Kindling a love of reading: I'm on fire

I have been reading like mad lately. It was sparked by the Kindle I got for Christmas. I think I had read 9 books before the Christmas break was over. I love that little electronic reader. It fits in my purse. It is light. It stores hundreds of books.

I also think that working with students who are weak or reluctant readers has fueled the fire. I can't believe there are so many people who don't read for pleasure. I guess I never asked the people around me if they liked to read until I started the Literacy Support position this year. So many colleagues say that they stopped enjoying reading in grade school and don't really read for pleasure. So many students struggle with reading and will do anything to avoid it.

Suddenly, reading feels like a gift.

It has always been my escape. If I am happy, I read. If I have free time, I read. If I want to reward myself, I buy a new book and read. If I am lonely or sad, I read.

My inner landscape is populated by the characters from books. When I am at a loss for words, their words come to me. Some books feel like friends.

If I have taken anything away from this past year, it is that I have to try harder to pass the gift of reading along and that as an English teacher, reading for enjoyment is the greatest gift I can give to my students.

So, I am reading every young adult book on the "Best Of" lists. I am reading "Books with Buzz". I am reading fantasy, non-fiction, literary fiction, historical pastoral, pastoral comical... oh, there is the voice of Polonius - see - they are all in there, talking away (see my last post about sanity - is this a bad sign?).

My Dad's words are in there too: "Could you leave me alone for a minute? I only have 20 pages left in my book".

My summer professional reading list

As June is only a breath away, I am looking forward to our summer break. I love the first week of summer, when I spend days reading for pleasure. We are often at our camp in the Bay of Islands for the July 1 weekend. The camp is the best place on earth to do some reading (at least partially because there is not much else to do but clean up the island and swim). My sister and mother are both "English Majors" like me, so there are always great books sitting around the cabins.

I usually start hording books for this reading frenzy just after March Break, but this year, I have done a great deal of reading for pleasure. I have some theories as to why I have already finished much of the cache of books intended for the summer, but that is the subject of another post. I can tell you that the reason is, sadly, not a bunch of free time...

So, to fill the gap, I recently ordered a number of books to do some professional reading. I have finished one book already (I said I was reading a lot). I thought I would share what I have chosen, and then note a bit about each one as I finished them - more as a record for me than anything else.

So here they are. I am feeling unusually optimistic that I have a few good titles.

1. Readicide: How schools are killing reading and what you can do about it by Kelly Gallagher
2. Attention, Please! How to make speaking in class presentable, enjoyable, and memorable for all by Kathleen Gould Lundy
3. Fair Isn't Always Equal: Assessing & Grading in the Differentiated Classroom by Rick Wormeli
4. Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12 by Kelly Gallagher
5. Grammarama! by Les Parsons
6. The Writing Circle by Sylvia Gunnery
7. Pulling Together: Integrating inquiry, assessment, and instruction in today's English classroom by Schnellert, Datoo, Ediger & Panas

I welcome any suggestions and I will let you know how it goes.