Donalyn Ex Quotes & Sayings

Reading shows us how to be better human beings, not just successful worker bees. — Donalyn Miller

By middle school, students have an image of themselves as readers or nonreaders. Students who do not read see reading as a talent that they do not have rather than as an attainable skill. — Donalyn Miller

Books are love letters (or apologies) passed between us, adding a layer of conversation beyond our spoken words. — Donalyn Miller

By believing that only some of our students will ever develop a love of books and reading, we ignore those who do not fall into books and reading on their own. We renege on our responsibility to teach students how to become self-actualized readers. We are selling our students short by believing that reading is a talent and that lifelong reading behaviors cannot be taught. — Donalyn Miller

Are the activities and assessments we use accomplishing our intended instructional goals, or are they simply what we have always done? — Donalyn Miller

Providing students with the opportunity to choose their own books to read empowers and encourages them. It strengthens their self-confidence, rewards their interests, and promotes a positive attitude toward reading by valuing the reader and giving him or her a level of control. Readers without power — Donalyn Miller

When my principal interviews candidates for a teaching position at my school, regardless of whether it's a language arts position, he always asks them to discuss the last book they read. — Donalyn Miller

Exposing students to lots of books and positive reading experiences while building a network of other readers who support each other provides students with tools that last beyond the classroom setting. — Donalyn Miller

A classroom atmosphere that promotes reading does not come from the furniture and its placement as much as it comes from the teacher's expectation that students will read. — Donalyn Miller

Instead of standing on a stage each day, dispensing knowledge to my young charges, I should guide them as they approach their own understandings. — Donalyn Miller

Readers are made, not born. Few students spring out of the ground fully formed as readers. They need help, and we cannot assume that they will get it from home, but they should always get it from us, their teachers. — Donalyn Miller

Readers enjoy talking about books almost as much as they like reading. — Donalyn Miller

I realized that every lesson, conference, response, and assignment I taught must lead students away from me and toward their autonomy as literate people. — Donalyn Miller

We have created a culture of reading poverty in which a vicious cycle of aliteracy has the potential to devolve into illiteracy for many students. By allowing students to pass through our classrooms without learning to love reading, we are creating adults (who then become parents and teachers) who don't read much. They may be capable of reading well enough to perform academic and informational reading, but they do not love to read and have few life reading habits to model for children. — Donalyn Miller

The Sixth Grade Nickname Game, by Gordon Korman, — Donalyn Miller

Students will rise to the level of a teacher's expectations. — Donalyn Miller

I think that dormant readers might become engaged readers if someone showed them that reading was engaging. — Donalyn Miller

Every book begins and ends with other people- the readers who suggest the book to us and encourage us to read it, the talented author who crafted each word, the fascinating individuals we meet inside the pages- and the readers we discuss and share the book with when we finish. — Donalyn Miller

As Stephen Krashen and Joanne Ujiie (2005) assert, "Many people are fearful that if children engage in 'light reading,' if they read comics and magazines they will stay with this kind of reading forever, that they will never go on to more 'serious' reading. The opposite appears to be the case. The evidence suggests that light reading provides the competence and motivation to continue reading and to read more demanding texts" (p. 6). — Donalyn Miller

Failing to graduate a populace that values reading has long-term consequences for everyone. — Donalyn Miller

If you ever think you have all the answers, it's time to retire. — Donalyn Miller

No matter the intervention, developing readers must spend substantial instructional time actually reading if they are to attain reading competence. — Donalyn Miller

I need to put forward more encouraging terms for my students than the negative popular terminology struggling and reluctant. Where is the hope in these terms? I prefer to use positive language to identify the readers in my classes. Peeking into my classroom, I see sixty different readers with individual reading preferences and abilities, but I consistently recognize three trends: developing readers, dormant readers, and underground readers. — Donalyn Miller

Students will read if we give them the books, the time, and the enthusiastic encouragement to do so. If we make them wait for the one unit a year in which they are allowed to choose their own books and become readers, they may never read at all. To keep our students reading, we have to let them. — Donalyn Miller

I don't believe some teachers consider whether their classroom instruction fosters the development of reading habits in their students. Reflecting on the landslide of crossword puzzles, dioramas, annotations, and reading logs assigned to their students for every book they read, teachers might realize that instead of encouraging students to read, these mindless assignments make kids hate reading. Primarily assigned to generate grades and give teachers a false sense that they are holding students accountable for reading, these counterfeit activities - that no wild reader completes on his or her own - guarantee that their students will avoid reading. If we care about our students' reading lives, we must foster their lifelong reading habits and eliminate or reduce the negative influences of classroom practices that don't align with what wild readers do. — Donalyn Miller

The uninitiated might say that I am lost in my books, but I know I am more found than lost. — Donalyn Miller

Although I enjoy digging through the library to help students find books, my aim is to help them develop self-confidence in choosing books for themselves. — Donalyn Miller

If we value all readers, we must value all reading. — Donalyn Miller

The most effective reading teachers are teachers who read. According to Morrison, Jacobs, and Swinyard (1999), "Perhaps the most influential teacher behavior to influence students' literacy development is personal reading, both in and out of school" (p. 81). — Donalyn Miller

Why aren't adults, even teachers, reading, and what is this doing to our students? — Donalyn Miller