Key Ideas

[Tracy]

What key ideas from this book do you want to remember for use with your own students in the future?

[Lindsey]

I took a lot from this chapter of The Book Whisperer. So much so part of me wants to pick up a copy and read it.

The key ideas that stuck with me is how important it is for teachers to allow their students to choose their own books. This choice alone can be the difference between a child reading as a job and reading for pleasure. It empowers children by giving them a choice in the matter and usually when empowered in this way they will take more pride in any work surrounding the reading of that book. By being flexible with what your students read they could, in turn, become more interested and excited about reading.

I also thought that the author really enforced a positive attitude and environment about reading from the the teacher. The children who struggle with reading need a chance to feel successful with reading, so it is okay to allow them to choose their own book and have that book be below grade level. This way they will feel confident when they read and comprehend a book. Teachers must foster an environment of support for readers and always give the students the impression that you believe they can read.

As teachers, we must be teaching students a life long habit and not just short-term, teacher inspired goals with reading. We need to teach our students a set of skills to assess books across different genres so they can relate the various texts that they choose and that are chosen for them.

[Megan]

The author made a good point that when she shows enthusiasm for books, it sends a powerful message to her students. I think this is a great thing to remember because when children see an adult do something, they usually want to do the same. So, when a student sees a teacher read or show his/her excitement for reading, they will want to read. I also agree that it is important to allow students to choose their own books to read. Allowing students to choose their own books will increase their interest of reading because they are able to read about their own interests and it promotes a positive attitude toward reading. Another important key idea from this chapter is that no matter how well you have developed your lesson plan, if your classroom is not a motivational environment for readers, your instruction is going to struggle. If the teacher has provided a welcoming, positive, and motivational environment then students are going to buy in to what the teacher has to say and what the teacher has them do. Surrounding students with a wide range of books and allowing them to read everyday will increase students’ ability to read and their interest in reading will increase.

[Michaela]

When reading this I noticed some really good points that I thought would really help children succeed in the classroom as readers. As a teacher you need to have an environment that is positive but also pushes the students to want to read. When I say push the students to want to read, that doesn’t mean force them to read. Pushing them to read needs to be a positive experience that excites them about reading. There are a couple ways for this to happen that they discussed in the article. One-way was as the teacher being excited and showing how interested you are in reading. A teacher needs to use an excited voice and fun facial expression to pull a young child in. As a teacher, the students want to do what you do because they look up to you. If you show them that reading is awesome and that it is a positive thing. Another key point I thought was a huge one to get children involved was letting them pick out what books they want to read. Letting a child pick out their own books gets them excited to read. If they pick a book it is something they are interested in and something they want to read. When a teacher forces a book upon a child they aren’t going to be as interested in what that book is or even end up hating reading. Even if the level of the book is below their grade level you need to let them read it because as a teacher it is your job to get them confident in reading. Students won’t try to read a harder book until they are confident in their reading skills.

[Jaden]

This article had a lot of useful information for me to incorporate into my future classroom. Many great points were brought up in this chapter but there is one that stood out the most. The idea of encouraging students to read, and allowing students to read their book of choice gives them a sense of freedom. Reading then becomes more of a hobby to students versus a mandatory assignment. The book states that providing students with the opportunity to choose their own books to read empowers and encourages them. Children are going to like all different varieties of books. Some may enjoy short stories, and others may enjoy novels. It is my job as a teacher to provide my students with a selection of books that meet the interests of each child.

I also acknowledge the use of "developing" readers versus "struggling" or "reluctant" readers. These types of readers are not reading at grade level and struggle with understanding what is being read. I feel that giving a student the label "struggling" reader does nothing but discourages them. It gives them the feeling of being incapable of becoming a better reader. The use of "developing" readers is a more positive way of identifying students.

[Jordan]

I took a lot out of this chapter of the book. I enjoyed learning about her views on the different types of readers and how all of them are capable. I think part of the reason she is so good at getting her students to enjoy reading is because she shows them that she enjoys it. She sounds like she is very enthusiastic about reading and she lets the students know. She wants them to experience the same joy that gets from reading. A big part in accomplishing this is giving the students choice in what they read. I think it is awesome that she lets students choose what they read and helps the students who don't know what they want to read. I never got the chance to experience this as a student. All of the reading I did was what I had to do in class so that I would do well on the tests and book reports. I will definitely use these strategies in the future.

