“Authentic reading is pleasurable as well as purposeful.”
I got interested in this book as soon as I read the first chapter “Fake Reading”. Tovani discusses so many of the same ideas that I had experiences of thinking about at various times before. For example, on page 7, she talks about how many teachers think that students who are not good readers by a certain grade, will never be good readers. I am ashamed to admit, but this was my thinking for so long. Tovani describes her own personal experience of how she taught herself strategies when she became older. It really got me thinking about the topic and I have decided to do further research to help me come to a better conclusion.
I also loved how she defines “strategies”. She defines a strategy as “...an intentional plan that readers use to help themselves make sense of their reading. Strategies are flexible and can be adapted to meet the demands of the reading task. Good readers use lots of strategies to help themselves make sense of text.” All of the years that I have teaching reading and reading strategies to students, I don’t think that I had a proper definition of what strategy actually meant. Tovani gives a very clear and precise definition that I will be able to remember.
I also loved how she discussed how people who love reading have a different view of reading than those who struggle. She says that people who read often take for granted the real-world payoff and struggling readers seldom get to experience how great it feels to finish a book. I am an avid reader. I love to read anything and everything ever since I was a little girl. It is my favourite pastime and I always have a book with me. Therefore, I do not understand how people do not like to read. But as Tovani said, “They don’t know how much fun it can be to escape day-to-day life by jumping into a good book.” It puts into perspective that people who don’t like to read are like that because they struggle and they cannot get the same enjoyment out of it as I do because when they are struggling to decode or comprehend a text “Reading has lost its purpose and pleasure.”
The last thing I want to comment about is the literacy histories activity she talked about at the end of the chapter. She asked each of her students in her class to bring in a book that had an impact on their life. She stressed that it didn’t have to be a favorite one but an important one. She went on to talk about how she told the class about the book she chose and then she told several stories about some of the students who shared. I found this so touching and moving that I literally cried. It was so impactful to hear about it. Maybe because I feel that books are such an important part of my life. It also got me thinking about an important book in my life. Little Women. I just have such a vivid memory of the first time that I bought that book and read it. I was only 10 or 11 and for some reason, that memory still stays with me. I still have that exact copy of the book on my bookshelf today.
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