Hello! My name is Ms. Riley and I teach English as a second language. Reading is so important for students, so how can I help my students find their love for reading?

Dr. Gambrell says "teachers play a critical role in helping children develop into readers who read for both pleasure and information" (Gambrell, p.15). We must create a classroom that fosters reading motivation and be models of enthusiastic reading! We have to share our own love of reading with our students!

She recommends our classroom be a book-rich environment, students should choose their own books, allow students to bring books home to read with their families, and include reading related incentives. We must be teachers who model reading and share our personal reading interests with the class. We should encourage them to do the same!

Denise Davila & Lisa Patrick

Davila and Patrick teach us about the importance of a student's interests in promoting avid reading. "A child's interests inform his or her reading preferences" (Davila & Patrick, p. 199). We need to know our students' interests to have a book-rich classroom awaiting their hungry minds!

-Genres: scary, funny, action packed (usually male hero)

-Series: "narrow reading"

sustained interest, familiar characters and established background knowledge, a foundation for students to expand reading preferences

-Magazines, film-related books, and comics are also interesting to students!

 Dr. Meier champions reading and including books with diverse protagonists. The "absence of a Black male presence in the curriculum sends children powerful messages about who and what school is for, whose experiences are relevant there, and whether school is a place for being oneself and imagining one's future possibilities" (Meier, p. 337). All of our students need to see themselves in the stories they read.

As an ELL teacher, my students also rarely read about people who look like them. It is important that they see themselves represented.

I also believe providing stories with diversity will increase their empathy for others.