[Karen]

I feel like I will have a big advantage when I become a classroom teacher. I have learned from the experiences of other teachers like Miller. Having read this article, I now have some great ideas that I will use in my future classroom.
One of the most important ideas is to get your students excited about reading. This starts with the teacher. When I am a teacher, I need to be enthusiastic about all different kinds of books and make sure my students see that love I have for reading. I will only discuss positive aspects about reading. This model of enthusiasm will send a powerful message to my students.
I will give my students many different genre choices, but eventually let them choose their own books to read. Students will only enjoy reading if they like the material they are reading. According to Miller, it will empower them.
When my daughter was in the third grade, she was required to read in the book “Satchel Paige”. This book was about a baseball player. She had no interest in male sports, so she barely made it through the whole book. She was totally miserable while she was reading this book. After reading this excerpt, I would consider her to be an underground reader. Being forced to read a book she had no interest in was a struggle for her.
I loved Miller’s use of a student survey. Surveys are used worldwide to gain information about consumers, so companies can change their products to meet the needs of their customers. Surveys can be adapted for classroom use also. I will definitely use a survey at the beginning of my school year to gain knowledge about my students. I will then use that information to help me model my instruction based on my students’ needs, their interests, their preferences, and past reading experiences.

[Kelsey]

Some key ideas that I took from this book that I want to remember for use with my own students in the future are listening to my students' needs and not telling them what I think they need to hear, allowing them to pick out their own book, helping them find books about their interests, having them read everyday, and not including heavy homework assignments along with the books they read. I loved Miller's story at the beginning of the chapter about her first day of school during her third year of teaching. Just like her previous two years of teaching, Miller was focused and committed to the lesson plan and what was required of her to teach that year. Then, when one student raised his hand asking when they could pick out a book from her library, she realized that she never wanted to limit when, what, or where her students could read. From that day forward, she gave her students the freedom to choose their own book and the opportunity to read every day and the fruit that came from this was evidence that this is how every teacher should encourage students to read. I plan to use this strategy with my students so that I can make every student from every background learn to love reading. I feel adamant about doing this as well because no one ever did this for me. Currently, I'm a reluctant reader with little free time and the odds are very rare that when I do have free time I'm going to pick up a non-academic book and read for pleasure. I plan to use these key ideas from Miller to make sure that my students don't carry on the same habits of reading that I do. I also hope that as I encourage my students to read more and more in my classroom, my love for reading will increase so that I can be a positive example for my students, just like Miller stated when she quoted Australian researcher Brian Cambourne's factors for successful learning.

[Jennafer]

I think the key idea that I will take from this book is that reading is how you get better at reading! I knew that there were going to be reluctant readers and it would be a challenge to get them interested in reading, but I thought that developing readers were getting the attention they needed with the extra tutoring. I love the idea of just letting the students freely pick out books that they want and read as many of them as they can. I would love to build up a classroom library like this to have in my classroom to allow such freedom so the students are getting what they need out of the books. I also love how the teacher is very enthusiastic about reading. Since I am a dormant reader now, hopefully I can find some things that interest me so that I can be a good, honest, example to my students.

[Aknipfel]

One key idea I took away from this article is the more enthusiastic about reading the teacher is the more excited the children get about reading. Also, I learned the importance of listening to what children need and not necessarily telling them what I, as the teacher, want them to know. Also I learned to not let the children acknowledge that they are poor readers, this would give them an excuse not to read. One good way for students to learn to like to read includes letting the children pick out their own books. This gives the children power and motivates them. I also learned the importance of positive labels such as :developing readers, dormant readers and underground readers. I have learned in order to have a successful, motivating classroom it is important that we provide specific conditions for learning. Miller list these conditions as : immersion, demonstration,expectations, responsibility, employment, approximations,response and engagement.

[Emily]

I really enjoyed reading this book except and took away many key ideas from it! One of the main points Miller made was to just allow the kids to read what they want. The important thing is to get them reading. I also can say from experience that usually when children are required to read books, book reports and other activities tend to follow. Reading the book is one thing, but when you have all of the other activities piled up on top of reading, it makes the process less enjoyable. So in my classroom, I want to make sure that I have a big variety of books for children to read. That way they are able to find books on different topics and choose which ones interest them the most! I also liked how Miller used the terms developing and dormant instead of struggling and reluctant. Miller's terms give the students more credit for having the ability to become a strong reader.

