I know I recently wrote about Young Adult books but I wanted to talk about them a little bit more. It's not all I read, but the last few books I have read this year have been YA books and I have two huge reasons why I can't stop reading them. The first reason, I already talked about before
in this post. Sometimes it is just really nice to find a book or series that you can read quickly with fun and adventurous themes.
(Harry Potter to me is the ultimate example of fun and adventurous themes.)
The second reason is way more personal for me. I work in education and I mostly work with middle school students. I love my students and always want to help encourage students to read more but in order to do that, I need to be able to ensure that I have books to recommend to my students. Staying on top of YA and even chapter books for younger students is important to me. I don't want to suggest books that don't work for students; maybe it's not a subject they can relate to, maybe it's not a subject they like, maybe the reading level is too advanced for them, maybe the reading level isn't advanced enough.
In order to encourage literacy and reading you have to be able to recommend books that are relevant to the reader. Not every kid is going to love the latest fad, and not every kid may be reading at the reading level of the latest fad - that's why I read YA. By reading YA, I can help students find books they will love to encourage them to keep reading. You know how it is when you pick up a book that doesn't work for you - like when you know you love mystery books but try and read a western - that probably wont work for you, you may even just stop reading the book altogether. Or have you ever had a friend recommend a book to you, maybe a classic, and the writing was too advanced for you? As an adult you may easily be able to cope with the fact that your friend is a more advanced reader than you are but for a young person it could be the very thing that makes them stop reading. If they are made to feel incapable, they might walk away from books forever.
It's also really rewarding to be able to talk about books with students. I am not a Language Arts teacher, so when I am talking about books with my students, it is normally in a more casual way and it is a great way to get to know my students and let them get to know me. It's one of my favorite parts of my day.
xoxo,
kat
No comments:
Post a Comment