Learning Log 1

I remember that when I was little that I loved reading and books, in fact my favorite subject from kindergarten through middle school was English.  However, when I started high school, English became my least favorite subject.  Everything from what we read to what we wrote was very structured, so structured that I felt confined.  For reading, there was no choice in what we were reading; to this day, I cannot stand The Lord of the Flies.  For writing, there was no freedom; the teacher selected what we were to write about.  This caused me tremendous difficulty when it came to creative writing, essays, and poetry.  For the first time ever, I hated going to English class.  I was not engaged in my learning, and I do not think that my teachers at the time were really interested in getting me engaged.  I lost interest in reading altogether.  When I transferred high schools at the beginning of my junior year, I became interested in English again.  The English department at my new high school was set up in such a way that the students had choices in the area of study for each quarter.  We were able to choose a particular genre, mythology, creative writing, and Shakespeare.  When my teacher assigned an essay, he let us make a choice of topic in what we were writing.  I loved having that choice as I felt responsible for my learning.  I had the same English teacher for most of my junior and all of my senior year, and he was my favorite English teacher.  He was great; he encouraged me to think, to try.  I became an avid reader again, and I discovered authors that are still favorites of mine today, which is due in part to the choices that I was permitted to have in my English class.

I can definitely relate to Donalyn Miller when she talked about everybody in school reading the same books and doing the same activities whether they were interested in the book or not.  I really like the idea of teaching the reading and writing workshops to students and permitting them to have a choice in books that interest them.  Through this method students can explore new books and share books that they have come to love.  We, as teachers, can share our enthusiasm for reading and books by letting them explore the world of literature, and we can focus our teaching on comprehension strategies and literacy elements, which will aid our students in developing their literacy skills.  Teachers can also create literature circles that will encourage more reading and sharing from students.
An important idea that needs to be employed in the classroom is to design our classroom libraries so that there are books for each student's interests.  Students can complete a reading interest inventory, which will help teachers to know what their students are interested in.  Another option that can be used is to permit students to visit the library regularly, and teachers need to encourage parents and other family members to take their children to the local public library and buy books for their children.