READING EMERGENCY: An urgent need for reading to relieve boredom, pass time, or to fulfill an assignment
In her new book, READING IN THE WILD, Donalyn Miller discusses "reading emergencies" by reminding her students, "If you don't have a book with you, you can't read even when the time presents itself. If you carry a book with you everywhere you go, you can rack up a lot of reading time during these reading emergencies."
We all know those moments of having "edge times" of waiting for the next thing to begin and wishing that you had something to read. Heck, I got through graduate school mostly by reading during edge times--while waiting for kids to emerge from sports' practices, school, friends' houses... waiting for doctors, dentists, and orthodontists... waiting for games/meets/concerts to begin, etc.
Do your students have edge times that create reading emergencies at school? The most common reading emergency at school probably occurs when a student is an early finisher of other work. Perhaps other reading emergencies present themselves, such as while waiting to enter an art or music class, the gymnasium, recess, or even during stolen moments after eating lunch?
When might reading emergencies occur in a student's life outside of the school day? I am thinking that kids and adults share many of the same reading emergency times.
But is it possible to create reading emergencies for our children?
When I was growing up, my dad would not permit the TV to be turned on until after several things had been accomplished, which included dinner, dishes, homework, and other chores. When TV time did occur, it seemed that the only thing to do was watch the evening news... and then whichever programs my parents chose on our 3 or 4 channels. On weekends and during the summers, watching TV was out of the question, so cold, Midwestern winter days just begged to be filled. Trust me, this created reading emergencies galore!
I would steal off to my room, the dining room table, or any quiet nook in our small farmhouse to read. Because of reading emergencies, I recall begging my siblings to assist me with reading my library books every single week, when new books and old favorites were faithfully carried home under my arm.
Soon, I read on my own. I saved money for books from the Scholastic book club orders, coming to love THE LITTLES and then Beverly Cleary's ELLEN TEBBITS--which led to my discovering a treasure trove of her work in the library. Ahhh, the pleasures of BEEZUS AND RAMONA, HENRY HUGGINS, RIBSY, and even OTIS SPOFFORD!
Eventually, I came to know Lucy, Mr. Tumnus, and the White Witch... never getting enough of Narnia, I read and re-read it countless times before the age of 11, even though our library's copy of THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE had lost its dust jacket and was reduced to a shabby, plain, gray-colored cloth cover.
Soon, even Santa knew my love for books, bringing by Oscar Wilde, Roald Dahl, and more. I bet I've cried for "The Selfish Giant" or the bird in "The Happy Prince" more than most people. And as for Willy Wonka, I could swear that I was as hungry as Charlie until he found that golden ticket... and I'm sure that I've been inside the chocolate factory countless times!
I was that kid who basically welcomed "assigned" readings in high school; as an avid reader, I trusted my teachers to lead me to new texts that I might not choose on my own. And so I read ANIMAL FARM, THE GREAT GATSBY, THE ODYSSEY, NATIVE SON, and A TALE OF TWO CITIES. My teachers created reading emergencies by assigning texts, and my father continued to create them by boring me with his TV viewing habits.
But all the while, I became someone who reads on my own, "in the wild."
This makes me wonder--in the world of technological devices, how do parents unplug and create reading emergencies to develop their own wild readers?
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