India Rowe's September Blog Post: The Pleasure Principle

            Nancie Atwell describes a reading environment that promotes the love of reading based on student interest and individual choice in The Pleasure Principle.  In many classrooms, reading instruction is transitioning from the traditional reading model that focused on one story a week in the basal to a more student-driven model that is filled with a variety of texts.  I wish I could have experienced this type of reading instruction when I was in school!  Atwell’s article reminds me of Donalyn Miller’s book, The Book Whisperer:  Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child.  Like Atwell, Miller discusses the importance of teachers releasing control of our reading instruction and giving students more ownership over their reading choices.  I agree with Atwell that there can be some hesitancy found among teachers and parents about this reading model.  Teachers are still responsible for giving students a reading grade and may find it more difficult to assess students in reading through the workshop model.  However, this type of reading instruction allows teachers to give more authentic assessments based on what students are reading.  Also, parents are reluctant to embrace reader’s workshop at the beginning of the school year because they do not have access to a weekly reading selection that they can study and read every night with their child.  Nevertheless, I have had numerous conversations with parents later in the year about the meaningful reading conversations that their child has started at home or how reading was always a chore at home, but now the child loves to read.  Atwell says that through the reading workshop model students “carve out identities for themselves as readers” (Atwell, 2007, p. 46).   My purpose as a reading teacher is not only to help my students develop their reading skills, but to help them develop a lifelong love of reading that continues outside the walls of my classroom.