The tools that Penny Kittle provides for teachers of reading in these two chapters are tools that I could see myself using in the classroom. Kittle places an emphasis on the importance of knowing your students in order to “meet them where they are and choose books that will motivate them to read” (Kittle, 2013,p. 32). This is an idea that has become prevalent in my own thinking while reading the young adult novels thus far. At times it has been difficult to pair a specific book with an ideal student and after reading these chapters I understand why. Like Kittle stated in chapter 3 the relationship with every student is a magic formula that can only be achieved by interacting with a student in the classroom.
In understanding the students in your classroom Kittle points out the ways that a teacher can improve fluency in reading. She mentions that she has students pick a book of their choice and read for 10 minutes a day. The students record how many pages that they have read in that time span in their logs. I am interested to see how I could incorporate this into my classroom on a daily basis. Kittle states, “Grades, stickers, star charts, and prizes are all unnecessary rewards in the process of creating readers” (Kittle, 2013,p. 31). As a future teacher I am grappling with this method, because I do feel that rewards can be helpful in some cases. This is something I will have to test out for myself
Every student is diverse in one way or another, but as Kittle highlights the way that we teach them reading has become a repetitive pattern of the same classic novels. In my classroom I hope to use books that are canonical in order to engage my students with new perspectives. This week I read a novel that could easily be paired or replaced with the canonical classic To Kill the Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The novel I Kill the Mockingbirdby Paul Acampora is a quirky middle school novel that could easily be used in a unit to engage students.
Kittle, P. (2013). Book love: Developing depth, stamina, and passion in adolescent readers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
