When I was in seventh grade I had a class that was called "Reading." And it was just that, a class for reading. It wasn't an English class, or a language arts class, it was reading. The whole period. Every day. Best.Class.Ever. The classroom was floor to ceiling books. You didn't have to leave the room to find something to read. The teacher was very encouraging and we journaled back and forth about books. She would start each class reviewing or describing a few books, and then the room would descend into silence as everyone read, or wrote, for the remainder of the class.
Seventh grade was a pretty tough year for me. At the beginning of the school year my mom, sister and I moved from a VERY small town (I left a school where the 6th grade class contained 21 students and was the largest ever in school history) to an average sized town where my seventh grade class contained somewhere around two hundred kids. So yes, it was a bit of a culture shock. We also moved away from my father, and though my parents had already been divorced for several years by that point, we still saw my father often. Moving several hours away and not having Dad nearby was also difficult to handle. But Reading Class was completely miraculous to me. A whole period of doing nothing but reading. I could choose whatever books I wanted to read, I could read as many as I wanted, and I always had the kind words of the teacher supporting and encouraging me.
How in the world could any other class ever compete with that?
I wish we could still do that in high school--have an entire hour or more each day devoted to silent reading. I try to do a few "Hot cocoa and free reading" days each semester for my students. There are many who balk at reading but many more who appreciate a day where they can get lost in a good story and put everything else away for a little while...
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