Recommended Reading: "Reading Reasons" by Kelly Gallagher

Why do you read? Why is reading important to you as a teacher and as a person? What benefits have you gained in life because of your ability to read fluently and to understand a variety of different text structures? Exactly where would you be without reading?

Reading has opened many doors for me. College was made easier because the difficult text presented was easily understood. I've been able to advance in my career partly due to my public speaking and writing abilities. Those skills come naturally to anyone having so many waking hours in a book, immersed in language.

To be sure, the reasons for reading are numerous. You can probably give many as well —but are they apparent to your students? Can your students answer why they read, or do they read simply because they have to? Do they itch to complete book reviews and to participate in literature circles, or are they going through the motions, satisfying the requirements of your class?

Reading is as essential to your students as it has been for you, but almost none of them know why. Many have lost (or never had to begin with) the joy that good books can provide, and they do not understand how great a loss that is. What's more, the majority of the adults in their lives have never fully explained the benefits of reading. It is as if the importance of reading is a secret.

If reading is going to be presented as a worthwhile activity in your classroom, this secrecy has to end! It is your job as a teacher to help your children recognize the role that reading plays in their lives, and Kelly Gallagher's book Reading Reasons can help you to do that.

Gallagher, a long-time high school English teacher in California, realized one day that few of his students could fully explain the role that reading plays in their lives. Together, he and his students began to outline specific reasons that reading matters. What they came up with was the following list of nine reading reasons:

1. Reading is rewarding.
2. Reading builds a mature vocabulary.
3. Reading makes you a better writer.
4. Reading is hard, and "hard" is necessary.
5. Reading makes you smarter.
6. Reading prepares you for the world of work.
7. Reading well is financially rewarding.
8. Reading opens the door to college and beyond.
9. Reading arms you against oppression.

Gallagher then took these ideas and created 40 motivational mini-lessons designed to convince middle and high school students of the importance of reading in their lives. Those mini-lessons have become the core of Reading Reasons.

Each lesson is designed to take between 5 and 20 minutes to teach. They share convincing information about each reading reason and can be implemented in classrooms across the curriculum. Complete with specific directions and all related materials, these reading "booster shots" (as Gallagher describes them) are approachable and easy to use.

Reading Reasons also includes a collection of valuable documents in its appendix. Lists of books appropriate for middle and high school students, samples of letters that can be sent to parents, and reading records that Gallagher has used in his career are all provided for teachers interested in making reading a central part of their classrooms.

In the end, no matter what we teach, each of us wants to instill an appreciation for reading in our students. Reading Reasons helps to make that possible. It is an essential resource that teachers of all levels will find immediately rewarding!