The Importance of Reading - Slice of Life

Slice of Life posts can be found at Stacey and Ruth's blog - Two Writing Teachers

Last week on Travis Jonker’s blog he shared the following video from Colby Sharp:

I showed this video for all of my reading classes, my husband, and my sons. I loved it. Colby’s enthusiasm was evident in my classroom and not just by the fact that all of the 5^th grade boys had all of the Babymouse books checked out. After probably the tenth showing of said video, I began to reflect on my own feelings regarding reading.

I’ve always been a reader. I read for pleasure. I remember curling up with A Baby Sister for Frances by Russell Hoban when my mom told me she was having a baby. Ramona was one of my best friends. Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret by Judy Blume was a book I read so many times I memorized it.

I read for comfort. I often hid behind my books too. I was a pretty shy kid and when I didn’t know how to deal with my friends or situations, I would pull out a book. When I was pregnant with my boys my anxiety would kick in at night and I would be so nervous that something was wrong with them. The only thing that would calm me down at 2 am was reading favorite passages from Jan Karon’s Mitford series.

I read to connect. Through high school I read Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry a crazy amount of times. My sister, brother, and I watched the mini-series on TV. Later, we bought the videos and mapped out the route they took to Montana. Even now I connect with friends on Twitter about the books we are reading. We even created a book club, The Nerdy Book Club, to further connect through reading.

After watching Colby I wondered again, was my love of reading evident to my students? To my own children? I glanced around my classroom last week. My students were discussing their reading plans for the holidays. I heard “borrowed” terms from my discussions with them being thrown around. I could see my reading life reflected in theirs.

And then, last night, my oldest son sat down by me. I had brought home a huge stack of books from our public library. After a few hours of reading I made my way through it. Luke sat down and asked, “So Mom, any books I should know about?” I handed him Binky the Space Cat by Ashley Spires and gave him a quick blurb on it. I went back to entering my books into Goodreads and then glanced over and saw this:

This picture makes my heart soar. When I saw Colby’s video I knew his enthusiasm would make readers out of those students. His passion will be passed on to them. I prayed that, in my own way, I was doing the same. Upon some reflection, I believe I am.