One of my absolute favorite books on reading is The Book Whisperer, by Donalyn Miller. Reading this book *actually* changed my (teaching) life, and affirmed the growing suspicion that the traditional way of “teaching” reading has been going in the wrong direction for a long time. But more on this later. I will have tons of time to devote posts to my reading philosophy, and the wisdom I’ve gleaned from Donalyn Miller and Penny Kittle, my two most influential reading gurus, if you will.
Miller writes about “stealing reading moments” whenever we can, and that when we add all of them up, we can gain 20-3o extra minutes of reading a day. Those moments will look different for kids and adults, but can include waiting for your ride, if you finish your assignment early, waiting in any sort of line, on the ferry/bart/shuttle to work. When I was a teacher, I trained my students to seize these moments, and I loved hearing stories from other teachers about how during testing times, they’d look up at the students who finished early and see a bunch of noses buried in books with Kim written across the top. (They’d also see a few trying to sneak on their phones under their desks too, but hey, they probably weren’t my students!)
Anyway, I was reminded of “stealing reading moments” last Saturday when I was at a wedding reception for a couple over at Gracepoint Berkeley church.
The smaller kid is actually leafing through a really challenging chapter book classic, but the fact is that he’s super engaged.
How are you going to try and steal some reading moments this week?
Gracepoint Church Library 
Love that picture! Love the image of two boys with books in their hands reading! Thanks, Emily for sharing that book with me; it has changed the way I think about and teach reading as well! It’s such an awesome sight – to see people take out their books to steal reading moments. I like to keep a book with me in my bag, my car, or when all else fails, there’s the kindle on my phone, to get a few pages in when I’m waiting for someone or something – like getting an oil change, etc.
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Yeeessss! Did you read Reading in the Wild as well?
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