October
06
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Readers, in Spite of School by Donalyn Miller
I am endlessly fascinated with readers—what and why they read, how they became readers and sustain a reading habit, and the ways reading has shaped their worldview and their identity development.
I know other folks are endlessly fascinated with other aspects of reading and reading instruction including phonics, comprehension, or vocabulary. All of these components matter when teaching readers. They all deserve attention, but I don’t see reading identity development or supporting lifelong reading on many meeting agendas these days. Where are readers in conversations about teaching reading?
At 52, I have been many readers in my lifetime.
I am five—emotionally spent and proud because I finished reading The Velveteen Rabbit, the longest book I had completed alone to this point.
I am ten—fascinated with animals and planning to become a veterinarian—reading every Marguerite Henry book in my elementary school library.
I am fifteen—sneak reading Alex Haley’s Roots and Robin Cook’s Coma out of my desk in English class, while we spend four more weeks on The Scarlet Letter or Huckleberry Finn.
I am twenty—with a life in upheaval, who didn’t have a stable home for my books, and stored them in my dad’s garage.
I am twenty-five—reading to my two-year-old on my lap.
I am the woman on a cheap date at the used bookstore with the reader she would marry. I am the grad student reading towers of research, the teacher reading to her classes and recommending books, the grandma who pre-orders you the next Dogman or Diary of an Ice Princess. I am the lonely traveler listening to Tiffany Haddish’s The Last Black Unicorn while driving through Illinois this summer.
My reading identities will continue to evolve and change as long as I keep reading. I look forward to it.
I am also the mom who buys you graphic novels and stacks them on your bed—waiting for you to discover during a visit home. An identity I will only keep for a few more years.
Sarah came home this weekend. She’s twenty now and a junior at Stephen F. Austin. We miss her, but we know she is on the path to building the life she wants for herself.
Reading is still part of her identity and I am grateful. For years in middle school and early high school, she predominantly read books for school assignments and not much else. Thank goodness her comics-loving dad introduced her to his graphic novel collection. It was the only thing that kept her personal reading life alive during those years.
Sarah still loves graphic novels. She reads a lot for class assignments and graphic novels give her an enjoyable escape. She’s fascinated with the format and follows several artists, authors, and webcomics. This weekend, she picked up Jenni Holm’s newest title, Sunny Rolls the Dice, her latest Mom delivery. Sarah has been reading Jenni’s comics since she started collecting Babymouse in fifth grade.
Don, Sarah, and I read a flood of graphic novels this summer—passing around titles like This Place: 150 Years Retold, which features ten indigenous artists; the National Book Award Longlist title, Kiss Number 8; Jerry Craft’s New Kid; the tender romance, Bloom; Jen Wang’s Stargazing; and many others.
I am happy that for the first time in over a decade, I don’t have to worry about what Sarah’s teacher might say when she brings a graphic novel to school.
I am a former schoolteacher and active supporter of teachers and schools, but I will admit that I am relieved teachers don’t control my daughters’ reading lives any more. I talk often with educators who blame their students’ apathy for reading on their parents and caregivers at home. It’s not always the parents, folks.
Yes, it is true that parents and caregivers remain the most important influence on children’s development of lifelong reading habits. But educators are not absolved of responsibility for fostering lifelong reading habits at school. Some of the children in our classrooms become readers in spite of our efforts to marginalize or diminish their reading lives.
I am an advocate for all readers, but I understand I do not represent every reader’s experiences at school. This is my story, though. My daughter’s story. Many of my students’ stories. We are readers in your classrooms, too. There are a lot of young readers just like us.
If we are self-reflective educators, we must admit that despite our best intentions, we have not equitably supported all of the readers in our classrooms. I haven’t. You haven’t. There’s no blaming or shaming here.
It’s true that we have readers in our classrooms who need more home support for reading. So give it to them. Prioritize home book access first. Yes, we have readers who struggle with learning to read. No single solution will meet the needs of every reader. Yes, we have children and teens who don’t like reading. We are their teachers, what are we going to do about it? How are we contributing to their reading disinterest?
We also have kids in our schools who loved to read when they showed up. Have you considered what they might need to grow as readers? How might our schools change if we looked through a young reader’s eyes for even one day? What might they teach us?
Yes, engaged readers still need high-quality reading instruction, but do you think there’s a way we can teach them how to read without killing or disrespecting their reading lives in the process?
I have spent my career studying the conditions that engage people with reading and the conditions that don’t. I have spent a lot of that time trying to convince adults to just let kids read. I call on my inner fifteen-year-old—still reading out of her desk—every time. She still wants to talk to you.
