Just let them read books

I wanted to share a favorite blog post of mine, Just Let Them Read Books by Jen Marten:

http://teachfromtheheart.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/just-let-them-read-books/

I whole-heartedly subscribe to the author’s approach to reading. All year, Leo’s teachers insisted that his reading abilities hovered around the second grade level (outside testing would later show they were almost 6th grade). Yet, at home, he was voraciously reading books years above this range. When I shared this with his teacher and reading specialist at various times during the school year, I received responses implying that while he might appear to be reading at this level, he couldn’t possibly be comprehending what he was reading. Leo is a child who never stops moving. He is easily bored and is in constant motion from sun-up til sun-down. How can a child this restless, this full of boundless energy, this easily bored, spend an hour staring at pages of a book that he does not comprehend? The answer is: he can’t. Who spends time reading what they don’t understand?

He’s reading Harry Potter because he can.

Just let them read books.

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Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.

~Charles W. Eliot

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