For the Love of Reading!
I try to read to my grade 5s everyday after lunch to model reading strategies and to both nurture and inspire a love for reading. The collection of books that I choose to use includes a large selection of picture books that lends itself to having rich text and a launching point for modeling the different reading strategies that I'm teaching. During the year, I will also venture into
chapter books with a heavy bias towards Roald Dahl (my kids are helplessly converted Roald Dahl fans by the end of the year! Ha. They like his writing anyways) and non-fictional texts based on real-life events such as Francesco D'Adamo's. "Iqbal" based on Iqbal Masih's tireless work and advocacy for children's rights and child labour in Pakistan. Helping to open channels of experience for young children present opportunities to gravitate beyond the sphere of their own personal community and often helps my students to understand the greater scope of other children's loves as well as to grow in understanding issues pertaining to them but maybe just outside their immediate realm.
The attached student response was in one of my children's writing and it encourages me to continue reading to my kids and to simply model a genuine love for reading! Boy, I had a really nice "feel good" moment as I was marking that afternoon.
-S.
