You know you’re a college student when the thought of summer approaching makes you both excited and terrified at the same time. I almost have my freedom….just gotta make it through finals! While I may have fewer textbook pages to suffer through this summer, it doesn’t mean I should abandon reading altogether. As much as I’d like my answer to be, “read more”, I know that’s not a very specific goal, and isn’t going to be what keeps me reading when it’s no longer my homework. This means it’s time to get serious and set a goal for myself…Channel my inner Rory if you will!
What do I want my goal to be? I read about Donalyn Miller’s #bookaday challenge. While I admire her ambitious goal, I know it’s not the most realistic for me, given the way my summer is shaping up. I know that picture books count, but I know a daily challenge isn’t going to work for me. Instead, I want to make my goal to read one novel and two picture books each week. I’m going to be student teaching in kindergarten and 4th grade in the fall, and want to immerse myself in books that will soon be relevant to me. I plan to read slightly above and below grade level, since I know my students will not all be at grade level. I also want to continue reading YA books because I enjoy reading them! The last component I want to add to my challenge is to diversify what I read. I think that the Book Riot’s read harder challenge will help me do this. I like their challenge list because the guidelines are general enough that I could easily find a book that would fit into a category and be enjoyable. I want to alternate the weeks that I pick a book from their challenge, because I want my
My goal recapped: (because I think I just confused myself with that last paragraph!)
- Read 2 picture books and 1 novel a week (alternate the novel between early chapter books, middle grades, and YA)
- Every other week, use the Book Riot’s read harder challenge guide to make my selection.
- Keep a list of everything I read, so I stay accountable! (Just thought of that now, and it sounded like a good idea. 🙂 )
Now, I know that doesn’t include any professional reading…but hey! That will come with time. I feel like reading up on the grades I am going to be working with next fall may not professional reading, but is making a professional choice! My goal may not be super crazy, but it’s one that I’m interested in pursuing, and feel like I can hold myself accountable to. My first step: making a physical TBR list that I can reference…so if you have any must read YAs, or recommendations for grades K-4, leave them below!
Stressed, Blessed, and Coffee Obsessed 
I think you did a way better job of getting your goals into words than I did, but one thing I’ve considered doing to keep up accountability (along with the summer reading list) is to continue doing my Monday blog posts. It might be something you could try as well. I have hundreds of suggestions, but of course now that I go to write them down my mind is blank. You can check out my goodreads account though. I’d suggest any of those.
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I’ve been toying with the idea of doing Monday posts…thanks for the suggestion!
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I would like to say that I LOVE goals!! Goals are something that you can see, read and visualize and that keep you on track and give you something to focus on. I think it is extremely important for us as teachers to teach our students how to set, work towards, and meet goals at an early age and in every subject! Goals aren’t difficult to write and are something that we can write on sticky notes and stick everywhere to remind us of where we are going, why we are doing what we do, and what we are working towards!
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Agreed! There is so much power in writing something down.
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Summer is so close! It’s so crazy how it has come so quickly! I think that it is great how you have a set plan/ goal that you want read over summer. This will help so much with reading material throughout your teaching career. Reading in the school year is difficult because of the different textbooks that are assigned to read throughout the semester. Great post!
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Thanks!
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It seems we are all desiring to read at least one novel a week with some sort of small book intermission interposed in there somewhere. I have no recommendations for you but good luck on the books you chose this summer, and good luck in the fall. Happy reading.
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Setting reading goals for this summer is going to be particularly hard for me considering I will be graduating. I want nothing more than to take some much needed time off from scholastic obligations yet a part of me doesn’t want to loose the reading momentum I’ve gain this semester.
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