Atomic (Reading) Habits

I've picked up this book many times over the years.

Honestly, I've probably downloaded the audible too!

However, it wasn't until recently, on a trip to the library, that I checked it out, brought it home and cracked it open. 

Atomic Habits is written on the premise that small habits compound over time. 

And within the first few pages, I immediately began to take James Clear's thoughts and theories on habits…and mapped them onto reading. 

Here are a few lines I read that instantly translated for me, on how children learn to read: 

• The effects of small habits multiply as you repeat them

• Good habits make time your ally, bad habits, make time your enemy

• Breakthrough moments are often the result of many previous actions, which build up the potential for major change

• Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves

• Ultimately it's your commitment to the process that will determine your progress

• It's not about being perfect, it's about being consistent

• Active repetition

• Tiny changes fuel bigger wins and if we want better results, we need to forget about setting goals and focus on the system instead.

While LEARNING TO READ is the goal for many of the Kindergarten and 1st grade students I work with, the intention I really hold for them is to foster a love of reading. 

To build a lifelong positive relationship to reading. 

To feel motivated to pick up a book. 

To feel momentum to want to finish it. 

To find joy in the pages from start to finish. 

The GOAL is important. 

100%

But, the system and the process and the journey along the way is so much more significant. 

Building that system is what will get them reading at night or on the weekends or during the summer. 

Clear goes on to say, “in the same way money multiplies through compound interest, good habits (and the cost of bad ones) become apparent over time.”

And the same is true for reading. 

The small habits we build around literacy multiply over time. 

Similar to a pilot changing an airplane route by a few degrees, landing the plane hundreds of miles from it's destination, seemingly tiny habits with reading can also land us in an entirely new place. 

And where that plane lands and how many degrees it's shifts by is up to us. 

1% choices. 

Reading 2 books before bed instead of 1. 

Reading for 10 minutes when it used to be 5. 

Going to the library 1x/month instead of a few times a year. 

Clear goes on to explain that it doesn't matter how successful you are today…What matters is that each day you are getting 1% better. 

1%. 

Every day. 

Imagine that mapped on to your child's reading journey. 

Tiny gains. 

Over time. 

Add up to significant results. 

Like an airplane shifting trajectory, our habits, in reading, and in life, add up to big results when we are consistent (not perfect!) but consistent and committed to getting 1% better each day. 

Happy reading!

Ms. Schelzi