Reading
How To Create a Passion for Learning

Mixing reading instruction that's fun and exciting, with periods of being 'read to,' sets the stage for creating lifelong readers, says teacher Andy Baumgartner.

Tips from two teachers on how to kindle a love for reading with thrills, not drills.

Adults will often read out loud to youngsters. But that habit can wane as children grow older. As children develop a sight vocabulary and the ability to decode words, it's common for adults to be thrilled that these students can now read silently, read to themselves.

Becoming able to read to oneself is indeed a developmental achievement. But it's being read to that inspires a love of reading. I have seen this in children that I have taught from elementary through high school.

A read-aloud experience, I've learned, is enjoyable for a lifetime.

Try not to get overwhelmed with using each moment of class time to assess and test. It's important to convey a sense of the enjoyment of reading to students.

Reading is not just decoding or memorizing the letters that are linked together by sounds and pronounced as words. Reading is understanding a message. Reading is an experience.

I model for parents how to use their voice and expressions to "get into" the book. They often look embarrassed. Some will ask, "How do you do that without feeling self-conscious?"

I answer that it's more fun for me to read a text that way. I want to make the book come alive, to inspire students to think about it and to imagine, too.

To develop your read-aloud skills, start with a book you enjoyed as a child. The students will sense your fondness for the story.

Forging a personal link to a book, building the desire to read--these are important steps to reading success.

Do not crush these steps by having children read alone. Use them to lead to reading times you share, to hearing the stories together.

Hope Blecher-Sass
K-2 English
as a second language teacher
James Madison Primary School
Edison, New Jersey
www.HopeBlecher-Sass.eBoard.com

Children should be exposed to a wide variety of literary styles. In childhood, the art in the illustrations and the art in the words are both equally important.

As a child grows older, the language, the message, and the significance of the book take precedence.

In our desire to improve reading instruction, too much of the pleasure of reading is being sidelined by an over-emphasis on "drill and kill" skill instruction.

Phonics, decoding, and improving comprehension are all important parts of reading instruction, but they need to be played down until after the child has a true understanding of what books are, what purpose they serve, and why it is important to learn to read.

Avid readers do so as a hobby because they find pleasure in the activity!

Reading instruction for young children ought to consist of short, exciting, fun skill activities surrounded by longer periods of being "read to" and of practicing the other communication skills of listening, speaking, and experimenting with writing.

Andy Baumgartner
Kindergarten teacher
1999 Teacher of the Year
A. Brian Merry Elementary School
Augusta, Georgia

Reading Resources

• The U.S. Department of Education is holding a Satellite Town Meeting on Reading March 21. The purpose of the meeting is to bring together communities, teachers, and parents to help create strong reading programs for students. For information, check the Internet at www.ed.gov/inits/stm/1999-2000.html.

• Helping Your Child Learn to Read, also from the Department of Education, is a handy resource for your community. This guide helps parents understand that teaching and learning aren't mysteries that unfold only in school--they also happen when parents and children do simple things together. For free copies, write to the Consumer Information Center, Dept. 504F, Pueblo, CO 81009 or call 888/878-3256. The full text of this guide can be reviewed on the Web at www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Reading/index.html.

• A new publication from the International Reading Association--Making a Difference Means Making It Different: Honoring Children's Rights to Excellent Reading Instruction--offers guidelines for reading programs from the perspective of the rights of students. It's available on the Web at www.reading.org.

  A second publication from the International Reading Association, Adolescent Literacy: A Position Statement, is available through the online bookstore at the IRA Web site, www.bookstore.reading.org/.