My Love for Reading!!!

 I have often wondered why I have such a huge desire for children to learn to read, but beyond that, for them to ENJOY reading. I have wondered this because nothing memorable sticks out to me about books from when I was a child in elementary school. I cannot recall a specific teacher that made books come alive or expressed love for books in the way that I believe the classroom should. From my perspective, I was just given a book and told to read it. Then I realized that this is why! This is why I have such a passion for classrooms to be filled with a love for books. The excitement for what a book can mean to a child should be a contagious attitude that permeates throughout the school. My desire to see children be good readers and love to read comes from a lack of exposure that I had at a young age to rich literature, not just in school but also at home. I want kids to experience what books can give you-adventure, growth in imagination, vocabulary expansion, world knowledge and so much more. When teachers model a love for books in the classroom as well opportunities to experience rich literature, many amazing things can happen to students and in the classroom.  

When I was in high school, I remember my Spanish teacher infusing Spanish literature into our classroom and that is when reading took on a different meaning to me. I remember being excited to read the excerpts, poems, and other stories that he exposed our class to. The rich discussions and thoughtful journaling that became a part of our classroom were things I looked forward to.  His passion was evident and created an environment in our classroom that I had never experienced before. I want kids to experience joy in reading which is something that I did not have when I was a child in the classroom. I want to model to students that reading can and should go beyond the requirements. I want students to get excited about reading! Reading opens your world to knowledge and knowledge is power.