Learning Log 2

I am normally an avid reader; however, I do not have the time that I would like to have for reading for enjoyment with a full-time class load.  I love books, and I have some favorite authors whose work I have been reading for several years.  My favorite genres are historical fiction, fantasy, biographies, and folklore.  In my early days of school, I loved stories of animals.  Judy Blume and Madeleine L’Engle were two of my favorite authors when I reached the intermediate grades.  I remember getting excited when the Bookmobile came to our school as the librarian would bring a lot of books from the public library.  I kind of last interest in reading during my first two years of high school.  My favorite English teacher, however, got me interested in reading.  I was reading every free moment that I had in school:  in the library before school, after tests, and during my lunch.  I was also reading at home, and my parents were continuously buying books for me to keep me reading.  My favorite excursions were to go to the bookstore and the public library.  I think that I was reading at least forty books (with a minimum of eight hundred pages) a year.  My favorite authors at that time were Marion Zimmer Bradley, Morgan Llywelyn, and David Eddings.  As an adult, I still have the same favorite genres, and I have added many more authors to my list of favorites.

I have tried to instill into my children the same love for books and reading that I have.  When my kids would bring home the book orders from school, I would find the money so that they could buy a book.  I subscribed to book clubs, and I would buy books as gifts for my kids.  My daughter is a senior high school, and she always has her nose in a book.  She reads in the car, when fishing, and whenever she has a free moment at school.  She loves going to bookstores; however, that is not so easy since our only big name bookstore closed.  My oldest son, on the other hand, just has not found the same interest.  He says that he hates to read, and I told him that he has not found a book to pique his interest yet.  My youngest son, who has a learning disability in reading, loves books even though he has difficulty reading them.  I am hoping that this love will continue for him so that he will become a life-long reader.

It is important as a future educator to find out our students interests as this will help us in suggesting books that they might find engaging.  Having students fill out reading interest surveys during the first week of school will help teachers to get to know how their students feel about reading and get to know what their students interests are outside of school.  According to Donalyn Miller (author of The Book Whisperer), the types of readers that teachers will encounter in their classrooms are developing readers, dormant readers, and underground readers.  Developing readers are the struggling readers, and the dormant readers are the students who read just enough to pass the tests.  The underground readers are the readers who do not need encouragement to read; they read because they love to.  The conditions for learning are:  immersion, demonstrations, expectations, responsibility, employment, approximations, response, and engagement.  When promoting engagement, Miller talks the importance of provide learning experiences in which reading has a personal value to them; is anxiety-free; and is modeled by the teacher or other adult that they like, trust, respect, and want to try to be like.