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.