I'm so excited to be doing a book study on "The Book Whisperer" by Donalyn Miller with a few of my friends.
If you don't have the book already, you can grab it here.
If you don't have the book already, you can grab it here.
I read "The Book Whisperer" a few years ago and it was a nice refresher to reread it.
The first chapter talks all about the author's first experiences with teaching reading. My parents were readers and I think I got my love of reading from them.
In the chapter she describes exactly how I was taught as a kid. I hated all the books we had to read for high school; anything Shakespeare, Wuthering Heights, etc. I just didn't get the draw to the "classics".
For someone who can read a book a night, these books were just torture to me. I hated having to pick apart every little detail and symbolism in the books. For me, it ruined the purpose of the book.
Why was I reading it? In school, because I HAD to. Not because I enjoyed it or wanted to. I was the kid that rushed through my work so I could get to my book. The book I WANTED to read, not the book I HAD to read.
If it wasn't for my parents who instilled the love of reading in me, the school system certainly wouldn't have made me a reader. It would have turned me off reading altogether.
Why was I reading it? In school, because I HAD to. Not because I enjoyed it or wanted to. I was the kid that rushed through my work so I could get to my book. The book I WANTED to read, not the book I HAD to read.
If it wasn't for my parents who instilled the love of reading in me, the school system certainly wouldn't have made me a reader. It would have turned me off reading altogether.
Like the author, in examining how I became a reader and what I experienced in school, it made me think about how I wanted to teach my students.
Since I teach kindergarten, I will usually be the first experience they have with formal teaching. I have to instill the love of reading in them from the beginning.
I found the chart on page 16 to be helpfully when examining what I'm doing with my reading program.
What about your reading program? Does it incorporate any of the 5 key components?
Click on any of links below for more posts on chapter one.
Click on any of links below for more posts on chapter one.
5 comments:
Thanks for sharing! It will be great to read this from your kindergarten perspective. Love that you typed up the Key Components like this!
Aren't those key components great! Great post! Thank you!
Great chart! That totally summarizes my own feelings about reading.
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Choice is so important - it almost seems like no-brainer. Even though I know that it isn't. I like to choose what I read; why wouldn't a child want the same choice.
Unfortunately, I think it all goes back to how much time we have in class these days to enjoy reading - everything is on such a tight time schedule it makes reading another "subject" to be got through and ticked off. I know in the past taking small reading groups and discussing the books was wonderful with all children but now we need written answers in a book to show they have "worked"!
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