Independent Reading Myth #5--I have to cover all this literature {Teach}

Myth #5--I don't have the time.  We have all this literature we have to "cover."

I have too much to cover.   This perception of English Language Arts in the high school classroom makes me shudder-- only because I can hear my own voice echoing its sentiment.  In the course of the year I need to get my students through the Federalist Papers, The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible, Huckleberry Finn, Great Gatsby, AND a full research paper!

I feel your pain!  There is little we can do to remedy the sheer amount of literature we are expected to teach in the upper-level courses (except maybe volunteer for the curriculum writing committee).  But, I am a firm believer of teaching narrow and teaching deep.  

There are creative and intuitive ways around and through the length and density of some literature, allowing time for students to truly develop as life-long readers.  I have sacrified Hawthorne to make room for Conrad, Collins, and Draper.  And I have even found ways to bring them all together.  Balancing the canon and young adult literature can be done, it is a lot of fun, and your students will be the better for it!

There are a few practices I've adopted and adapted over the years that have helped me achieve an acceptable balance;  two such practices saved me from a most regrettable pattern:  killing the story.  

To begin with, we (the literature lover in all of us) need to let go of teaching everything in a novel.  I, personally, loved my literature classes where we came in and the professor engaged us in a discussion about the week's reading, uncovering all of the hidden elements, characterization, theme, and symbols.  It goes back to the question, "Why do we teach literature?"  When was the last time you asked yourself why you use a particular title in your class and whether or not that time could be spent on building a community of readers?  In my English heart, I teach literature for the enduring story.  

It was a tough decision at first, determining which element to focus on.  I tried to choose no more than three elements that we could really dig into over the course of the novel study.  By narrowing my focus and teaching in depth, my students were able to focus on the enjoyment of the story.  All craftmanship and literary expertise aside, it's the story that makes great literature great. During The Crucible we focused solely on character analysis, which of course ended up in a terrific examination of theme.  Students chose which character they would "dissect" early in the play.  There were no surprises or "gotchas."  The expectations were clear and reading and writing support was in place so that students could read without fear of a looming test or on-demand essay. 

I learend to let go of my highlighter and annotations, and then I learned to shape my students' reading experience as a filmmaker.  Think of a cinematographer in a film.  He must decide, with the director's input, where to zoom-in tightly to focus on a detail in the scene or actor's reaction and when to zoom-out to provide the audience with a broader understanding of the scene, context, or event unfolding.  This is how I approach my longer texts and novels.  With the author's guidance, I consider the story line first.  One of my most regrettable teaching sins is having spent six weeks teaching my students To Kill a Mockingbird (this went on for longer than I care to share).  My chapter-by-chapter reading guides were excellent!  Vocabulary was carefully aligned with the current chapters, and all of my reading quizzes were exact.

I couldn't understand why after such an extensive and intensive examination of my favorite text, they didn't connect to it at all and breathed heavy sighs of relief as soon as the last sentence was read.  By teaching every literary element, analyzing characters to death, and continually asking them to ponder theme after theme, I had killed the story.  Ever heard of how in baking there's such a thing as kneading the bread too much?  My student's gluten strands had snapped back in chapter 13 and there inner readers were a goopy mess.  

I discovered, slowly, that my first responsibility was to the story.  Thinking in terms of film helped me to consider places in the novel where I could zoom-out to show a bigger picture or provide a context.  Zooming out might mean a shared reading where I read to the students as they followed, with no during-reading activities and very light after-reading.  It might look like assigning a particularly engaging section to students to read independently once I was certain I had supported everything they would need in class to understand and enjoy it at home.  I even employed film adaptation, graphic novel, and artwork to perserve the story but move our exploration along.  

I planned ahead of time where we would slow down, zoom-in, and take a closer look.  Oftentimes, these were key milestones in a character's journey or plot.  If our literary focus was on tone, as it was in The Scarlet Letter, we would use multiple draft reading (Gallagher) to re-examine as discovery.  Zooming in provided the scaffolding for my students to become analytical readers while enjoying reading.  

