Chapter 1

The most motivating part of chapter 1 in my opinion, was the idea of the "invisible children", and how we as educators are responsible for making sure that every student is afforded the opportunity to learn to read for enjoyment and academic purposes. Reading is essential to every aspect of education and knowledge in general, if our students can't read then they will struggle in social studies, math, history and so on because reading is the foundation for our curriculum. I found it very disturbing that a teacher would be so negative towards students who are having trouble learning and quickly write them off as lost causes. I know that every student will have their difficulties at some point in their schooling and a teacher should be right beside them to help them not discourage them. I also like how the chapter emphasized that the goal of an effective reading teacher isn't just to teach kids to read, but to teach them to want to read. As a teacher we have to show the students that reading can be fun and enhance their creativity and thinking skills. I think that an effective reading classroom should be filed with books, not just textbooks or basal readers, but books that children can read for enjoyment. In elementary our class library was filled with books but they were out of date and I couldn't find anything I wanted to read. I think as teachers we should talk to the students and find out what they are interested in so that they can read for enjoyment and create a love for reading.