Why Reading is Important (Part 2)

Last month I wrote a blog post about Why Reading is Important. The South Paris Collaborative then took up the challenge and answered the question in their blog. Here is the assignment given by their teachers:

“A teacher we know, Mrs. Hensley, recently wrote a post on her blog about why she thinks reading is important. This is a great question to ask ourselves from time to time. Beyond the obvious, that reading well gets us good grades in school and makes our parents happy, why is reading important? What do we get from reading that we can't get from movies or pictures or other art forms? Since we are learning about personal essays in writing, let's make this blog a personal essay. So think of a big idea that answers the question "Why is reading important?" Then give personal examples to prove your big idea. If you look at Mrs. Hensley's blog, you will see how she did this very thing. She came up with an answer to the question and then examples from her life to explain the answer.”

You can read their posts here: South Paris Blog

The responses were awesome! In fact, their answers gave me chills of delight! I love how well thought out their answers were. They even gave personal examples with their answers which really helped make their point even stronger. It was also interesting to read what books peaked their interest which will help when I am giving suggestions to other teachers about what students like to read.

I hope you take the time to drop by there and read some of their responses. They took a lot of time to think carefully and put their thoughts into words. I really think they communicated their ideas extremely well. Actually it was hard for me to remember that these students were in elementary school and not high school because they actually wrote better than some of the high school writing that I have read.

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Original image: 'I Want to Live'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/86603835@N00/36362014 by: Jay Ryness