When I began to carefully craft our exploration of a novel, I found that instructional time opened up for me.  I had time to book talk, read aloud, and even share excerpts from young adult literature that connected with the traditional literature we were studying.  

While reading The Great Gatsby we took some time to enjoy selections from Gordan Korman's retelling, Jake, Reinvented.  As Hester suffered in silence at the hands of the hypocrisy of her town, we listened to the experiences of a high school rape victim, ostracized by her school in Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak.  Oh, the magic that happens for your students when they begin to experience and find the connections themselves!  Had I not learned to edit, zoom-out, fast-forward, and zoom-in, we never would have had the time for those moments.  

My usual response to the colleague who pleads with me, "how can I possibly add one more thing to my plate?"  is "how can you not?"  When the truth is that by adding independent reading to your daily routine not only builds fluency and reading habits, thereby allowing you to let go of practices that might not be as efficient,  but as a regular practice it further develops:

1) vocabulary

2)  critical reading/ thinking

3)  writing

4)  focus and attention

5)  stamina

6)  comprehension

7)  self-worth and efficacy as a reader

8)  sheert enjoyment of reading!

How can you not?  

Independent Reading Myth #4--It'll mean more time for me...{Teach}

Myth #4--It'll mean more time spent on grading poster and book reports or messing with those leveled reading programs.

Oh, the poster project.  The book report.  The book summary followed by the tic-tac-toe assignment and endless CDs of soundtracks all dedicated to Edward Cullen. I've been there and sometimes I feel like it never leaves me.  

And what about those leveled programs we see so neatly packaged by lexile?  First of all, how do you know your students' true lexile scores?  From the state's standardized text score from last year's test?  Second of all, is there a magical button students press where the leveled program takes into account their reading interests as well as their reading ability?  Nope.  That's called a teacher, folks.  

Here's a secret to independent reading....you don't have to assign a major grade to it every grading period or rely on a strict program to hold students accountable.  Shocker, I know!

When SSR is integrated as a daily routine and students are encouraged to talk about and write in response to what they read after seeing it modeled by you, they will actually do it!  There’s no magical formula folks.  Allow students time and freedom to read for pleasure + read in front of and with your kids + model how readers think, write, and talk about what they read= students who read independently chosen texts AND talk to other readers about what they read (audible gasp)!

Am I oversimplifying the issue?  Yes, I am.  Unfortunately, most students need more external motivation than the pleasure of talk to other readers in the beginning,  which is why I started to integrated reader responses into my writer's notebook requirements.  If students are responsible for 20 entries for a grading period, 5 of those are expected to be in response to what they are reading.  

I'll even sneak an actual assignment (low-stakes) into the mix such as identifying and exploring the tone, mood, theme, or even characters.  We dabble in creative responses to literature in the form of reader's theatre scripts and found poems.  But, it's always an invitation to play.  I find that my students' responses to the texts they read for pleasure are much more insightful and analytical than those more traditional texts we often assign them to read in the name of rigor. 

There is still a time and place for cumulating projects.  Instead of book reports or soundtracks, my students read, analyze, and craft their own reviews to post to goodreads.com or a book trailer to post to youtube.  Because that's what readers do when moved by a text.  Formative assessments include their reader response entries, which I do read each grading period, and reading conferences, where the meat of their experiences are brought to the surface. 

Is there a time investment at first?  Most definitely.  When I consider practices to adopt or discard, I think of it in terms of investment.  What will the initial cost be versus the ultimate pay-off or return?  When it comes to independent reading, the return is well worth anything you put into it.  Independent reading saves me time.  Rather than creating individual vocabulary, reading, analysis, and writing tasks for my students, I spend that time browsing new books, talking to students about what they are reading, and investing in the reading habits that will continue to develop vocabulary, writing, comprehension, and critical thinking far after they leave my room.  That's more than any grammar workbook or novel reading guide has ever done for me or my students. 

 

Independent Reading Myth #2--I have to know a lot about YA literature {Teach}

Myth #2--I have to know a lot about YA literature.

Let's face it; we can't all be Book Whisperers (nod to esteemed colleague and friend Donalyn Miller).  The life of an English teacher usually involves hours bent over essays or perusing the same classical text we've taught for the umpteenth time.  When am I supposed to have time to read something for fun let alone books for teens?    

