Laura Brown's November Blog Post : Teaching With a Sense of Urgency

            In this chapter, Routman states that our students should become "self-sustaining, thoughtful, independent readers and writers." This statement made me think about my own students. Am I doing everything I can do to achieve this goal for my students? I have seen many students this year enjoy reading and writing so much more when they are given a choice what to read and write. However, just giving students choice is not going to make them the kind of readers and writers that they should and can be. We also as educators need to set high expectations for our students as well as keep them accountable for their learning goals. The students do very well when I let go of some of the control and give it to them. This goes hand in hand with setting high expectations and holding them accountable. 
          Routman also gives five things that we as educators can do in our classrooms to make sure that our students become independent readers. One thing we need to have is a good classroom library. This way students have access to all kinds of books in the classroom so that all interests and levels are present. Another way to ensure good readers is for educators to know their teaching strategies. Teachers can't help students to become better readers if they don't understand and can't teach the strategies themselves. The next thing the teachers need to be doing is to show students that we are readers. This will definitely motivate the students to want to read more if they see others reading and loving to read as well. The fourth thing that Routman suggests is to evaluate the strategies learned and practiced by the student and give feed back within an appropriate time. This allows the teacher and the student to monitor and adjust the strategies and what next steps should be taken. The last task that teachers should be doing in their classrooms is to allow the students to choose what they want to read and actually give them time to do so. There is nothing like learning more about something you are truly interested in.