Read,Read,Read



Over the past few weeks I have tweeted out asking what books people are reading and the response has blown me away. Hundreds of people have responded and have been sending me their book recommendations, making my summer reading list longer and longer. 

Growing up, I was never an avid reader, frankly, I didn’t like to read. I wasn’t very good at it and my reading comprehension was not good. It was hard for me and I felt embarrassed. My older brother was a voracious reader and would fly threw books. He would read hundreds of pages, while I was still on the same chapter. Fast forward to adulthood and now I love to read. It took me a long time to find what I liked to read. I read anywhere from 50-100 books a year now and my world has been unlocked.  Knowing now what reading has done for personally and professionally, I wish I had gotten to this place much earlier in life. 

Now being an elementary principal and lead learner, I have the opportunity to help others get there much sooner in life providing opportunities that I never knew I had. Growing the love of reading in our children is a must. It doesn’t come inherently to everyone and we have to intentionally and purposefully when recommending books and getting students excited about what they are reading. 

Just a few of the things that I have done to help others get excited about reading are:

  1. Stock libraries and classrooms with books that resemble the students in the room. Find books that the main character looks like the child picking up the book. This may be race, but it also may be gender. We must find books that kids can see people that look like them in heroic and leadership positions. This shows them, that they to can be a hero or a leader. 
  2. Allow students to share what they are reading. By allowing kids to create book talks about what they are reading, gets them excited. It motivates some kids to read books that they would never have done so. 
  3. Encourage family reading. Allowing kids to check books out above the reading level and having those conversations with their parents about reading together, brings families together. It creates an intentional time together to spend quality time with one another. 
  4. One year I created a YouTube video every month of me reading a picture book somewhere out in the world. I have been on a hike, on vacation, or at a restaurant reading and creating a video that would be sent to my families. Parents and kids would watch the video together and the video always ended with some guiding questions that families would be able to discuss together. 

My wife and I have been blessed with 4 amazing kids that love to read. If we would let them, they would read all day long, every day. But this was not always the case. It took us intentionally finding books that resonated with them and we had to encourage them to read while celebrating their reading accomplishments along the way. We sit together and talk about the books that we are all reading. Don’t allow your students to go through the year without reading. Find a book that they can identify with and are excited to read. Talk to them about it. Read it along with them. Let them go to the library or bookstore and pick out books. Be The One who gives them the opportunities that I didn’t have.

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