Finding Joy while Reading

Today is the final day of Adventures in Literacy Land's blog study on Reading Wellness: Lessons in Independence and Proficiency by Jane Miller Burkins and Kim Yaris. Make sure to check out my previous posts (Intro, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, & Chapter 5) as well as those over on Lit Land. Don't forget that you can access the book online (currently free from Stenhouse Publishers) if you want to check it out before purchasing.

Importance of Joy

Have ever heard the story f the town of Roseto, PA? This final chapter of the text has a segment about it and I know I have read about it somewhere else as well. Basically the town was settled by immigrants from Rome, Italy. Even though heart disease was fairly common all over the United States, it was basically non-existent in Roseto. This had nothing to do with diet, since the people ate lots of fatty foods from their homeland. Studies of the community eventually led to the conclusion that the reason the people from Roseto were living longer and not suffering from hear disease was simply because of their happiness and relationships with one another in the community. Lesson? Joy is important. Burkins and Yaris stress that we need to have joy in our lives and then we can have (and express to our students) joy while reading.

Why Read?

If every reason children are given to read is related to an assignment or an assessment, reading quickly loses its excitement and becomes a chore. Students that read for enjoyment will read more and and ultimately be more successful readers. The authors present a lesson that teaches students that books make them "feel good" for a variety of reasons and these are the books that we should choose to read. A book may make you feel good because it taught you something, because you knew all the words, because you understood what happened, because it made you feel happy, because it made you laugh, because it made you feel like a successful reader, because it reminds you of when you were a baby...the list goes on and will depend on the person. Often teachers can increase comprehension by helping students get to the deeper meaning of why a particular book makes them feel the way it does.

The lesson examples in the chapter also emphasize the importance of modeling. Teachers need to choose their favorite texts, be excited about them, and show their love for the books. I've see a lot of blog posts in the past where teachers and/or students have book recommendation shelves or boards. Those types of activities would be perfect with this lesson, especially if you encourage students to express WHY they love the books and authors chosen.

Meeting the Intentions of the Text

As I explained in my introduction to the text, the authors have four main intentions with each lesson in the book and end each chapter explaining how they are met.

Do you ensure that YOUR joy of reading passes on to your students?
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