Lehua's Chapter 12 Reflection

INDEPENDENT READING:

Well, I have to honestly say that I don't spend much time doing independent reading myself so it's hard to motivate the children to do so by setting an example. I think that this semester, compared to the last one, is absent from independent reading - other than at the end of the day when they can CHOOSE to read or play games. Fortunately, the students DO decide to go to the library and grab a book to "read." I say "read" because they really are just looking at the pictures most of the time.

Last semester with my fifth graders, I found that everyday in the morning, having "surf time" was a big success. The students had to be quiet and read silently to get into the mode of school. Although this might sound like a bad time to start reading independently, my mentor teacher made it work. In fact, maybe I saw it work so well because I didn't come on the first day. Either way, these students had a great time reading anything they wanted. (A few students mainly read comics and books about animals for their comfort)

I hope that when I get a classroom, I can do the same as Mililani Uka's fifth graders. I think that it becomes a sanctuary time for the teacher, which is awesome, and it becomes a time for the students to love books - the books that they are interested in. Of course, there are times where the teacher has to make the students read the same book for a number of purposes (Uka read Holes) but for them, they really enjoyed the book because it was a great book for fifth grade as well as for both genders. Hopefully I will be so lucky!