One of the biggest disconnects I have experienced with my students is my love of reading and writing. I obviously had students that loved English class, but they were the minority. So many of my students were openly disdainful of my class, of reading, of writing, and sometimes even of learning. How do you deal with such negative attitudes? I’m not sure. I always powered through to the best of my ability.
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I remember my parents reading to me The Foot Book, Goodnight Moon, Weekend Girl, The Pocketbook, and so many more when I was very little. I’m so thankful that they did. My love of storytelling, my love of writing, my decision to major in English – it started with them.
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“I remember,” my mom said, “you and I read the first Harry Potter book together – I’d read one chapter aloud and then you’d read one by yourself. That’s when you really started reading. And when we had all those family gatherings at your grandparents’ house and you’d just be in the back room reading a book.”
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Chapter 2:
Reading is Breathing
I read too much, if that could even be considered a problem. I got in trouble with my mom all the time for reading instead of sleeping: I used to have this red light-up fast food toy that I would use as a flashlight. The light would be bright enough to read by, but not so bright that it could be easily seen through the covers on my bed. So I would throw the covers over my head, turn on my fast-food toy, and read by the soft red glow. As I read, I would listen for footsteps in the hall and be prepared to turn off the light in case my mom checked on me one last time. That’s how much I loved reading.
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I struggled to create buy-in for the reading-haters because I don’t remember not liking reading. From an early age, I loved reading for the sake of reading. I especially loved fantasy books, like Harry Potter, Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine or the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. Although my school didn’t get the Accelerated Reading program until I was in second or third grade, I had earned 500+ points by the time I graduated to middle school.
