In Response to Donalyn Miller’s article “Creating Readers”

When I read Donalyn Miller’s article there were a few things that really stood out to me. One of these things was the fact that she did not believe in the Accelerated Reader program and AR Goals. I think that is awesome for a teacher to dislike them because I have never met a teacher that didn’t at least think that they could help students. The reasons that she gave for disliking the AR program is because it brings kids down and students and herself have a negative view of it. She also goes onto say that kids have told her that they have cheated on their tests just to pass the class. Also, that students that enjoy reading have avoided books that they want to read just because there is not an AR test for it.

The other thing that really stood out to me was that she does not allow any free time in her classroom. The students in her classroom know that as soon as they come into class until the time that she begins teaching they are supposed to pull out their book and read. The same goes for if they finish their assignment early, if the projector breaks, or if a teacher comes into talk to her. I also like her philosophy that if you get students to enjoy reading in school they will be more likely to read when they are outside of school.

A couple of other things that I really liked about the way that she teaches are that she supports SSR time. Also, she does not pick and require a book for the entire class to read, like To Kill a Mockingbird in my freshman English class, she picks a number of books that the students should aim to read by the end of her class. They can pick what kind of books and read at their own pace. Lastly, I really liked that she stated that reading in itself is a reward.

Sadly enough I did not have a classroom that taught reading like Donalyn Miller does. I think my outlook on reading and how much I read would have been different if I would have had a teacher that had her perspective. Knowing this, I would like to implement her style of teaching into mine when I become a teacher. I really like the fact that she teaches her way and her students benefit from it. She doesn’t solely base her curriculum off of Common Core but adapts it to meets her students needs. I was really impressed with Donalyn Miller!