I confess to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have fake read by my own fault. In my thoughts and in my words, through what I have done and what I have failed to do.
But I have changed, thankfully.
My gateway book was Harry Potter. That may seem silly, but I had never experienced a book like that before. I never hungered to read the end, but yet was so upset when it was over.
I was reformed by an author's magic with words and I have never looked back. I am kind of a book collector now, as they hold memories and meanings.
I am thankful that I majored in education, otherwise, I would have missed this love for books. Writing was more my thing but not reading.
In my college days, I made myself a few promises about reading with my students based on my experiences with books. Throughout my K-12 education I had "incentive" programs like Book-it and Accelerated Reader (AR). As a child who disliked pizza, Book-it was not a reward. I also learned strategies to "fake" an AR test as they let us use the books. I am a great skimmer.
When I recall my first experiences with the school library, I was given only one shelf to pick from as that was within my reading level. I saw friends who had two or three shelves to pick from but not me. I had only decoding and sight word driven books without a plot that I could borrow. That is what set my tone for what I thought "school reading" was about.
I vowed in my early days, not to limit my students to a shelf or make them read plot-less books. I sore I would not be "rewarding" reading with objects (pizza, points, grades or toys). Reading was for pleasure and it meant to be shared. Reading was love and students should find a way to love reading.
When I took my first elementary leveled teaching job, I taught with real books and we share read. Just because a child cannot read every word doesn't mean they should not have the experience of falling in love with a book.
So, as a former fake reader, please think of your love story with books. Did you read for the points/pizza/grade or did you read because what reading gave you?
If you are looking for a resource book about becoming a promoter of the love of reading, I highly recommend The Book Whispter. I have included a link below.
