There are several ways that we, as educators, kill a child's love of reading. Our intentions are good, but sometimes the practices we employ leave little to be desired. Rather than leveling, timing, and signing kids (and parents) to death how can we employ strategies that encourage students to not only see the value, but also to fall in love with reading.
Limiting Students by Level:What's our goal in this? If they love robots they'll compensate. Give students opportunities to read what they love and they will astonish you! When my boys first fell in love with Minecraft Weston was in 2nd grade. He was reading articles and how-tos written for adult readers. He is smart (good genes-HA), but not that smart. He muddled his way through because it was meaningful to him. When my 6th grader wanted to create iMovies he googled it. He read the Apple articles and prevailed with an impressive documentary. Fountas and Pinnell, the Queens of Reading in my opinion, never meant for levels to somehow become badges of honor (or dishonor).
Reading Logs: Do we want to limit the number of minutes/books students read? Do we want it to seem like a job? And what is the impact of the reading log on students who always or never read? Is it changing the behavior? I promise, if we encourage reading and make it something students want to do, not have to do, a reading log is a moot point. Do we ask students to get their iPad log signed? Do we ask our Lego fanatic to jot down how many minutes he plays? No-we encourage them because we know that they are meaningful learning activities. Reading should be no different.
Test prep & worksheets: Definitely necessary at some point, but they don't encourage students to want to read or allow students to dig deeper. Of course we have to give standardized assessments so a healthy amount of test prep is critical. Healthy, people! Testing materials should be taught as a genre, because really it is just another format. Just like we teach students to reframe their thinking for non-fiction we have to give them the tools needed for test materials.
Skipping the Read Aloud: I still love to hear great readers read. Who doesn't love a good audio book? There's just something comforting about a read aloud. And there is so much great literature. Read books aloud often. I'll never forget when my high school English teacher read us parts of the classic. Her passion for literature was contagious.
I hope this inspires you to do something differently. Stop wasting paper on reading logs and start encouraging students to read deep, read wide, and read often!
