I'm a reader. What are you?

I would consider myself a good reader when it comes to texts I chose to read. When I am assigned to read something, I can read it fast and get it done, but that does not always mean that I got out of it what I was supposed to or comprehended and made connections in what I was reading. However, if the text is engaging or exciting, even if it was assigned, I will be a better reader. I have always loved reading fantasy, sci-fi, and historical fiction. I have never been a fan of mystery novels, mushy romances, or sports books. I like to be taken somewhere else when I read and usually the books I can relate to hit too close to home and I just feel like I am reading my own life, which is kinda boring.

I have always enjoyed reading outside of school. Almost every week, I would head to the library and pick up one or two books to read. There is just something exilerating about being able to pick what you read, and when you don’t like it, to be able to put it down and not read it. This is not something you can do in school—if you don’t like the text, too bad, you have no choice. This was different, though, for me in my English Classes. Of the books assigned, I don’t think there is a single one that I did not enjoy reading. I also really liked reading historical texts in my history classes. I loved being able to read speeches, journals, famous documents, and reading maps, graphics, pictures, and so on. Basically, anytime I didn’t have to read a textbook, I was happy. I went through a phase when I was twelve years old that I decided I was not going to read. That lasted about a week. I have always been a reader and always will. In fact, right now, even though I have a billion other things to read, I still make time to read The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan. It is my relax time.

I never really had anyone discourage me from reading unless I was getting too excessive. Sometimes I would have to be reminded to go outside and play or to do chores or to go to bed and stop reading. My parents were always very influential in telling me to read. The group of friends I hung out with were usually readers themselves and therefore we swapped books and told each other to read. However, there were some peers that would tell me that reading was dumb and if I wanted to be cool I should stop reading. I would tell them I read so my brain doesn’t turn to mush likes theirs would.

I understand that my experience in reading is going to be very different from my students’ experiences. Where I love to read, they may not; what I like to read, they may not (although I am pretty sure we will all hate reading textbooks.) My brother has never liked reading; it was always difficult for him to read because he had a stutter. That stutter is gone, but he still doesn’t like to read, especially out loud. However, every once in a while, he will find a book he likes and will become almost as obsessed with reading as I am, until the book is finished. I feel that this may be the experience of many students—there is something keeping them from reading until they find something that interests them. As a teacher, I can provide my students with many varied texts on a certain topic or subject that they can chose to read, and not necessarily historical-nonfiction. When we are learning about World War II, I can give them options of The Boy Who Dared or The Book Thief or The Diary of Anne Frank and so many others to read. This way, they find something they like. And I can be flexible with what they read—we do not always have to be in a textbook. Students can read maps, they can read pictures, they can read graphs. There is no limit to what they can read in my class. Hopefully, as I provide them with many varied opportunities to read, they will come to enjoy reading books about history. And in some way, reading anything is reading a history.

 I will also let my students know that they do not have to be a fast reader or get what they are reading the first time to be a good reader. Those who perceive themselves (or have been labeled) as slow readers will have that changed in my class. They will not be labeled but helped and given a fresh start. Students who have been labeled good readers, I will also help them. They may read fast but not understand what they read.  I will label them according to their comprehension and evaluation of a text and help those that struggle, give them tools and help them become better readers and hopefully this will build their confidence as readers, at least in my classroom. My classroom will be a safe environment for reading, a place where we can all learn to become better in our skills and not feel judged for how or what we read.