A Reading Teacher

I’ve been making time to read before work for the past three weeks. We were having conversations about the difference between “having time” and “making time” to read at home in class. I suddenly found myself with a 20-minute window before 6 AM to read fiction texts. It was perfect timing to look into our next read-aloud. After two I-started-but-didn’t-finish books, I found the one, which I’ve been reading with look-for-teaching-moments glasses.

As I read, I began thinking about the undiscovered literary gems I could guide my students towards. Teaching reading in upper elementary is a new game for me. I have no training in teaching reading to 10+-year-olds, and as I’ve said before, I did not group up a reader. I’ve taught myself to enjoy reading as an adult.

Ravi and Joe’s stories are, so far, beautifully intertwined, and I can feel the author’s craft filter through my skin as my fingers turn the pages. We’ll start reading Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan in three weeks. Ravi and Joe’s stories will be the fuel to give characters and themes another go. I know, however, that it won’t happen spontaneously. I must explicitly teach students how to do this.

There’s a lot of anxiety as I think of this new endeavor of mine. For the past couple of years, I’ve embraced unfamiliar curriculum plans, and never-before taught skills; I have also felt the weight of inexperience. Recently, though, I’ve trained to strengthen my teaching muscles with the wise work of so many experts in the art of teaching reading and writing. The thing is, I’ve mainly focused on writing because it’s where my heart beats faster.

I feel a little like walking into that cafeteria with Ravi and Joe, nervous about the unknown, fearful that I’m not welcomed, and aware of the truth: I’ve never taught this before.

Most teachers I know do this thing, where they only shine a light on what they don’t know, what they’re missing, the infinite ways they could harm children if they’re not 150% sure of how to teach a specific lesson. And as I begin planning for this new If… Then… reading unit, I join their table with a loaded tray of self-doubt and unwrapped dreams.

I stay only for a few minutes, though, just enough to shake the feeling off and look for the folded piece of paper where I’ve listed the goals I wrote down three weeks ago.

Here are this reading teacher’s goals for the rest of the school year:

• Consume the experts to help me map out our Spring unit.
• Use Serravallo’s guide to understand the texts my readers will read.
• Pour the sense of efficacy I gained in conferring with writers into my reader’s workshop—Serravallo will also be my mentor in this work.
• Tie the work of interpreting themes to vocabulary and providing readers tools to learn new words.

I may not have all the experience or all the training, but I do have a kid-like desire to give this a try and see readers relate to characters and what they go through. My fingers wanted to end this post with the words, “We’ll see how this goes,” but I know how much language matters. I need more intention than that. So, here:

I’ll work hard at it.