Book Love

I have had this book for several months and I'm just now making the time to read it.  I have found myself reading it - and needing to stop often to tweet out something important based on what I just read.  As a Reading teacher - this book is very inspiring.  As I'm poring over the pages - I keep thinking that EVERY secondary teacher (but not excluding elementary teachers) should be reading this book.  High school teacher, Penny Kittle, writes in a way that will truly change the way we teach children!

She and I share the same philosophy with independent reading - students need to practice their reading daily if they are going to improve.  There is no guarantee that students will read at home - so allowing time every day for students to read from their self-selected book choice is one of the most important parts of the day.  All lesson planning should start with time allocated for silent reading practice time.

Important ideas/quotes that have impacted my thinking from this books thus far:

1. "A college professor stated that he didn't care whether all students read any particular book, only that they read a lot so they would have a variety of experiences to draw on and the ability to handle the volume of reading expected in college.  If students are readers - they are prepared."
2. "Most of the literature we study in high school ... is not interesting to almost all teenagers.  The casualty of disinterest is not reading."
3. "Life lessons live in fiction.  Reading a book takes us inside a time, a place, or an idea."
4. "Book Love focuses on managing, sustaining and building an independent reading life in middle and high school." 
5. "My measure of success is how students talk about themselves as readers - as self-engaged, curious readers."
6. "Until they're turning pages independently, they won't apply what we teach them in close reading.  Guided practice with texts isn't enough; students need daily independent practice.  We have to expect more: expect more reading and then expect more difficult reading."
7. "This is the calling of a English teacher for me: give each student books that teach them, challenge them, and lead them to places they'll never know otherwise.  Take them across the world on a journey of thought.  Make every student think, and think really hard.  Lead them to see books as allies, not enemies."
8. "Books let us walk through our deepest fears and emerge on the other side.  In books we can imagine strength."
9. "If there were evidence that determining everything students should read at each grade level produced successful independent reading year after year, I would understand why English teachers get so frustrated with what I'm suggesting here.  But there is so much evidence that kids aren't reading in high school.  Controlling what students read stifles readers."
10. It is not too late to lead a nonreader to reading in high school.  It's never too late."
11. "I never skip the book talk (3 to 4 minutes scheduled each day)."
12. "Altering our plans in response to what is happening in the classroom is the art of teaching.  I know what is most important; students need to be reading and writing more than they need to be listening to me talking."

And that is just within the first four chapters.  It gets even better!  I am reveling in the way she explains in detail how she makes this love for reading happen through the lessons in her class.  Again, this book is very powerful and so important in our schools today.

I'm excited about the the way this book (and The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller) are energizing what some of the classrooms in our district will be doing next year!  More to come soon . . .