Books Will Change Your Heart

Have you read this book?  It's been one of my favorites for several years now.  (It's not even written by Regie Routman.  Go figure.)  This post only deals with about two pages from it, so find yourself a copy and read the rest.  You'll be glad you did.

During our school's Read Week, I borrowed a brilliant suggestion from Growing Readers.  I invited five reading mentors to our room, one per day, to share their reading lives with us.  They brought in a collection of the things they were currently reading (novels, recipes, magazines, cards, nooks, picture books, bills, craft books, and the list goes on).  They told us a little about each item and why they were reading them.  Some of the mentors read a favorite picture book as well.  Here's a picture of one of our reading mentors (my best friend who works in the office) sharing some of the things she reads.  

After each mentor left, we took a few minutes to document the highlights of what we learned.  Take a look.  

Didn't the mentors do an amazing job of teaching us what's at the heart of being a reader forever?  Their real life stories are priceless!

Lastly, I asked the kids to think about the reading mentors within their own homes.  We brainstormed questions they'd like to ask that person.  I did a bit of editing as far as which questions were the most beneficial, typed up an interview sheet, and after practicing the interview process on each other, the kids took it home in search of that special reading mentor.

As Mrs. Peck told us, "Books will change your heart."  I hope that's exactly what happened this week for my young readers as they learned more about what reading really is.