Blog 2 – Students, just like players, will ‘run through a brick wall for you’ when they know you care about them, show them respect, and they know you love them!

In chapters two and three of Reading Essentials by Regie Routman, the focus is on bonding with your students, sharing about you and your reading life with them, and just building a relationship with them.  It discusses how there are some students that are difficult to love, but that we still must bond with them.  Bonding with students means that we are respectful, kind, care, listen, protect, celebrate, know and include interests, value, have faith in, and encourage all of our students.  “Unless we reach into our students’ hearts, we have no entry into their minds.  Through drill and memorization, we can get students to complete assignments and pass tests.  But there is a price to pay for such short-term accomplishment.  We will never inspire our students to learn for their own sake and to love coming to school” (Routman 12).   It is the same way with football, you will get so much more out of a team when you treat them with respect, you care about them, and they know it…they would, literally some of them, run through a brick wall for you!  Sometimes the student that is the one that is difficult to love, when you show them respect and they see that you care about them, they just take off and become one of the hardest working students in your class.  The student athlete that sometimes gets in trouble and many of the other staff find it difficult to deal with, when you instill discipline and respect, and he sees that you care, a lot of times becomes the role model student.  It all comes down to them knowing that you care, and when they know, it does not matter if it is reading, math, or football…most of the time they are going to give you more and many times their best!  So bonding is crucial with all of our students in whatever capacity we are working with them.  “Worldwide, the strongest predictor of reading achievement is the quality of student-teacher relations” (Routman 13). 

Part of the student-teacher relations is letting them know about you and your reading life.  When trying to get students to read more, read better, and read for their own enjoyment, it is important to be good examples.  Show them, tell them, and discuss with them why you read, what you read, and that reading can be enjoyable!  “Too many of our students are reading because they have to, not because they want to” (Routman 37).  Every student has something that they enjoy doing or that they are interested in.  Encourage them to find some books about the things they like, and read!  “If our students are to become readers, they have to enjoy reading and find it satisfying.  Only then will they choose to read, read for their own purposes—and get high test scores too” (Routman 37). 

It all goes back to the bonding…when you create that bond, and they know that you have their best interests in mind, you will be someone that they look up to and they will follow your lead.  So when you share with them how important reading is to you, and you have built that bond, they may just read because they look up to you.  Again I say, it all comes down to them knowing that you care, and when they know that you do, reading or football, they are going to try harder and will reap better results… higher reading levels reached, improved test scores, or wins!