Making Our Reading Lives Transparent
Because we teach readers, not just reading
For the last ten years, I have set a Goodreads Challenge Goal for myself.
If you are not familiar with this experience:
Readers determine how many books they want to read for the year.
The website helps you keep track of what you read, inviting you to rate each book when you are done reading it and writing a review.
Your finished date, rating and/or review gets posted within the Goodreads community. People can see what you are reading and what you thought about each book. You can cheer others on and leave comments.
Because it is a social media aspect to it, I have experienced a bit of envy when I view others’ goals. Some will set a goal to read 75, 150, even 200 books. Are they virtue signaling, telling everyone else what a wonderful reader they are? I have thought.
Additionally, I felt some unhealthy competition and tried to think of ways to “optimize” my reading, for example learning how to speed read (which is just skimming at a certain point).
I squashed any jealousy or competition the past year by lowering my goal.
Between 2016 and 2022, I had not reached my goal of 50+ books. So, I aimed for 41 books in 2023 - and hit it. That’s my sweet spot, I have learned. Enough books to keep me honest as a daily reader, plus enough time in between books to go back over notes I took in some texts and apply the ideas to my life in some way.
Our experiences as readers are important for us to make transparent for students, teachers, and colleagues. As literacy leaders, they are powerful lessons coming from us.
High school teacher Kelly Gallagher chronicled in his book Readicide how important it is to recommend books to students you have read and enjoyed. For example, he did a book blurb for Who Killed My Daughter? by Lois Duncan, explaining the true crime/memoir premise of the text. Kids lined up to read it.
Brenda Power, former editor at Stenhouse and Choice Literacy, once shared with me how she couldn’t figure out why her professional resource Living the Questions would spike in sales at random times. She discovered that Regie Routman was talking about Brenda’s book as a speaker at conferences.
Last spring, I purchased a copy of Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, and The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera for each of our three 5th grade classrooms. But I didn’t just drop them off; I shared just enough about each book to leave them wondering.
Like Kelly and Regie, I could speak about these books because I read them and genuinely enjoyed them.
It’s not enough to provide a summary of the book. Students, colleagues, and peers want to know our opinions about them.
Why did we choose to read this book?
Were there any parts that especially resonated with us?
Any parts that didn’t work for us? Did we skip them?
How did we respond to the book - did we feel compelled to act in some way because of it?
What other books did this book remind us of?
Will we keep a copy of this book in our possession, for example in case we want to reread it in the future?
What type of person would also like this book?
How have we changed as a reader and/or as a person after having read the book?
These are questions we can use when preparing to talk about books we did like and want to share. What about the books we put down? I think transparency from us around the thinking process that led to quitting books can be equally useful for others.
One question that I have: Why don’t more teachers share about their reading lives?
My initial thought was, they didn’t want to divulge some of the titles they were enjoying. Understandable. But surely some of their reading would be appropriate for talking about openly?
A deeper reason may be that some teachers don’t see the reading they do outside of school as relevant to what they are teaching in school. They may hold an unconscious belief that are only teaching reading, primarily skills and strategies.
If they expanded their perspective and see that they are teaching readers, and not just reading, this opens up the possibilities for what should be taught in schools. Here are just a few changes I could envision in these classrooms:
Daily lesson prep would be replaced with designing instruction with developing readers in mind. The aim would be both understanding as well as dispositions of what readers do.
Writing instruction would be interwoven with reading instruction. Book reviews would replace book reports. If a student currently struggled to read, writing what they wanted to read would be one entry point to becoming a reader.
To-read, read, and currently reading lists would replace reading logs.
Commercial reading programs would be reduced in use to the minimally required amount of time. It would serve to support students as readers and not be served.
Morning meetings, closing circles and other gatherings would regularly incorporate activities that readers do, such as making recommendations and talking about the texts read together.
How can this begin? It starts with leadership. Host book clubs. Organize schoolwide low-stakes reading challenges. Create spaces for people to share their reading lives, both online and off. Remove programs and practices that interfere with being a reader.
In other words, be the reader you want others want to be.
“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”
― James Baldwin
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Recommended Reading
While I did not like Who Killed My Daughter? (I ended up putting it down after 20 pages; it felt culturally dated), I highly recommend Readicide by Kelly Gallagher. With students reading less than ever, this professional resource is relevant.
In the same vein of Living the Questions, I found The Action Research Guidebook by Richard Sagor and Charlene Williams to be a helpful guide for teacher-directed professional inquiry.
Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, and The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera are all excellent books to add to your middle level fantasy/science fiction collection.
Four books on my to-read list in 2024: The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling from The Moth by Meg Bowles, Catherine Burns, Jenifer Hixson, Sarah Austin Jenness, Kate Tellers, Saving Time by Jenny Odell, and Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
You can share your to-read list with this community in the discussion thread below by becoming a full subscriber today.
Matt,
This is such a delightful and important post. Love reading about you as a reader, your past and present reading goals, and the importance of sharing our reading lives with students. One thing that helps me reach my yearly goals is keeping what a call a reading log, which is essentially my reading history. Each month, I write down the books I've read in a notebook and include the title and author, genre, and a star if I found the book outstanding. My goal is at least 2 books a month. If it's midway into the month and I still have a blank page, that pushes me to get reading. I've been keeping my reading history for 25 years now, and I treasure having that reading record which now fills up 6 notebooks. In my very first notebook, I included favorite quotes from books I especially loved.
Thanks for the great post! Regie
Matt,
Loved this post! I'm planning to use some of your insightful questions with my class of 3rd grade students. I've just begun to learn alongside them and we are getting to know each other. What better way than to share our reading lives.
Debra