Reading Alive!

True confessions, here...I sometimes fake read. It's true. When I am at the nail salon, having a pedicure and reading a magazine, I'm sometimes fake reading. When I'm at the airport, waiting for my flight and flipping through pages of SkyMall, I'm fake reading. I know I'm fake reading because I when I put down the magazine or book that I'm thumbing through, I cannot remember anything about it. My reading didn't matter. My "reading" was really just scanning words on a page.

But when I'm reading a book, especially a chapter book with great characters and interesting plot lines, I'm reading for real! My mentor, Lucy Calkins, likes to call this "Reading Alive!" Alive Reading is when you visualize what you read, you back-up and reread because something didn't make sense, you think about the characters. When I Read Alive, I feel like the characters are my friends, like the places in the book are places a can visit in my mind. Reading Alive brings me in and makes me part of the book. I know I my reading is real because I CAN remember it. Real reading stays with me even when I've put the book away.

My homeroom had a great debate the other day about when we are reading, and when we are thinking reading. Many of you argued that unless there was a lesson or assignment, a task along with the reading, that the reading didn't require thinking. Others of you argued that readers are always thinking, regardless of time, day, place. It's a Reading Alive vs. Fake Reading!

What do you think? Are you only Reading Alive when the teacher gives you a task to do or a lesson to think about? Or are you Reading Alive all the time? Explain what Alive Reading feels like to you. How is reading at home different from independent reading time at school? Do you feel less Alive at certain times?

Answer the questions in bold. You must edit your writing before submitting.

New Year, New Challenges

Are you a goal setter? Do you challenge yourself to achieve major or minor successes? At the beginning of every school year, Mrs. Hodgson and Mrs. Boon request each teacher to submit professional goals. I have to admit, sitting to write out my professional goals is not always fun. It's seldom a joy to look at areas of weakness and plan to face them head-on. But, setting goals, and making a plan to reach them, is an important and essential task. It makes me ask, "Who am I really and what do I really want to achieve?"

Each year, I issue the same request to my students: "Who are you as readers and what do you want to achieve?" I've been studying each of you, discovering who you are as readers and writers, but now I ask you to ask the question of yourself.

It's time to set some reading goals. Not some, "I want to get all As" goals, but real goals. Goals that truly speak to who we are personally. How would you like to grow as a reader? How do you want to see your reading change? What plan can you make to reach this goal?

Readers, I want you to write out one reading goal answering the questions about changing and growing as a reader. Look at your habits to see where you can grow and improve. Then also write how you can reach this goal. Be specific.

I have written an example response to model the type of detail needed in this kind of response.