[Brittany]

One of the most important things I gathered from this chapter was that I need to let my students pick out their own books. After they pick out their own books to read I need to not have teacher strings attached! No types of quizzes or tests or book reports done in every other class they have attended. So the first thing I want to do now is to start my own book collection for my future classroom and to keep students engaged with reading. By letting them pick out their own books or graphic novel with their own subject content of interest it will keep them engaged and excited. I liked the way she classified readers as underground readers, dormant readers, and developing readers. I feel like I am an underground reader because I hate reading textbooks with boring subjects! Yet I can read any type of book if I download it on my kindle! Who knows what I will discover and maybe implement some of my own findings like Miller did.

[Claudia]

There are many important facts that I learned from this portion of the book. Mostly importantly, teachers need to give students the opportunity to pick out a book. Students also need to have the chance to change their book if they don't like the one that they original choice. I think students are less likely to become a developing or dormant reader if they are given the chance. I also learned that students need to be provided with the chance to apply the reading strategies that they've learned to other books. This will help the student develop his it her own reading skills. Last, students are more concerned with how a teacher will grade their book review/ report. Many students are use to reading for a grade, and not reading for the enjoyment of something new.

[Colin]

I have not read the whole book entitled "The Book Whisperer", but it is one that I plan on purchasing after reading the assigned chapter. Some key ideas from this chapter that I want to remember for use with my own students in the future are the different types of readers that the author tends to see which include developing readers, dormant readers, and underground readers. I think that by recognizing each reader type and catering a reading program towards them not only makes sense, but will be most fulfilling for myself as well as my students. I definitely appreciate the author's positive spin on classifying different readers with the end goal of making every kind of reader understand and appreciate the act of reading better than they previously had.

[Rachel]

This book provided me with a myriad of ideas to put to use in my classroom. The overlying idea is to give every student the opportunity to love reading. Since each student is at a different reading level and has different interests; then as a teacher, I cannot expect them to all learn and enjoy reading in the same way. Though it is necessary to unite the class by reading the same book, it also holds the students back. This kind of reading activity promotes class discussions, but it forces every student to read a book that may/may not be interesting to them or is not at their reading level. By letting students read whatever interests them, within certain guidelines, they can learn to have a positive experience with reading. Giving them time in class to read what they want should encourage them to read outside of class. It is important for me to give my students the freedom to read individually, yet I need to expect certain things from them as well. My main objective is to show students that they will need to read for the rest of their lives, but they can make it can fun.

[Justin]

One of the most beneficial ideas that I acquired from Donalyn Miller’s book The Book Whisperer is that I need to be reading the books that my students might be interested in. I can make a huge difference in advancing a student along to becoming an underground reader. How can I make suggestions about books and talk to students about books if I have never read them myself? A second key idea that I have taken from this book is to make sure that I give my students the opportunity to select books of their own choosing. The students know themselves better than I do. I need to trust that they will know their own interests. One other tip that I have learned from Miller is allow students to dig through books, test them out for a little bit, and put them back. It is okay if a kid picks up a book and does not read it the whole way through. The point is that they are reading. Let them make sure that they have found a book that they really enjoy. I have done this plenty of times. The same should be available to them. Finally, Miller taught me to let the students read everyday. You know, I never thought about this, but she is right. Kids need that time to sit back and ‘escape from school’ for a little while. I can see many benefits to making sure that free reading time happens everyday.

[Amanda]

One key idea I got from this chapter is to allow children choose their own books. It is important to make reading fun and enjoyable from an early age so that children always love to read. Never tell a child they can’t read something or have to read a particular book if they really don’t want to. It will have a negative impact on their view of reading in general. It’s important to be positive about reading that way it rubs off on the children. Teachers should encourage children to read and make sure students know that they can read. It’s also important as a teacher to create stimulating activities that engages students and makes them want to read more and more for enjoyment and for learning.

[Maddie]

I loved that this teacher decided never to even give the children the idea that reading was not fun or it is a requirement. I plan on expecting everyone in my class to read but I want them to feel comfortable coming to me if they don’t like the book or it is too difficult of a read for them. As an extremely slow reader I also plan on not limiting them the amount of time they use the book. I may ask them to bring it back one day to re-check it out that same day but I don’t ever want a student to feel stupid or behind just because they read a lot slower than others. Maybe they stop after a paragraph and picture what is happening or what will happen next. I plan on paying attention to what student’s interests are so I can direct them in a way that will give them a book they are interested in. I am a person that will give it a chapter at the most and if I’m not interested that book will never get finished, so paying attention to my students likes and dislikes is key. If there is a reading assignment maybe if I can I would offer two different book options instead of one so they can feel they have a choice and not be obligated to get the same book as everyone.