Reading in the Wild Chapter 1

My daughter found time to read at her first sleepover!

Reading non-fiction is hard for me. Even if it does deal with subjects near and dear to my heart. I'm a junky for anything dystopic or Historical Fiction. I just finished Ladies Night by Mary Kay Andrews and was surprised at how hard I fell into it. I'm hoping by joining Think, Wonder, & Teach and 3rd Grade Book Worm I'll be held accountable for reading Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller.

After reading the first chapter I feel good about the time I dedicate each day to independent reading practice. I also feel thrilled that by the end of the year many of my students are taking books to lunch each day and reading to each other.

I have to admit that I need to do more to foster a love of reading for some of my students who fake read. The section in Chapter 1 on Independent Reading Observation was eye opening for me. I usually feel like I have to be busy the whole time my students are reading. Teaching first grade, I spend a lot of time reading to and with my students. I take every possible moment to be actively involved with them as they read independently. I can see the value in sitting back and observing reading habits. Donalyn follows observations, with evaluations, reflections and finally conferences with her students. If she can do it, so can I!

Do you know any wild readers? During the whole chapter I thought of my daughter. She is WILD. She is a wild reader. I read to her before she was born and continued reading through most of the children's section of the library before she started formal education in Kindergarten. I have so many pictures of her where I caught her reading. Today we like different genres, but she'll reading anything laying around the house to feed her habit.

She looks pretty wild, huh? My mom always read to us and
she always loved reading to grandchildren.