Byrnes - Routman (2003), Ch. 3: Share Your Reading Life

Routman (2003), Ch. 3:  Share Your Reading Life

Teaching is different year to year due to many variables, which include student interest, personalities, home life and many more things. This year, I have a much different class than I did last year, due to so many varying levels of experience in my classroom. Having these students in my classroom challenges me to be a better teacher. Part of that requires that I remain positive and encouraging with my students. Let’s be honest, some students make this part of our job challenging. On page 25, the author states, “Our students admire us and seek to emulate us.” This statement really jumped out at me, even though I see it in my classroom every day. I have MANY anxious readers this year, which is so different from last year. I have found that my students truly enjoy Eric Carle books. So I have tried to rotate those books so that they are not bored with just one Eric Carle book. They truly enjoy Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and even have it memorized. I have used this love of Eric Carle my students have used it to my advantage. My students seem to have longer attention spans when one of his books are involved and I like to use my students’ interests to help them retain any information when possible. My students feed off of my love for reading and they get truly excited about reading. I used their love for Eric Carle and branched away from his books to help expose their love for reading. I have learned that if I do not seem enthusiastic about learning and reading, neither will my students.