Thoughts on Wild Reading – Rachel Samson

I found Miller’s ideas to be very intriguing. The way she talked about being a wild reader really resonated with me, that it is not something that they think about, they just do it. She talks about it as if it just comes naturally and there is no thought about it. This is something that I desire to change about my future, to become a wild reader.

I definitely identified with Nathan in my younger years. I remember in elementary school, I was always the student that was ‘fake reading’. Each night we would have to record how long we read for and how many pages we had read.  If we reached a certain amount of books by the end of the year, we would receive a big shiny medal. So of course, being the sneaky second grader I was, I forged all my reading time logs so that I would be eligible to receive the medal at the end of the year.

I completely agree with Miller that sometimes, forcing kids to read at school makes them learn to hate and dread it. I personally have a lot of experience with this in my past. Reading all those boring textbooks in school made me believe that all reading was boring and dreadful. However, thankfully later on I learned that for most books, it is the complete opposite.

We cannot be telling our students that they need to read more without giving them time to read in class. That is another challenge many teachers face, finding class time for independent reading. However, the more students practice reading, the more confidence they will have, and the more they will learn to enjoy it. Students must be able to see themselves as readers to actually be able to leisurely read outside of school.

 

As a future teacher I am very excited to have the capability to teach my students to learn to love reading. Yet, at the same time that is a terrifying thought. I am definitely afraid that my students will have the same experience as myself and dread reading.