how useful having a book with them at all times is.

Thinking about reading reminds me of my mom; I used to laugh a bit when my mom would double check she’d placed a book in her purse. There’s never a day where my mom doesn’t find time to read one of her books. I think about how much my mom enjoys spending time reading and I hope to see that same enjoyment in my future students. I think finding a comfortable reading space and choosing your own books are essential to the enjoyment of reading. Students should find reading a book to be a good experience, not just another boring task. Not only is it important to incorporate reading time in the classroom, but allowing students to find a comfy space and choose something that they’re interested in makes it feel less like schoolwork.

Time seems like a big challenge. Not only finding time outside of school for students to read, but finding class time to set aside for reading. It seems like teaching the standards and preparing students for tests take up a big chunk of the day and with so many subjects to cover, it could be hard to carve out time for reading.  When lesson planning and thinking about what needs to be covered each day, I’ll have to remember that even reading for ten minutes here and there can make a difference.

I’m really excited to share funny stories with my students! I’m a huge goofball and I think it’ll be fun to read to my class. I like to be dramatic at times and use silly voices, which I think can make reading even more entertaining. Reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid cracks me up and I can’t wait to share stories like that with my students. I also really like the “Blind date with a book” idea so there’s lots of fun ways to encourage students to read. I remember when I was in elementary school, we did a day called “Read and Feed”. I looked forward to it because I got to wear my PJ’s to school and read books and be comfy and eat snacks. I want my students to have lots of experiences with reading and to find books they enjoy.

I think the idea of having my own class makes me a little nervous because it’ll be a new experience. Being a student and learning about how to teach is very different from actually being in charge of a class and lesson planning and all those teacher things! I like that Miller’s text is easy to read and will serve as a great resource when I am a teacher and I’m struggling to engage students in reading. There’s lots of ideas for checking students understanding or helping to identify students who aren’t actually reading. It’s nice to have all these resources and be able to discuss ideas with everyone now that I can refer back to later.