Every school day, at the end of the day, I “teach” a brief, 25-minute class.  It’s intended as a check-in period before kids are sent home for the day.  Are your due-dates organized?  Do you have your materials?  Do you need help with anything?

If not, then go ahead and read.

This particular class of middle-schoolers loves to read.  LOVES TO READ.  They also love to write.  They’ve actually decided that they want to use the daily 25-minute check-in period as a celebration of reading and writing stories.  Mondays, we do inspiration and read alouds.  Tuesdays are for creative writing.  Wednesdays, they have book club time.  Thursdays, we have 2-minute book talks, and the kids pitch their favorite books to each other.

These are all their own ideas.  This is how they have elected to spend this time. 
Needless to say, I adore this class.  And because I adore them, I read this Rainbow Rowell article to them this week, for Monday inspiration.  They were super into it, because they recognized themselves in her description. 

There is something very special about having a relationship with students that is built on loving books.  Because when one of them holds up The Fault in Our Stars and says to me, “Have you read this?” and I say, “Not yet, I’m scared to cry,” and she says, “I cried like twelve times, but you have to read it!” – when that conversation happens, I’m not an adult anymore, and she’s not a kid.  The boxes around us vanish, and we’re just two people who love books, reaching across the divide to say Hello.  I am like you.  We are the same. 

Read this with me.