Reading is about meaning.
It is not about Fundations’ endless phonics rules.
Reading is about meaning.
It is not about Pathways’ Vowel Hill.
Reading is about meaning.
It is not about reading Dibel’s nonsense words.
Reading is about meaning.
It is not about timers and the number of words you can read in one minute.
Reading is about losing oneself in someone else’s words and just coming up for breath when the last word is read.
Reading is about opening windows into worlds we have never experienced and likely never would if not for reading the words written about them.
Reading is about growing ideas and deepening understandings of people and places.
Reading is about making our big world smaller and helping us find our voice and space in it.
Reading is about magic wishes and dreams and dragons and quests and bravery and values and tradition and hope.
Why can’t we let kids fall in love with what reading is instead of teaching so hard everything that reading is not?
steps in the literacy journey 
Amen!
100% agree!
Erin,
Beginning with the “all it’s not part” was so effective in your post today. And this . . .”Why can’t we let kids fall in love with what reading is instead of teaching so hard everything that reading is not?”
And yet we wonder why students sometimes groan about reading by MS. Reading has been hijacked! And love of reading needs such careful nurturing! ❤
Hee hee. I stole my format from you, Miss Fran. The one you wrote about procrastinating. 😊. Thank you for your thoughtful feedback and kind words. They made me smile.❤
Love the message and sad that the first half is happening in classrooms all over in the name of reading.