A great book can ignite a love of reading for a lifetime. However, it has been my experience that getting some students to read is the equivalent of dragging an ornery horse to water, and although dying of thirst, the horse refuses to drink. As all good language arts’ teachers do, I have taken my class to the library and with pride, watched students eagerly walk straight to the book or series they cannot wait to read. Equally often, I have seen students, who have no real intent to check out a particular book, but do an excellent job looking absorbed, scanning shelves, eyes squinted, looking at book spines, while stealthily whispering to the friend next to them who is doing the same scan, squint routine about the latest drama fluttering around the halls of a typical middle school. Of course, as a teacher, I know this is normal behavior, any time students are outside the structure of the classroom and their regular routine, so often I have watched with a mixture...
The "daze" in the life of a teacher......