Today was, by my accounting, an excellent day. I slept in a little and made the drive to Tampa to teach a section of my literacy class for this semester. My Wednesday group is new to me this semester, and I have been working hard to build on the sense of community within this cohort and to share with them my passion for/love of reading. So today, we started talking about motivation to read in the elementary classroom. They considered their own experiences as elementary-age readers. They discussed the strategies they see in their internship classrooms. And each one of them created a "Readers' Bill of Rights" to use in their future classroom. And they were all good. No, scratch that. Many of them were wonderful. They got it! They looked beyond the basic basal readers and beyond the limitations placed by book leveling. They mentioned reading texts in a variety of formats. They mentioned texts in languages other than English. We shared and discussed their ideas. Many of them added ideas from the discussion to their Bill of Rights. I was in a maelstrom of engagement and positivity. It was teacher heaven.
We shifted gears to our read-aloud. I read pages from No More Dead Dogs. I read until I was afraid I might be losing them, so I closed the book. They wanted me to keep reading. Their silence and stillness wasn't boredom; they were listening. (Silly me! I should have kept reading!)
We wrapped up with small group meetings in which they took turns presenting chapters from this week's reading to one another. I saw discussions and activities and ideas being shared. I witnessed lots of smiles and laughter along with the learning. And I overheard comments that told me they yet again, were really getting it:
"I can see me using this in my classroom with our science book!"
"This would help my student stay focused while reading!"
Although I rarely have a "bad" class meeting, this particular day was invigorating. I left smiling and feeling accomplished. And, I hope, my students left with that same feeling. Because today, like many others, they shined and reminded me why I do what I do.
