Actions speak louder than words

On p. 43, Routman says that one of the five foci for reading instruction is demonstrating that the teacher is a reader. I think this is important because children learn by example. Most of the important things in life can only be taught by example. A child learns to have integrity, faith, courtesy, and other positive morals through example. You can talk at a child all you want, but if they never see you acting the way you want them to, the way you are teaching them to act, then the message will ring untrue. If a child does not see an adult teaching them to read as a reader, we have no right, as adults, to expect them to become readers.

The best teacher I remember having, the one who truly made me love the subject matter, was my AP Biology teacher in 11th grade. She had a BS in Microbiology. She knew her content, but she also appeared to consider herself a scientist. She loved her subject. She told us numerous stories about her experiences doing research and labs as a college student. She demonstrated to us that she was a scientist, and we loved the class and her all the more for it. Plus, I learned a lot more information--probably 10x as much as I learned in "baby biology," Ms. Keller's pet name for freshman biology. I believe the same thing is true for K-12 readers--if they see me as a reader, than they will learn more and see themselves as readers, and hopefully enjoy reading more, just as I enjoyed science more.

Bonding

"You must bond with my child if you want to teach her anything" Regie Routman quoted a speaker she had heard in her book, Reading Essentials. Before a child can learn anything from someone, that someone has to be established as a person to admire, a person who respects the child and who cares about the child. So often in classrooms of the 21st century, teachers are so caught up in meeting the standards that they forget about the very important human element that is part of educating another being.

This rings especially true for me because in my job at the MSEEC, I rarely got to know the children. Schools came on field trips and I taught kids for three to five hours, and there was really no relationship. In the summers, while conducting summer camps, I was able to bond with some of the campers, but especially those that came back to camp week after week. That was one of the reasons I wanted to go into school-year teaching with the same group(s) of kids--I wanted to know them better so I could more effectively teach them.

Another quote from Reading Essentials was about how we all find some children hard to love, but that does not mean we cannot bond with those kids who we clash with. In fact, no matter what kind of distress a child causes us, it is imperative to bond with them. In my field placement, I know there are certain students who I or my MT just don't really get along with, but I see that she has bonded with all of her students regardless. I hope I can do the same before my time with them is up.

A colleague also discussed bonding here.