Learning Log 7

I think that a lot of teachers have the same worries about their students who move on in their academic careers as I know that I would if I were in her situation.  It just illustrates how important it is for teachers to get to know their students' reading likes and dislikes as well as their reading habits when they walk into the classroom in the fall.  This can easily be done through reading questionnaires, and then teachers will know which students are motivated readers and which ones are not and can plan accordingly.  I think that one of the worst things that a teacher can do is put the students back at square one instead of getting familiar with their students.  If we want students to become lifelong readers, then we need to keep them motivated by offering them choices in their reading material even if we may not think that they are reading classical literature.  I know that this is not an easy feat in our education system that is focused on standardized testing, and that it may seem easier to tailor reading instruction to the tests.  I think this approach of teaching to the test sets students up to become alliterate readers when they finish their academic careers.  I would like to point out that the author, who does not teach to the test, has had her students' test scores come out very high.  I think that the high test scores that her students have is because of the fact that she puts so much emphasis on reading for the joy of reading that it has a longer lasting impact on her students becoming lifelong readers.  I think that independent reading is so important to a student's academic success that I will try to find those wasted minutes in the classroom, and I will have my students use those times to read independently with books that interest them.

Learning Log 6

One thing that I found very interesting from this reading that I can actually compare to what I have experienced is the reading logs that are used to record the amount of minutes that a student has read. When I was in school, the teachers did not require students to record the amount of time that they spent reading outside of school. I read just because I liked to read; however, I also had reading role models at home as both of my parents were avid readers. My kids, on the other hand, have had to record their reading minutes at home since they started school. They had the Book-It reading program in which they get a free personal pizza in the early grades (My youngest one still has this program, and he is the only one who it has really mattered.). When my two oldest children entered fifth grade, they had to record their minutes for a letter grade in home reading. This was not an incentive for either one of them to record their reading time. My daughter, however, was reading all the time, wherever she found an opportunity to read. I remember her teachers constantly calling me telling me that she did not turn in her reading minutes, and I would tell them that she was reading all the time. At her eighth grade graduation, the communication arts teacher handed out awards to the students for the amount of minutes that they read throughout the school year. My daughter had only recorded around 3000 minutes, but I know that she read at least double that if not more. She was (and still is) a motivated reader who did not feel that she had to justify it; she knew that her dad and I were aware of her reading passion. My oldest son has not been very motivated to read, and it is not from a lack of trying on our part. I am an avid reader, and I have always made sure that there are books in the house as well as looking through the book orders with my children and buying books for them out of those book orders.