Book Overview

Lorraine Wilson makes it clear that literacy should focus on many important aspects that will enrich students’ lives and encourage them to become lifelong readers.  Her book, Reading to Live, covers many topics related to the framing questions for our course this summer.  She presents the information in a very reader friendly format and lists numerous strategies that will help future educators aim for success in their classrooms.

A theme that recurred in my mind while reading this book was the importance of teaching both reading and writing together as a functional program that will allow students to witness the positive benefits each and every step of the way.  This condition in which both depend on each other to communicate and progress as learners was a valuable concept that I took from her ideas and philosophies in regards to literacy.  She proved to me that people become literate at a greater rate when they can see the necessity of acquiring this skill along with the freedom to explore and be creative at the same time.

The four practice model reiterated in her book was an eye opening way of understanding how there are multiple dimensions to become literate.  This model also is vital in allowing the teacher to witness the struggles a student might have with one or many of the practices to become proficient readers and writers.  Before reading her text I never thought about how important it is to enter the text, make meaning, find purpose, as well as becoming a text analyst.  She constantly reminds the reader that these skills will almost always overlap and that they will hardly ever follow a traditional structured sequential format.  I couldn’t agree more because it made me aware of how learning anything in life is never a step by step process, especially in social environments.  With that being said, It ultimately made me cognizant of how important it will be as a teacher to always keep this in mind and remember this four practice model.

I feel this book will aid my career as a physical educator because, contrary to popular belief, there are many opportunities in my field to use literary devices to aid my pedagogy.  We live in a world where children are becoming obese and developing preventable health diseases at younger ages.  This means that it is the physical education teacher’s job to provide information and studies to fight this plague in our nation.  A great way to do this, besides all the motor skill and practical application, is to begin with reading and writing about these major issues and to develop lessons and exercise prescriptions along with nutritional documents.  Reading and writing are essential tools to keep this awareness alive for all of our students!

-Colin Johnson