Kaylee Foster- December Blog- Routman (2003), Ch. 3: Share Your Reading Life

         In Chapter 3 of Regie Routman’s book titled Reading Essentials I became forced to take a deeper look into my personal reading life. Routman discusses the importance of being open with the students from day one about your passion to read and why reading is important. Routman makes a vaild point by stating that most students give answers like “I read to learn new words” or “I read to become smarter”, unfortunately no one normally states that they read for fun or because they like it. The teacher should be modeling, sharing, and convincing students that reading is fun and can be done out of personal liking. This is something that I personally need to work on. I have lacked in sharing my personal reading life with my students.

Routman also states, that a teacher should share their reading habits with the class. According to Routman, it is essential to let the students know that it is okay to be reading more than one book at a time and that you should be aware of what you want to read next. Routman also suggest, that teachers share with their students on how they chose to read a book, whether it be from a friend suggesting it, book reviews or best sellers. Another important point made, was to share with students a reading record and how it should be done. This also made me step back and think about my personal reading life. I am ashamed to say that I don’t currently have a reading record that I keep up with. This is something that I personally need to work on in order to be able to share with my class.

In providing the students with a teacher’s perspective on their personal reading habits this will hopefully motivate the students to emulate what they are doing.  My ultimate goal is for my students to enjoy reading and to find a love for it. I am realizing that in order for them to do this I should be doing the same.