Skip to main content

Growing Readers

"I can't stop reading this book! I've never liked a book this much before!" 
- Lexie, English 2, first period.

Beautiful, musical words to my English teacher ears! I grinned for hours after Lexie told me that last Friday, especially since the book she's referring to is my absolute favorite young adult book, The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. I've read it three times. Only three! I guarantee I'll read it again too. There's just something about those words in the most amazing combinations that grab me every time! My co-teacher, Mr. Barb, tells me it's because I am the main character, Lennie. Maybe. I've never had a sister. I played the flute rather than the clarinet. But in some ways, I guess I get her. And one day, when I grow up, I want to write like Nelson does. One day...


So selling this book to my sophomore readers is rarely a problem. I gush over it every time I talk it to them; I just can't help it! And finding a reader who loves it like I do simply makes me giddy.

 It also reminds me again why choice reading is so very important. Lexie wouldn't have read any book if I selected it for her. She would probably oppose most of the books taught in a traditional English 2 class. But, with this story, I've got her. Now, she'll follow me to book after book. She's certainly a selective and picky reader, so it'll take trying several each time for her to find the next option - like trying on clothes at the mall. But if I've got her with Lennie and her dead sister and her conflicting love for two boys, why can't I ultimately take her to Daisy and her "love" for two boys? It is possible. And, in the mean time, Lexie just may read 4 or 5 or 10 books this semester! Isn't that better than all those years students left my class having read only the two I picked (if they even read those)?

 Yeah, I doubt myself often as I work through this first year in several million where I'm teaching sophomores again. I worry that we are moving too slowly or covering too little. I search constantly for the right thread to weave my crazy ideas together for these kids. But in the end, I know we're doing something awesome. They are. They bug me for book talks regularly. One of them has already done one for us! And they dive into books each day with little prompting from me. They talk about them and get excited about them and seek recommendations when they finish. 

 They are becoming real, growing readers. And I love it!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Emily

One evening a few weeks ago, my almost 8 year old, Emily, was having a night. The scream, pout, tantrum kind of night. Drama was high, and I was doing my best to remain calm and avoid an explosion of anger or a fit of giggles. I'm about 50/50 when it comes to kid fights. I can never predict if I'll react in yelling or laughing. Anyway, this particular incident dealt with toothbrushing. I have come to believe that brushing one's teeth - at least at elementary age - must be akin to chewing shiny metal thumbtacks. Hearing my children protest, one may conclude that I torture them frequently with the help of Crest and Oral-B. This night was no different. Emily was NOT going to brush her teeth no matter what I suggested. Typically, she puts the paste on her brush, clicks two minutes into the timer, and off she goes. But not that night.  Her protests grew, her voice reaching higher and higher octaves as her eyes bulged and her face sizzled. She slammed her bedroom door. She th...
3 comments
Read more

A Fish Tale

Last weekend, I went fishing with my dad. I packed the kids in my silver mommy van, waded through the 5 o'clock Friday traffic, and arrived at Lake Fork in time to meet Dad coming off the water. He'd found the "honey hole" and snagged two - one over six pounds, the other over seven! He knew where to take us the following day. Saturday, he took out Ian, my ten year old, first at six AM. Ian going out for his first official early morning bass fishing with Pops is enough to melt my daddy's girl heart, and as expected, they had a blast. After they came in for lunch, Emily, my seven year old, and I crawled into the boat with Ian and my dad, and we returned to Lake Fork, the Big Bass Capital of Texas for another round.  Initially, we cruised around in the hot Texas October sun. We found solace in the shade of an old bridge. We "wet a hook" as Dad would say but, sadly, with no luck. Then, evening hit. Fishing frenzy time. Dad returned to the "honey h...
4 comments
Read more

Dude. Be nice.

It's in the air like the scent of burnt popcorn from the teacher workroom fogging the halls. It's on our faces like thick blue cupcake icing that will never, never wash off.  What is it, you ask? The spring slide. The end of the year blues. The how-many-more-days-do-we-have weekly question. Yup, it's that time of year. It happens annually. Spring Break concludes, and it takes all of our patience and enthusiasm with it. Students go off for a week and leave any interest and motivation under the blankets where they slept their break away. We teachers leave our efforts to collaborate and abilities to reason in the pages of our reads and on the beaches of our trips. And there is just never. enough. coffee. Ever. That sad and disappointing part of the spring slide/endofyearblues is that it leaves us snarking at each other and our students. Our patience is minuscule and our tempers are pre-lit. And everyone - everyone - we encounter wears a target gleaming, waiting ...
4 comments
Read more