ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the relationship between English language arts (ELA) teachers’ personal reading and their teaching is poorly understood and ought to be attended to more carefully and systematically in teacher preparation and teacher development. For ELA teachers, a common way to express their affinity and feelings of competence about their chosen subject is by talking about how much they enjoy reading. A useful way to explore these issues is by placing them in the context of Shulman’s work on teacher knowledge. The process of helping teachers explore their own reading need not be complex. A prospective science teacher has generally spent many hours as a student participating in laboratory-based instruction in secondary school and college, as well as learning about the principles of such teaching in their science education courses. The same is true for prospective English teachers.
