Reading Is Fun
This week I have come to the realization that I have lost the drive to read for pleasure. In Elementary through Middle School, I would read for fun constantly — both inside and outside of class. Always keeping a book on my hip, I would get in trouble for reading instead of paying attention in class. So, what happened? How could someone who went on to major in English lose such a demonstrated necessity for literature? The short answer? My teachers demonstrated for me that reading shouldn’t be fun.
When I hit high school, the novels my teachers asked us to read were not what I would consider “fun.” The occasional Great Gatsby or Of Mice and Men peaked my interest, but even then the expectation was that I should be analyzing the piece instead of simply enjoying the ride. There was the lack of scaffolding to inspire reading for pleasure, whether it be with the assigned book or with outside pieces, and the fear associated with reading to pass a multiple choice exam on the plot, literary elements, and characters made the act of reading turn dull and stale.
Plus, I was made to believe that the books I really resonated with, The Hunger Games, Divergent, etc. were not great works of literature to be revered like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the like. I now know and can appreciate the lack of resources English teachers have to get class sets of novels, and how they may not be able to work with pieces that they would normally get extra excited about. However, the idea of a reading workshop really resonates with me as a way to help combat this cycle of uninspired and outdated methodology to teach reading. After studying the process, I believe that reading workshops will help avoid pushing students towards losing interest in reading as an activity. For my future students, I want to learn all that I can in order to plan class periods that do the opposite for my students that my old classes did to me. In addition, I want to make it a point to rekindle my love of reading. It will be hard to juggle reading for pleasure amongst all of my current responsibilities, but if I ever want to provide my students with a diverse collection of novels to enjoy, I need to expand my personal library.
I want to set the personal goal for myself to engage in reading for pleasure outside of my comfort zone, and try to diversify the novels with which I read. In doing so, I believe that I will gain back my love of reading that I lost not so long ago.
