What is Reading?

Last week, we participated in a very important study during Readers' Workshop. We asked ourselves this question - What is reading? To begin this study, each student responded to the question in his or her reading notebook. We then spent 3 days reading different picture books that offer us new perspectives on what happens when we read. After each picture book, we'd ask ourselves - How is my idea of reading changing? At the end of our study, students wrote their new definition of reading, adding in the new ideas and perspectives learned in our study. Here is how Coco responded in her reading notebook at the end of our study:

Reading is lots of things. It especially makes you think. The "easy" books can especially make you think the hardest. I thought that reading was something else, but it's not. You have to think ahead and you have to figure it out. And if there's a problem, try to figure out the problem. Make a solution. Reading is many things, but you always think when you do it.

I was so proud of Coco's change of thinking! I'm glad that her (and her classmates') definition of reading has expanded. Reading IS thinking!