Take Reading to the Next Level with Novel Effect

I often think back to when I was teaching elementary school. Even though it was important for my students to do well in all subjects, it seemed that reading was the subject that held the key to all the others. Whatever I could do to help them learn to love reading, I was all-in for.

For example, I worked hard to make sure that I had an extensive library of books for my kids to read, and regardless of how many years I read Old Yeller aloud, I always dreaded the ending. That is, I dreaded knowing I would cry as I read the ending, no matter how many times I read it. But I also knew that my students would cry as well — some of them always did, too — and that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. There is something special that happens when you really get into a book and it make an emotional connection.