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

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.

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.

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

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.

If you don't read, I don't know how to communicate with you...I can never express who I am in my own words as powerfully as my books can.

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