Allison Sumerel's December Blog Post: Reading Essentials: Routman, Chapter 3: Share your Reading Life

     It is important to start off the year by telling your students just how important reading is to you.  Routman suggests bringing in your own recent collection of books to talk to your students about, like what they are about, what you like about them, or why you want to read them.  Let students know that finding a book that they like is key.  I did this by having my students tell me through a Padlet about what they enjoy reading.  I then checked out books from our school library about the topic they enjoyed.  They were to read and list the top 5 things that they enjoyed or learned.  The author mentioned when finding a book that interests her, to keep a writing notebook.  This notebook should contain quotes or passages that stood out to the reader.  Routman suggests letting your students know how you choose your books to read and opening up several avenues for students to choose, such as, a "top ten" list, book talks, or create a class bulletin board highlighting favorite books. The author talks about making sure you promote the different genres.  She says that you might want to keep a reading record to show your current and past books or articles.  It is a way to be proud of your reading accomplishment, but also figuring what other types of books or genres you might need to read.  The most important thing I read is that in order to be a good reading teacher, you need to enjoy reading yourself.