Text-rich Environments

After two years of reading research about text-rich environments and classroom libraries, I still do not think I fully grasped the importance of having text surrounding you day after day.  Then, I had Aiden; there is now a book for him in every single room in our house.  He runs to any book, grabs it, and will sit down to "read".  Because of his options, he does not need to look far to find a good book.

However, I witnessed another example of this today.  My newly-retired mother-in-law came over to watch Aiden today while I popped in to school for a quick meeting in the afternoon.  Unfortunately/fortunately, my mother-in-law came right as Aiden was ready to go down for his nap, so she had two-hours with nothing to do.  She found the book I was currently reading, American Street, on my kitchen counter, so she picked it up and started reading.  Over 100 pages later, she found herself hooked.  When I came home, the first thing she asked was if she could borrow the book when I was finished.  Yes.  Always yes.  I did not have to talk about the book to get her interested.  She simply saw the book, picked it up, and started reading.  Now, I completely understand that this is not the normal behavior of a high school student, especially if they had free wifi available.  However, I also know that this would not have happened if the book was not just lying out for my mother-in-law to see.  How do we create more of these situations in every day life and within our classrooms?  How do we set up these opportunities for others who may be looking for something to just take up some time?  We need to have books ready at any time because who knows when that moment will happen where someone finally has time to pick up a book.  We need to be ready.

I have also decided that I am the worst book critic EVER because I love every single book, and American Street by Ibi Zoboi is no different.  I really enjoyed this book and the main character who is an immigrant from Haiti.  The story starts with the main character, Fabiola, and her mother coming to the United States to live with her Aunt and three cousins.  At customs, her mother gets stopped, and Fabiola gets sent on to stay with her relatives.  The plot develops as Fabiola needs to learn how to live in Detroit, Michigan while wondering what will happen to her mother.  The conflicts in this novel bring up some tough issues that deal with abusive relationships (boyfriend/girlfriend), drugs, gang violence, deportation, and the conflicts that develop in different types of relationships that Fabiola has.  The end of the book is realistic in that it's not just some happy-ending and everything is fixed.  I left this book feeling sad for the characters that still had to keep on living even after all of the tragedy.  I would be careful in recommending this book to high school students, and I would definitely want to know the student well before suggesting this one.  On the other hand, I love that it is a quick read with short chapters which I always think is appealing for high school students.

Next up is Choice Words by Peter Johnston.  This is a "school" book, and I'm already desperately wanting to read another YA book.  I may have to head to library to start finding some other YA titles that I have been wanting to read or at least books to scatter around my house to encourage others who visit to pick a book to read. 😀