The saying “Do as
I say, not as I do” does not apply to Donalyn Miller’s class. She is very much an avid reader and this is
why her students really trust her opinions and recommendations concerning
books. They see her reading along with them
and they know she values reading with her whole heart. This is not something someone can fake either
you love to read or you don’t. In
Chapter 5 Walking the Walk, Miller gives us her views on how teachers are such
important role models to our students sometimes even more so then parents. It is popular to blame parents for the students’
lack of good reading habits or disengagement of reading altogether. Miller’s reminds us that at one point these
same parents were once are students as well.
Who then will become the role model for the student? It is not uncommon to say our students are
more likely to spend more awake time with their teacher then their
parents. We are in a society where both
parents will have to work to support the household. They might have had a bad reading experience
when they were younger. They could also
be like our students today where they have no good role models of passionate
readers. Miller mention’s Rosenblatt’s
transactional theory in which she states the teachers who have no love of
reading will usually teach reading as more of efferent style which a more
skills based approach. Whereas teachers
who love reading teach it with an aesthetic approach and these are the teachers
who will have a greater chance of making an influential difference with our
students reading habits. “If we want our
students to read and enjoy it for the rest of their lives, then we must show
them what a reading life looks like” (Miller 110).
So how can we
become good reading role models to our students? We have to find our inner reader and self
reflect on our reading history. We have
to be honest and share our experiences with our students, the good ones and the
bad ones. This is a great way to connect
with our students, show them we once were just like them. Miller also has a reading improvement plan we
as teachers can follow:
o
Commit
to a certain amount of reading per day.
o
Choose
books to read that are personally interesting to you.
o
Read
more books for children.
o
Take recommendations
from you own students.
o
Investigate
recommendations from industry sources.
o
Create
your own reader’s notebook.
o
Reflect
on what you are reading.
This chapter was a
great way to remind us how much influence we have on our students and ways we
can improve our own reading habits.
I NEED to start reading for fun! My other grad class is kicking my arse because it is emotionally draining (I literally sit in my car before class and have to convince myself to go to class) and I dedicate a lot of my time reading for that class and trying to catch up on grading. I pinky promise myself that I will read a book for fun during winter break. I need some reminding of why we read and teach our students to read in the first place!
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