As 3rd period filed into my classroom one of my students yelled from across the room, “Hey Ms. M.! Reading is fun! I had no idea!”
I laughed and asked him what he meant.
“Like, it’s awesome. I never knew that before. But last night I took out my book for my 20 minutes of reading and all of a sudden an hour went by. I finished half the book last night! It’s a really great book! I never knew a book could be this good!”
Needless to say, I walked around with a huge smile all day. This is why reading workshop works. This is why requiring students to read every night, instead of filling out worksheets, works.
Oh, and the “awesome book” in question? Gone from These Woods by Donny Bailey Seagraves.
Filed under: independent reading | Tagged: independent reading, reading is fun |
The Reading Zone 
Wow, how wonderful to have your work affirmed so jubilantly. Congratulations. Keep up the great work!
Brenda
That’s excellent, Sarah! You have made a positive and lasting difference in this kid’s life (along with many others, of course, but it’s nice to have this tangible success to celebrate). Thanks for sharing it!
I will share this with the RIF staff today, we LOVE these stories. Thank you for being the incredible teacher all children need to have!
I love it when kids get it right on their own!
Yeah! That made my day! How fabulous.
So inspiring! You are doing a wonderful job, Sarah! I just finished reading The Book Whisperer and (even though I’m not a teacher) I’m feeling my batteries getting recharged, too. 😉
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Just keep this moment in mind when The World Is Too Much With You. Even if you make one child a week understand this, or one kid a month, it’s worth it.
[…] Sarah reports at the Reading Zone about a lovely success story, in which a student learns that “reading is fun”. Who […]