A reader is anyone who reads. A reader reads picture books, novels of words and graphics, magazines, cereal boxes, newspapers, social media posts and anything covered with words. A reader can read for information, entertainment and survival. Anyone can be a reader.
If a reader is reading they are not a bad reader. Only people who refuse to read are bad readers. Anyone who honestly dives into a catalog of words is a good reader. Real-life readers read to survive and operate in a modern world. Classroom readers often think they only read because they are being told to read or they need to for a grade. I want to demolish this mindset and teach students to read for themselves. Reading becomes enjoyable, even fun, when you are reading to please yourself and no one else.
If I want my students to be avid readers years after they leave my classroom, I need to plant the seed for the love of reading in them. I want to inspire students to read for themselves so they can use those reading skills to go out and learn what they want to learn. Then they can take what they learn to be happy and make the world a better place.
Readers don’t have to be fluent or intelligent or studious or know-it-alls or high-ability. Carrying around big books or talking about them all the time or rereading them does not make someone a good reader (but it doesn’t detract either). A reader reads.
literature&learning 
I love this so much Mary Anne! I really loved the lines, “If the reader is reading they are not a bad reader. Only people who refuse to read are bad readers.” I love that so much! If I were you, I would totally put this somewhere in your classroom. It’s so true and I think it would really resonate with a lot of your students – especially the ones who are hesitant readers. I love the fact that you say reading doesn’t always have to be the way that we think it is. You don’t have to read big books to be a reader and I truly love that. Thanks for the pick me up!
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