I wanted to post something today on a very important topic, Wide Reading. To me, Wide Reading is the new term for someone who is "well read."
Wide reading is basically reading a lot of texts throughout the year in many different genres. If you only read mainly one or two genres, you are missing out on a lot! Wide reading is challenging yourself to read stories, books, articles and texts from genres you would not normally choose to read.
When you do this, you will gain much more knowledge than you would by reading books or texts from the same genre. Some of the main things you will learn from reading widely are:
-building your vocabulary, background and academic knowledge on a wider variety of topics
-helps you understand life experiences better
-stretches your imagination further
-helps you to understand different genres- text structures, plots, characters, etc.
Below is a link to a handout I created for my students about Wide Reading. You can also find a basic genre list for fiction and non-fiction.
If you are a teacher reading this, challenge your students and yourself to read outside your favorite genres. I used to have trouble doing this- I never would have thought I'd enjoy a book about vampires- I have never had a desire to read about them. But when I opened my mind to reading other genres, I decided to read Twilight, and I LOVED it. This has happened so many times with books and genres I never thought I'd read. Keep an open mind, and find a great book from a different genre. Challenge yourself- you never know what might come of it.
If you are a parent reading this, encourage your child to read more widely- help them find books that are interesting to them in different genres. Also, if possible, let them see you reading different genres and texts. This modeling will help encourage them to do the same.
Happy Reading,
Ashley :)
