Boredom got you down? Do some reading!

Wild reading refers to readers who incorporate reading into their lives along with other things that interest them. There are a lot of mindless assignments teachers choose to have children do that discourage them and actually make them hate reading. With all the tasks children are supposed to complete for a grade, there doesn’t leave much time for them to read freely unless they try hard to incorporate it into the ten minute or even maybe sometimes thirty minute slots of time they have waiting for an appointment, are on the bus, or waiting at the store for their parents-and that’s IF they take a book with them everywhere they go. Donalyn Miller says, “If I didn’t make reading a priority, it would be easy to skip,” and I agree that even adults struggle with finding time to read, so it is a good idea to inspire children to read and set aside time during class whenever possible, not just in an English class either. If teachers incorporate reading into the students’ routine at a young age by the time they reach adulthood, it will have become a habit.

I really enjoyed her idea of a “Reading Itinerary” as opposed to a “Reading Log” because it gives the students a way to keep track of their free reading instead of them in the end faking their log for the grade. I think if teachers encouraged me to read even if just for five minutes between classes instead of telling us to set aside at least thirty minutes at home each night I may have read more. It was difficult in elementary school through high school setting aside time to read so I could pass the AR tests or book talks because I wanted to play outside with friends, be involved in sports, then still wanted time to just relax aside from doing all that and homework for other classes. I had a few teachers who would require a certain number of pages to be read from our “outside” books, but they wouldn’t give us time to read in class and it was frustrating and discouraging.

I think what may be challenging is to encourage the “fake readers” to actually read during class time that’s set aside for the students to read. It seems like it would be an easy task to observe them then talk to them about their reading habits, but I personally am not one for confrontation, and asking a student to read if they clearly avoid it every day would be tough for me. I want to encourage my future students to read as much as possible because it is an important habit that I wish I was more actively involved in. Whenever I say “I’m bored”, instead of mindlessly looking for a movie to watch or staring off into space I am going to encourage myself to read more (even if it’s my textbooks, but preferably a book that I started about a year ago and still have not finished). I am excited to encourage students to do the same, but afraid of asking students to read if/when they don’t want to because I don’t want to discourage them by making it seem like a forced task.

“We cannot tell children they need to read more and refuse to offer any time to read during the school day.”