09.29.14Read With Your Students Today
Champion teachers integrate prodigious amounts of reading into their classes, and that, in my opinion, is one of their most salient characteristics.
No matter what they teach, such teachers reinforce—with their actions as much as their words—that reading is indispensable to study and learning. They know we can’t just say, “To be a scientist you must always read” or “When they are in doubt, historians go to the primary source to investigate.” Teachers have to model the process of “reading to learn” in every discipline. If they don’t, students won’t believe us when we say it’s at the core of learning.
And reading aloud does it one better: Seeing your peers reading joyfully and with relish sells the power of reading better than a thousand lectures on the topic.