Diary of a (not so) Wimpy Kid- Rachel Samson

I chose the series Diary of a Wimpy Kid written by Jeff Kinney. I find this series to be very silly and entertaining and definitely something I would recommend to my future students. I believe students of all ages would enjoy reading this series because it is hilarious. In this series, Gregory is the main character and he shares his life with us by writing in a diary each day. He is a very funny character and also has many very relatable experiences. He tells us about mistakes he makes and about lessons he learns, which I can say I can most definitely relate to.

In the book, Dog Days, Gregory is on summer break, and unlike the other kids he is looking forward to sitting around the house, being lazy and unproductive. His mother then intervenes Gregory’s plans and forms a book club that she forces him to join. Gregory was not very happy about this and had no interest in reading any of the books his mother picked out. I thought this was ironic because this has been one of the big topics in our class lately. How do we get children to enjoy reading? I can relate this to chapter two in Miller’s book, which is all about the student picking books of their choice. Once Greg’s mother sees that he is the least bit interested in her choices, she lets Greg pick one out himself. However, Greg’s mother does not approve of his book choice because of the graphic cover. She then tells the boys she is going to be making the book choices and chooses Charlottes’ Web. Greg is not too thrilled about this book and has a hard time keeping up with the reading.

As a kid, I was very much like Gregory. That’s what made these books so hard to put down, they were so funny and I felt as if I had experienced everything he was talking about. I was all about play and no work, if I was given a chore or homework to do, I would find every possible way to get around it. I feel that many kids have this mindset, which could be something I struggle with as a future teacher. I need to find a way to make reading interactive and fun for the students so it is something they learn to love.

In chapter two of Reading in the wild, Miller talks about how important it is for students to have enough confidence to pick their own books. I completely agree with this and think students should feel comfortable picking out a book to read, rather than having books being handed to them by their teachers. This allows for the students to really think about what they enjoy reading about, and they can chose a book that they will actually be interested in. Students are not always going to have their teachers there to recommend books for them, so the sooner they can pick out books for themselves, the better.