How to Make Reading Meaningful for Students

The Broken Copier began a little over three years ago with a very simple idea: we wanted to uplift the type of conversations that happen so often between teachers in the margins of the school day: in the hallway between classes; in each other’s classrooms after the school day ends; in the faculty lounge while trying to collaboratively finagle a solution to far-too-frequently broken copiers.

This is exactly one of those conversations.

Lisa Gates is a retired high school English instructor with 34 years of teaching experience who just cannot just seem to quit teaching. Currently, she works as an Instructional Mentor supporting early-career classroom teachers in Virginia and also supervises teaching interns for the University of Mary Washington.

In other words, Lisa is literally a teacher’s teacher.

This conversation dives into the joys of what reading can be in the secondary classroom as well as the challenges, with Lisa sharing observations from her own career teaching as well as what she is noticing now that she is in many classrooms supporting teachers. This is a conversation that goes a lot of directions, but at its heart is driven by a love of reading and, more importantly, a deep belief in a student-centered classroom and the work it takes to make that possible.

Some points of reference from the conversation:

* The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera

* Critical Encounters in Secondary English by Deborah Appleman

* “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors” by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop

* #SundayMacbethChat on Bluesky Homepage

Thanks, as always, to Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; and Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden.

* Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.

* Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro.

You can email us here with feedback or any other questions as well: thebrokencopier@substack.com.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com