While Sarah was home, we went to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Lupe’s, to celebrate our son-in-law and younger granddaughter’s birthdays. Chatting with our older granddaughter, Emma, I asked her what she was doing at school and what she was reading.
She said, “I just finished El Deafo (CeCe Bell’s graphic novel memoir). I really liked it.” Emma met CeCe and heard her speak at Nerd Camp this summer.
Emma continued, “Yeah, my teacher didn’t really like me reading it because it was only a 3.2*, but she let me take a test on it.”
Reader, I kept my mouth shut (this time), but it was hard. Another generation of readers in my family navigating school mandates and negative messages about reading in order to keep our reading lives alive. It’s getting old. We are blessed that our family has the ability to give young readers the support they need. We just wish that our kids’ reading experiences at school were more positive than negative. What happens to kids’ reading lives when they don’t receive support at home and school?
Sarah swaps out books when she comes home because her dorm room bookshelf can’t hold a lot. I have no idea what she left with; her reading life is her own. Her best friend, Hailey, borrowed a stack of graphic novels Sarah recommended.
Talking about it later, Sarah said, “Hailey asked me which one she should read first. I told her The Prince and the Dressmaker.” We know what to do to engage readers around here. Help us or get out of the way.
*I presume that Emma was talking about the reading level of El Deafo. I didn’t check it for accuracy and it’s not relevant.
**I meet teachers, librarians, administrators, and families every day that are striving to build positive reading communities in their schools and homes. But until the reading lives of young people outside of school matter, I fear we will never provide equitable opportunities for all children to become readers.
Donalyn Miller has taught fourth, fifth, and sixth grade English and Social Studies in Northeast Texas. She is the author or co-author of several books about encouraging students to read and creating successful reading communities at school and home including, The Book Whisperer (Jossey-Bass, 2009), Reading in the Wild (Jossey-Bass, 2013), and Game Changer! Book Access for All Kids (Scholastic, 2018). Donalyn launched the annual Twitter summer and holiday reading initiative, #bookaday. You can find her on Twitter @donalynbooks.
Nerdy Book Club 
Loves this one!
I’ve never thought about myself with an evolving reader identity but after reading this article, I can break down my years in to who I was at that time in my life and what I was reading. I really liked this article for self reflection.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for telling us what we know is true. Our school just switched over to Reading/LA blocks so the LA teachers are very concerned that the kids read graphic novels. I have read your books and before I did it was my philosophy and it kills me when other teachers are not enlightened. I tell my students that I read at different levels all day long and I want them to feel the same way. A book level does not make a reader. Choice makes the reader.
Thank you! It’s crazy to think that you, and many others that I respect, have been guiding us to give kids choice when reading, yet the message isn’t getting through.
I presented at a conference this weekend where a high school teacher confided in me that her principal is frowning on ELA teachers using whole books as part of their curriculum or having students read books of choice. They are moving to an online curriculum that is all articles or passages because that’s what students will have to read on “the test.” While I’m not a fan of reading through one whole class novel after another, this isn’t what ELA is about. In the name of testing, it seems to me we’re coming closer and closer to extinguishing any hope of growing readers.
Thank you. I’m still working on it as a high school English teacher, but we have to stop regulating what our kids are reading, especially outside of our curriculum.
Emma’s comment explaining that El Deafo was reduced to the number 3.2 BUT she’d been “allowed” to take a test on it will replay in my ear for a long time. So grateful for your work on behalf of all readers, Donalyn.
Thank you! It needed to be said!
Thank you for writing this. I am in constant struggle with my admin about how to teach reading. My admin says we should do 10 week modules closely reading one book to death. I want my students reading various genres, reading what they want and enjoying it!
Truth is, I could sit and nod my head in agreement all day when I read your Blog. Am I guilty of some it this or have I been at one point in my career? yes. Do I work hard to change and grow? Yes. I cringe when I hear the word reading log, I cringe when I talk about a great book with a colleague and they listen intently, only to then ask…what lexile is that? ugh. I changed out my library this year in my classroom, a request/suggestion from last years students, and went bin-less. I feel liberated. We, yes I said we, book shop more frequently now. We “taco” bout books openly as a class every Tuesday and have First chapter Fridays. I begin every class with 10 minutes of Free read so I can “check in” and see what they are reading, where they are at in the book. I especially love when I have read the book, but often I am on the receiving end of their book talk, since I don’t claim to have read every book in our classroom library.
I spent 27 years of my career in Elementary school, but have been in Grade 5 of a middle school for the past 2 years. I am growing my library, with recommendations from my current and past readers and trying to read more MG books to keep up. My readers? They inspire me, I try to pick their brain, find out what drives them to read. Challenge them to try out a new series, author, or genre. I also challenge them through the writers craft. Having them study one of their favorite Authors and try to write using some of their craft moves. We’ve recently been noticing the use of the ellipses while reading the Front Desk as a read aloud.
