Effectively teaching students to love reading!

     Through the readings this week, it has become clear that many factors go into making an effective classroom environment through which students can learn to love reading. Chapters 1 and 2 of "Classrooms That Work" shows through many different studies the factors that create an effective classroom. Of these factors, the ones found to contribute most to high literacy achievement are: time spent reading and writing, the engagement of students in the literacy activities, and the students' perseverance. 
     Classrooms that work must provide large amounts of balance, comprehensive instruction. Too often our curriculum today focuses on one component at a time. As the book explains, this causes the development of other important components to suffer. Classrooms that work also do a lot of reading and writing throughout the entire class day and not just during the reading and language arts lesson. As both of these chapters go to show, the amount of reading and writing children do has a direct correlation with how well they read and write. Effective classrooms also emphasize higher-level thinking skills. This involves teachers asking questions that do not have just one answer, rather these questions engage the students in conversations. These classrooms also teach students to problem solve, self-regulate, and keep track of their individual comprehension. Teachers in these effective classrooms also provide a variety of instructions like whole-class, small-group, and individual instruction. Most importantly, these classrooms are well managed and involve high levels of engagements. It is imperative  that children be in a safe and orderly environment in order for them to successfully learn. Teachers expecting their students to act a certain way provides a structure for the class. 
     Chapter 2 goes on to provide ways in which we, as educators, can create enthusiastic, independent readers. This was my favorite chapter because I loved seeing all the creative ways to encourage my future students to become lovers of reading. For instance, teachers reading aloud to their students is one of the major motivators for children's desire to read. It is also important as a teacher, to read a variety of materials to your students in order to engage the interests of all of your students and not just some. I loved the idea of keeping a teacher record sheet to ensure that you are introducing a plethora of materials to your students. As the Allington reading showed, teachers often feel that independent reading is a waste of class time and therefore don't provide their students the opportunity to become avid readers. I think Allington brought up a good point that maybe one or two entire days of the school week should be dedicated to reading and writing in order to allow plenty of time to teach lengthy lesson plans and provide your students time to share and respond with you and their peers. 
   In closing I would like to leave you with some questions to think about and provide you with fun examples of what effective classrooms, in my opinion, look like. What do you think are the best ways to teach your students to become avid readers and writers? Do you have any specific memories from your elementary teachers of things they did to make you love reading?

 Who wouldn't want to learn in here!
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 Comfortable set up for small-groups!
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A reading treehouse how fun!
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