The Book Whisperer - Donalyn Miller

My first year in Zambia,

my teaching partner and I

scoured the server

to find a ton of reading logs.

We went through them all

(they were used by the previous year's teachers)

and found the one we would implement

in our classroom.

By October,

I hated the reading logs.

It felt like I was giving parents homework.

If a student wasn't reading,

I'm sure the parent would tell me.

So what did purpose did the log serve?

Unfortunately,

I was alone.

The following year,

my teaching partner was an avid

book log teacher.

And since we were a small school,

it was hard for her to do something

and not me.

So,

when I read in The Book Whisperer

how the author also has a distaste

for reading logs,

I knew we were kindred spirits!

The book is more or less
her thought process
on how to create a generation of readers.
She has instilled a love of reading in her students.
They don't read books because the curriculum says they should.
They read books they want to,
they share ideas,
thoughts
and recommendations.
It's what I would love my students
to feel about reading.

Miller teaches middle school.
Her methods work great in that setting.
As a second grade teacher,
I'm not sure how much of this I could use
but it was truly inspiring.