Reading is not optional....

This is a sign that I have posted in my classroom.  The beginning of the year kids laugh and scoff at this sign, but by the end of the year, my hope is that kids understand the impact of being illiterate.  I thought the survey we had to do for the NYT was kind of hard.  It was hard to think of everything that I've read or looked at to read.  It was really important for me to see that I do read a lot during the day, even if it is just a couple sentences.  I think I will implement something like this for my students to really open their eyes too, and see that reading is not optional.  I think back to my grandpa who quit school after the 8th grade, simply because he hated school and it was legal back then.  The effect this choice has had on his life has been huge.  He constantly told my dad that he had to finish school and that my dad had to go to college.  My grandfather didn't have a bad life, but he always says it would have been so much different if he had finished high school.  The biggest lesson I think he learned was that literacy is important.  My grandpa hated reading which made everything else so hard.  I think if classes were taught like they are now, with student interests in mind, I think the outcome may have been different.  It really gets to me when students say they don't like reading.  My response to them is "you're not reading the right stuff."  I have told so many parents that it doesn't matter what kids read at home, magazines, graphic novels, nonfiction books, articles online, etc, as long as they are actively engaging in reading content.  No matter what kind of job a kid wants to get, or what kind of goals they have in life, students will always need to read.  My biggest hope is that by the end of my class, they see that reading really is not optional, it is something that a person does a million times every day.