(upbeat music)
Lynne: I taught Special Education
in an elementary resource room for a few years.
So the students would come to me
if they were, say, two years behind or more
in often reading or in math.
So they would come to my room
and we would work on those skills
that they needed to catch up on.
I had such a variety of students.
One thing I learned is
that everyone can learn to love reading.
There are a lot of students
who we would call reluctant readers.
I think they're super choosy readers,
and they probably haven't found the books
that they have fallen in love with yet.
We would have a mini-lesson
about finding the book that is right for you:
not too easy, not too hard, and interesting.
So we would have that sort of mini-lesson
and then they would scatter about the room
and everyone would find their just-right book,
and I would circulate and talk to each student
about what they were reading.
Every reader can find that,
but sometimes that's harder to do
for some students than others.
I wasn't as familiar with graphic novels then,
and they didn't seem as plentiful as they are now,
but I think that's a type of book that can draw in students.
And so if they are given that variety
and given the opportunity to choose the books
that they are drawn to
and that they can fall into and enjoy,
well, then they can become people who love reading.
I would love for them to know
that there are books out there for them.
There's such a variety.
There is something for everyone out there,
and they need to find what their book is,
where their stories are.
Something that really stands out to me
were the reading circles that we did
where we would have maybe one picture book
that everyone was to read
and they would then sit in a circle and talk about.
And I would sit back and listen to those conversations
and maybe do some facilitating.
Those are my favorite times
where they would talk about the story they've read.
Listening to students have conversations
about books was my favorite thing.
I guess if I knew how much planning it would take,
I don't know if I would have gotten into it.
Maybe it's good I didn't quite know that.
With my students having each an individualized curriculum,
that took a lot of planning.
If I let them know earlier
that we as adults who enjoy reading stumble over things too,
we get to where we realize,
I don't know what I've just read.
I've read this same page five times
and I don't know what's happening.
It's really good for them to know that we do that too,
as adults and as readers.
So I would have let them know that earlier.
And I did have a good variety of books around the room,
but I could always have added more.
So offering more variety to the students
so they would all find something
that they could fall in love with.