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Top 30 Donalyn Miller Quotes (2025 Update)

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Students will rise to the level of a teacher’s expectations.”

1. “Students will rise to the level of a teacher’s expectations.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Reading changes your life. Reading unlocks worlds unknown or forgotten, taking travelers around the world and through time. Reading helps you escape the confines of school and pursue your own education.”

2. “Reading changes your life. Reading unlocks worlds unknown or forgotten, taking travelers around the world and through time. Reading helps you escape the confines of school and pursue your own education.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Are the activities and assessments we use accomplishing our intended instructional goals, or are they simply what we have always done?”

3. “Are the activities and assessments we use accomplishing our intended instructional goals, or are they simply what we have always done?”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “If you ever think you have all the answers, it’s time to retire.”

4. “If you ever think you have all the answers, it’s time to retire.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Providing students with the opportunity to choose their own books to read empowers and encourages them. It strengthens their self-confidence, rewards their interests, and promotes a positive attitude toward reading by valuing the reader and giving him or her a level of control. Readers without power to make their own choices are unmotivated.”

5. “Providing students with the opportunity to choose their own books to read empowers and encourages them. It strengthens their self-confidence, rewards their interests, and promotes a positive attitude toward reading by valuing the reader and giving him or her a level of control. Readers without power to make their own choices are unmotivated.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Reading is both a cognitive and an emotional journey. I discovered that it was my job as a teacher to equip the travelers, teach them how to read a map, and show them what to do when they get lost, but ultimately, the journey is theirs alone.”

6. “Reading is both a cognitive and an emotional journey. I discovered that it was my job as a teacher to equip the travelers, teach them how to read a map, and show them what to do when they get lost, but ultimately, the journey is theirs alone.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Readers steal time to read.”

7. “Readers steal time to read.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “By middle school, students have an image of themselves as readers or nonreaders. Students who do not read see reading as a talent that they do not have rather than as an attainable skill.”

8. “By middle school, students have an image of themselves as readers or nonreaders. Students who do not read see reading as a talent that they do not have rather than as an attainable skill.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Students need to make their own choices about reading material and writing topics.”

9. “Students need to make their own choices about reading material and writing topics.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “We reduce the effectiveness of reading interventions when we don’t provide our lowest-performing students reading time and encouragement. Developing readers need more reading, not less.”

10. “We reduce the effectiveness of reading interventions when we don’t provide our lowest-performing students reading time and encouragement. Developing readers need more reading, not less.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “By believing that only some of our students will ever develop a love of books and reading, we ignore those who do not fall into books and reading on their own. We renege on our responsibility to teach students how to become self-actualized readers. We are selling our students short by believing that reading is a talent and that lifelong reading behaviors cannot be taught.”

11. “By believing that only some of our students will ever develop a love of books and reading, we ignore those who do not fall into books and reading on their own. We renege on our responsibility to teach students how to become self-actualized readers. We are selling our students short by believing that reading is a talent and that lifelong reading behaviors cannot be taught.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Professional benefits aside, I read because I love it... The noise of my life demands that I find daily solitude within the pages of my books. I can think and grow and dream. I am happier when I make time to read, and I feel stressed and anxious when I don’t read for a few days. Reading centers me.”

12. “Professional benefits aside, I read because I love it... The noise of my life demands that I find daily solitude within the pages of my books. I can think and grow and dream. I am happier when I make time to read, and I feel stressed and anxious when I don’t read for a few days. Reading centers me.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Readers are made, not born. Few students spring out of the ground fully formed as readers. They need help, and we cannot assume that they will get it from home, but they should always get it from us, their teachers.”

13. “Readers are made, not born. Few students spring out of the ground fully formed as readers. They need help, and we cannot assume that they will get it from home, but they should always get it from us, their teachers.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “The uninitiated might say that I am lost in my books, but I know I am more found than lost.”

14. “The uninitiated might say that I am lost in my books, but I know I am more found than lost.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “I think that dormant readers might become engaged readers if someone showed them that reading was engaging.”

15. “I think that dormant readers might become engaged readers if someone showed them that reading was engaging.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “I need to put forward more encouraging terms for my students than the negative popular terminology struggling and reluctant. Where is the hope in these terms? I prefer to use positive language to identify the readers in my classes. Peeking into my classroom, I see sixty different readers with individual reading preferences and abilities, but I consistently recognize three trends: developing readers, dormant readers, and underground readers.”

16. “I need to put forward more encouraging terms for my students than the negative popular terminology struggling and reluctant. Where is the hope in these terms? I prefer to use positive language to identify the readers in my classes. Peeking into my classroom, I see sixty different readers with individual reading preferences and abilities, but I consistently recognize three trends: developing readers, dormant readers, and underground readers.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Reading changes your life. Reading unlocks worlds unknown or forgotten, taking travelers around the world and through time. Reading helps you escape the confines of school and pursue your own education. Through characters – the saints and the sinners, real or imagined – reading shows you how to be a better human being.”

17. “Reading changes your life. Reading unlocks worlds unknown or forgotten, taking travelers around the world and through time. Reading helps you escape the confines of school and pursue your own education. Through characters – the saints and the sinners, real or imagined – reading shows you how to be a better human being.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Building a trusting relationship with students is easier when you expect them to do the right thing instead of assuming that they are not.”

