Comment: This quote stuck out to me because it's exactly how I am. My husband always tells me I get more done when I need to study than any other time. I will clean, do laundry, run errands, or anything else that will help me avoid doing school work. This ties in to reading because I've had so many experiences in an English class when we had to read as an assignment and then usually write a report on it. Even if we were able to choose the book, it was still an assignment. Books that I enjoyed became a chore to read rather than an enjoyable activity.
Question: Despite the fact that I believe my distaste for reading came later in life, how do we make sure this same thing doesn't happen to our own students? How can we make sure that our students find a sincere love for reading that can't be tainted by the idea of an assignment?
I think that we could use free reading periods to foster enthusiasm for reading. Students can pick whatever book they want to out of a hopefully wide range of subjects and read it at their own pace. It might be a good idea to follow-up on their reading through partner discussions, where the student can talk about what he or she read. That way, it becomes more of a conversation than an assignment.
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