“The beginning of the book was kind of boring. But once I got to the middle it got interesting and then I couldn’t put it down. Now I want to read all the books in the series.”

The above is a quote from my 10 year old son. He shared this insight into his reading life when I was snuggling with him in bed last night. Bedtime is the time of day when I hear his most interesting observations on life. This statement really struck me. This type of persistence is what I desire for all of my students. The ability to know when to keep persevering in a book. The patience needed to get into a story a bit before writing it off as being too boring.

My son is a typical 4th grade boy. He loves building with LEGOS, riding his bike, playing outside, and roughhousing with his brother. His perspective on school is basically that it is necessary. An obligation. In other words, he has been counting the days until summer vacation since January. But somehow, despite his apathetic relationship with school, he is beginning to turn into a reader. More and more I see him choosing to spend his time reading and talking to me about books he is reading.

So what happened that allowed my son to gain the necessary drive to keep going on a book in order to get into the story? And why do so many of my students start and abandon books at a record speed? For starters, my 10 year old didn’t experience difficulty learning how to read. That for sure made things easier. But there is more to it than that. He’s had a fourth grade teacher who values reading and gives her students lots of opportunities to read books, talk about books, and share books with others. If he knows that a friend of his loved a book, he is more motivated to keep reading despite obstacles. We share books together frequently at home, so he equates hearing a good story with the warm feeling of cuddling together on the couch. And finally, we have books everywhere at our house and make frequent trips to the library.

After all this reflection, I’ve come to two conclusions. Reading is a social activity. If we want our young children to persevere through texts, they need to know that they are not doing it alone. There are others reading the books as well, they can talk through the story with a teacher or adult, or they have had friends who have recommended the book. And second, access and choice in text will foster the engagement needed to persevere. When a child has chosen the book (maybe with help or guidance from an adult) or a book has been recommended to the child by a friend, he will have a much greater desire to finish the book successfully. With these foundations in place, I believe that all children can successfully put in the energy needed to finish and enjoy good stories.

Springtime. It conjures up so many feelings. I made it through another long, cold, Michigan winter! I can’t wait to start digging in my flower beds again. And the excitement that long, lazy days at Lake Michigan are almost here.

But springtime also brings feelings of anxiety. Are my students ready for the next grade? Have I prepared them enough? How can I keep them reading this summer? And the most dreaded question of all: How will they do on the standardized test?

I spend my days teaching young children how to read. The children I am blessed to call my students are young boys and girls who experience difficulty with reading. The reasons for their difficulties are as varied as the backgrounds they come from. But they all have that one characteristic in common- learning to read has not been easy. The children I spend my days with are joyful, hardworking, smart, and creative. Many smile when I come to their classrooms to fetch them for their reading lesson. They love to give hugs, wave to me in the hallways, and tell me stories about their lives. They bring me so much joy.

As every teacher knows, springtime may be the season of new life, but it is also the season of testing. Testing. That dreaded word in every child’s vocabulary. A necessary evil that does have some benefits but can also be the cause of so much stress. And the sensitive souls I call my students often experience a lot of that stress during the testing season. Every spring I become so excited when I see the growth my students have made only to be deflated when I see that many of them may have grown but are still performing below grade level. I know we have reaped many benefits from our hard work during the school year, but I want so badly for all of my students to be reading as successfully as their peers.

And so I choose, with much effort, to look at victories that aren’t measured by a test. Victories such as the child who says, “Mrs. S., I could only read short boring books in 2nd grade but now that I am a better reader I can read longer, more exciting books.” Or the mom who writes to say that her child can now read the menu selections at the restaurant by herself. Or the 4th grader who proudly states that he can join his class for lit circles because he doesn’t need as much support from an adult anymore. Those are the true victories. Those are the moments I will hold dear this spring.