Ahh, I enjoy the pure decadence of a long, slow, luxurious bath. I take a literary stroll through some of my favorite authors and experience the barely-contained electricity that surges into my soul through my latest artist magazine—this time an article about one of my favorite artist families, the dynasty of the Wyeths.

No, I didn’t rise early in order to hoard this secret time. It’s just another late start. I’ve lost track of how many late starts we’ve had in this brutal little winter, but it’s been plenty. Late starts don’t make a big difference to my day because I’m up at 5:15 a.m. anyway. By the time the district calls a late start, I’ve already started my day. So now I have extra time and an opportunity to spend it as I choose. Usually, I choose to read.

I call myself a voracious reader—though some might term it eclectic. Today I perused Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar. . . by Thomas Catchcart and Daniel Klein (2007); The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (1997), I dipped into The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (1992), chuckled through and grudgingly agreed with Anna Quindlen in Newsweek’s The Last Word (Feb, 4, 2008) and then settled into the Lisa Wurster’s well-written perspective on the Wyeth family in The Artist’s Magazine (June 2007). It doesn’t matter so much what I read, it’s much more important that I read.

This opens a window for me into the reading mechanics of students who appear to be capable readers as they struggle with reading informational text in the classroom. In being an active reader myself, it is much easier for me to show my students what I am doing to comprehend the material. In fact, when I began reading the small philosophy book Plato and a Platypus it was a bit over my head. I had to flip to the glossary more than once and I found myself re-reading text, reading text out loud and skipping words that were used in a strange philosophical context—sort of the equivalent of the famous Clinton quote, “it depends on what your definition of “is” is.

I read aloud for my students. While I read, I tell them what strategies I am using to help me comprehend the material. This makes my thinking transparent and helps for them to see how good readers use reading strategies. I want my students to enjoy immersing themselves into worlds beyond their rural experience so I try to give them tools to use that will open up that tantalizing landscape of literary exploration. That extra two hours is time well spent. For me, it was an early start.

Pamelia Valentine is a guest blogger and teacher in the Shelton School District.

Previous Blogs:

Taking Time to Reflect

Creativity Really Does Matter

Experimenting with Class Size