18. “Building a trusting relationship with students is easier when you expect them to do the right thing instead of assuming that they are not.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Why aren’t adults, even teachers, reading, and what is this doing to our students?”

19. “Why aren’t adults, even teachers, reading, and what is this doing to our students?”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Without spending increasingly longer periods of time reading, they won’t build endurance as readers, either. Students need time to read and time to be readers.”

20. “Without spending increasingly longer periods of time reading, they won’t build endurance as readers, either. Students need time to read and time to be readers.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “I know from personal experience that readers lead richer lives, more lives, than those who don’t read.”

21. “I know from personal experience that readers lead richer lives, more lives, than those who don’t read.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Ten books or twenty books are not enough to instill a love of reading in students. They must choose and read many books for themselves in order to catch the reading bug. By setting the requirement as high as I do, I ensure that students must have a book going constantly. Without the need to read a book every single day to stay on top of my requirement, students would read as little as they could. They might not internalize independent reading habits if my requirement expected less from them.”

22. “Ten books or twenty books are not enough to instill a love of reading in students. They must choose and read many books for themselves in order to catch the reading bug. By setting the requirement as high as I do, I ensure that students must have a book going constantly. Without the need to read a book every single day to stay on top of my requirement, students would read as little as they could. They might not internalize independent reading habits if my requirement expected less from them.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “We don’t need to have just one favorite. We keep adding favorites. Our favorite book is always the book that speaks most directly to us at a particular stage in our lives. And our lives change. We have other favorites that give us what we most need at that particular time. But we never lose the old favorites. They’re always with us. We just sort of accumulate them. – Lloyd Alexander.”

23. “We don’t need to have just one favorite. We keep adding favorites. Our favorite book is always the book that speaks most directly to us at a particular stage in our lives. And our lives change. We have other favorites that give us what we most need at that particular time. But we never lose the old favorites. They’re always with us. We just sort of accumulate them. – Lloyd Alexander.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Embracing their inner reader starts with students selecting their own books to read. The freedom is not a future, perhaps-by-spring goal for them, but our first accomplishment as a class. Why does choice matter? Providing students with the opportunity to choose strengthens their self-confidence, rewards their interests, and promotes a positive attitude toward reading by valuing the reader and giving him or her a level of control. Readers without power to make their own choices are unmotivated.”

24. “Embracing their inner reader starts with students selecting their own books to read. The freedom is not a future, perhaps-by-spring goal for them, but our first accomplishment as a class. Why does choice matter? Providing students with the opportunity to choose strengthens their self-confidence, rewards their interests, and promotes a positive attitude toward reading by valuing the reader and giving him or her a level of control. Readers without power to make their own choices are unmotivated.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “When my principal interviews candidates for a teaching position at my school, regardless of whether it’s a language arts position, he always asks them to discuss the last book they read.”

25. “When my principal interviews candidates for a teaching position at my school, regardless of whether it’s a language arts position, he always asks them to discuss the last book they read.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “If we want children to see reading as anything more than a school job, we must give them the chance to choose their own books and develop personal connections to reading, or they never will.”

26. “If we want children to see reading as anything more than a school job, we must give them the chance to choose their own books and develop personal connections to reading, or they never will.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “This is what I want for my students, to lose and find themselves in books.”

27. “This is what I want for my students, to lose and find themselves in books.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “This is how I show my students that I love them – by putting books in their hands, by noticing what they are about, and finding books that tell them, “I know. I know. I know how it is. I know who you are, and even though we may never speak of it, read this book, and know that I understand you.” We speak in this language of books passing back and forth, books that say, “You are a dreamer; read this.” “You are hurting inside; read this.” “You need a good laugh; read this.”

28. “This is how I show my students that I love them – by putting books in their hands, by noticing what they are about, and finding books that tell them, “I know. I know. I know how it is. I know who you are, and even though we may never speak of it, read this book, and know that I understand you.” We speak in this language of books passing back and forth, books that say, “You are a dreamer; read this.” “You are hurting inside; read this.” “You need a good laugh; read this.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Instead of standing on a stage each day, dispensing knowledge to my young charges, I should guide them as they approach their own understandings.”

29. “Instead of standing on a stage each day, dispensing knowledge to my young charges, I should guide them as they approach their own understandings.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Consuming a literary diet built exclusively on the classics does not provide students with the opportunity to investigate their own personal tastes in reading material and narrows their perspective of reading to the school task of hyper-analyzing literature. There needs to be a balance between the need to teach students about literature and the need to facilitate their growth as life readers.”

30. “Consuming a literary diet built exclusively on the classics does not provide students with the opportunity to investigate their own personal tastes in reading material and narrows their perspective of reading to the school task of hyper-analyzing literature. There needs to be a balance between the need to teach students about literature and the need to facilitate their growth as life readers.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “Every book begins and ends with other people- the readers who suggest the book to us and encourage us to read it, the talented author who crafted each word, the fascinating individuals we meet inside the pages- and the readers we discuss and share the book with when we finish.”

31. “Every book begins and ends with other people- the readers who suggest the book to us and encourage us to read it, the talented author who crafted each word, the fascinating individuals we meet inside the pages- and the readers we discuss and share the book with when we finish.”

— Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller Quote: “As legendary musician Charlie Parker said, “If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.”

32. “As legendary musician Charlie Parker said, “If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.”

— Donalyn Miller

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