Keeping reading real, that is what it’s all about. At the end of the day, I hope that my students pick up a book and read because they want to, not because they are trying to fulfill a 20 minute reading goal or create a diorama of the setting, or so they can take a test at the end of the book.
Thanks for always keeping it real!
Donalyn, I totally relate to your post, and shamefully, I most relate to my lack of ability to support readers outside of my scope of what I thought was ‘right’ for them to read. But that was last year. This year I wholeheartedly support that idea that the best books for my students to read are the ones that they will. I am filling my classroom with student requests. My first donorschoose.org attempt was for 20 books. I have now challenged my students to help me select 200 books, from authors across the cultural spectrum, from different generations and different perspectives. In the area we live, we lack in diversity in many ways. By curating a fabulous and diverse collection of books, we can all begin to understand each other better. I see no reason why we can’t teach reading where reading fits into our students’ lives. All hail the new reader, the reluctant reader, the constant reader! We love them all!
I had a complicated pregnancy and had purchased 64 picture books for our new baby–but hadn’t had time to shop for a crib, diapers, and onsies when I was hospitalized. Despite reading stacks of books to our son every night, I think he learned to read via baseball cards (See Reading Teachers article – On Baseball Cards and Literacy Acquisition” April 1995 about my son’s reading). When I was thrilled about Harry Potter, my son read the first one then returned to informational books and the Redwall series. He resented the librarian who insisted that he read novels he wasn’t interested in–so he didn’t. Today he has an MBA and reads biographies on Grant, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and others. He reads informational articles. He’s a “just the facts, ma’am” reader. But he will venture off to a John Grisham now and then for a quick light read.
Thank you, Donalyn, for sharing your reading life and how you came to this point as an educator and advocate for lifelong reading. I want to respond to a few of your statements with my own thinking, with the sole purpose of continuing the conversation for all.
“Where are readers in conversations about teaching reading?”
– Readers have to be at the epicenter of our decisions about what is available to read in classrooms. Teachers and administrators have a lot of power in our roles. To include readers in these conversations about reading is essential for their success.
“If we are self-reflective educators, we must admit that despite our best intentions, we have not equitably supported all of the readers in our classrooms.”
– I, too, was there. For several years, I wondered why my classroom library was not more readily utilized by my students. Once I learned that I needed to include my students in the organization of the classroom library, I saw an increase in the usage of my 5th and 6th graders. They owned the library as much as me. For better or worse, I moved to school administration not much longer after that, but I have continued to promote this approach of co-developing classroom libraries.
“How might our schools change if we looked through a young reader’s eyes for even one day? What might they teach us?”
– Such a critical question! I think the answer varies based on your students every year. Every class is unique. That is why we advocate in our school for including students in the design, organization, and management of our classroom libraries. How can we truly know what our students need unless we include them in the decision-making process? I believe that involving students in developing classroom libraries is a mutual learning process.
To conclude, I recall the wise words from Diane Laufenberg:
“What are we doing for students that they should be doing for themselves?”
Take care,
Matt
Thank you, as always, for the advocacy and inspiration, Donalyn. Jennifer and I both found so much to relate to in this. Our youngest is 15, and we’re still looking for ways to contribute to our kids’ reading lives — even if what we suggest to them turns out to be only a gateway to what they’re *really* going to love.
This post is soooo good.
Thank you for your personal reflections.
We’ve been blessed in our house to have children who loved to read. As adults, they still love to read. As exceptional readers in school, they had to learn to ‘work the system’ with AR. My son was especially good at working the system (and I won’t reveal his secrets since I don’t want anyone to stop someone else from beating it).
When we make reading about levels and tests and those tied to grades, we are not encouraging or celebrating reading much less, teaching them.
Why would anyone think that all that is enjoyable?
Please, let them read.
I taught literature to 7th and 8th graders , English and composition to 9th, 10th, and 12th grade. And every day, I prayed that I would not make kids dislike reading. I read somewhere in my career that students learn best from teachers who are either
1) experts in their field, or 2) enthusiastic about their topic. I love reading, so I constantly hoped that my enthusiasm for books and literature was catching. It made me choose summer reading assignments carefully, and made our conversations about books a joy. I’m now retired, and I only hope that my former students remember that we had good times with a book in our class.
I am you, similar age and reading history until 2016. I lost one of my kids and he was my reading buddy, we enjoyed sharing our current books and discussing what we would read next. I am hoping to find my reading joy again, but for now I am living through others reading lives online. Thank you for being a beacon to all readers.