The Book Whisperer Book Study

The Book Whisperer

Chapter 2 - Everybody Is a Reader

 

I am very excited to be joining some great Canadian Bloggers on a Book Study of The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller. We will be blogging about a chapter every Monday for the next seven weeks!! If you haven't read The Book Whisperer and would like to check it out, you can find it HERE. You can read the other ladies blog posts at the bottom of this page.

If you are just joining our blog hop Here is my Chapter 1 post. 

During Chapter 2, I found myself reflecting on my teaching practices, classroom environment and most of all my students, past and present.

Miller starts this chapter off by explaining her views on the labels given to students. She chooses to forgot the negative labels of "struggling readers" and "reluctant readers" for more encouraging terms. She states, "I prefer to use positive language to identify the readers in my class". Great idea don't you think?

According to Donalyn, these are the three types of readers that she consistently recognizes.

 Personally, I think Miller is spot on with her identification and explanation of the three types of readers. She even includes student examples from her teaching experiences. I know that I was able to identify students that would fit into each reading type.

How about you?

Conditions for Learning

My classroom is like my second home, it is the one place other than my actual home that I spend the majority of my time. Creating a classroom that is engaging, comfortable and motivational for myself, but most importantly for my students, is my goal. Over time, Miller has learned that no matter how dynamic and well planned her instruction is, it is doomed to fail if her classroom is not a motivational environment for readers.

My classroom library!

Donalyn now focuses her efforts on designing an engaging classroom environment based on researcher Brain Cambourne's findings. After years of classroom observation, Cambourne identifies factors that contribute to successful learning. 

The part of the chapter that I enjoyed reading the most was focused on student surveys. At the beginning of the school year Miller has her students fill out a survey which asks questions pertaining to their reading habits but also about their general interest. She analyzes these surveys for information that will help her encourage her students to read. 

I like the survey that is included in the book, however I wanted to make some changes to it so it suited my primary students. I often find that I get more information out of primary students when we sit down one on one and have a little chat. I will be using this survey to guide our conversations and as a recording sheet.

My primary version of a student interest survey.

Visit me next week to read about Chapter 3!