I don't expect every high school teacher to be a card carrying member of the American Library Association, dedicated to each new issue of School Library Journal.  When I first introduced independent reading or Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) into my classroom routine, I had a grand total of 15 books sitting on the shelf,  five of which were in the Harry Potter series.  

It doesn't matter where you start as long as you start somewhere.  I don't care if it's The Hunger Games or even Twilight.  If your students start to see you as a reader, then they will begin to see that reading has value.

You may not know much about YA when you begin, but by the end of the first month you will have more book recommendations from students, blogs, and your librarian then you know where to make your reading piles.  Until then, here are a few sites to feed your new-found literary habit:

1)  Goodreads.com--a social site that allows users to build shelves (to-be read, reading, read) and organize their reading lists, browe new titles, connect with readers and authors, and rate and review their books. 

2) Teachmentortexts.com--a blog by two teachers who are devoted to sharing books they read that promote all areas of literacy.  The books are reviewed and can be filtered by literacy strand that the bloggers see an opportunity for classroom use as a mentor text.  Using current, exciting young adult literature to teach literacy!  How novel!

3)  YouTube--A simple search for "young adult book trailers" will produce gobs and gobs of professional and fan-made book trailers.  Bre sure to preview trailers before showing them to kids as the quality and content may not always be suitable for classroom use.

4)  Barnes and Noble/ Amazon--both bookseller's sites have a section for young adult literature, recommendations, reviews, and lists.  Warning:  do not auto-fill your credit card info before browsing as purchasing all the wonderful titles you find becomes very addicting and "just one more book" becomes two boxes full of hardbacks delivered by your local FedEx truck!

5)  Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)--www.ala.org/yalsa  A division of ALA devoted to young adult teachers, librarians, and readers, this organization provides several useful top ten lists compiled by teens themselves.

6)  Figment.com--Here we have another social media site where users can be readers and writers.  There are forums for writers to publish their own work on the site and to browse other user's writings.  On the reading side, Figment posts latest book news, trailers, author interviews, and reviews. 

A thriving reading community is dependent upon authentic reading role-models.  As the facilitator of the community, the time that you invest in reading in front of your kids and talking about what you are raeding, the more gains you will see in their level of interest. 

I may never be the kind of reader I imagine in my head; I read much more slowly than some might imagine.  Unlike my colleagues, I can't race through a 400-page novel in one Sunday afternoon.  I don't know if I'll ever read ALL of the Newbery books or complete a hundred book challenge.  But, I do know that if I never try, then not only will I never be that reader, but neither will my students. 

How did you make that reading leap?  What book re-invented you as a reader?

 

Happy reading!

 

Audrey

Insurgent by Veronica Roth {Read}

Originally written for nerdybookclub.wordpress.com on May 23rd, 2012

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love (Goodreads.com). What would you choose if you only had one choice:  bravery, honesty, selflessness, knowledge, or peace?  If all of your actions, your relationships, your being were to be determined by only one of these traits, what would be your choice?? 

The futuristic society of Veronica Roth’s Divergent has determined that the one way to combat the darkness of human nature is to divide itself into five factions, each faction devoted to one of the pre-determined necessary human qualities. Sixteen-year old Beatrice (Tris) Prior’s journey begins with a choosing ceremony.  (Sound familiar?) Unlike her peers, Tris has a much broader spectrum of who she could become.  Her choice takes her to a foreign world on the other side of the tracks in downtown Chicago where there’s a fine line between bravery and bullying, courage and cowardice. 

Suddenly, she finds herself at the center of a social and political civil war.  As Divergent closes we find ourselves speeding away on a train through the heart of Chicago seeking sanctuary from those who once stood by Tris, protected her,  glowing in the warmth of her new-found relationship with fellow Dauntless, Four,  and  suspended as  she yearns for redemption from her overwhelming guilt.

Insurgent is a remarkable exploration of human nature and motivation.  It’s an experiment in societal reform.  When society has so divided itself that it can no longer function as a cohesive organism what happens to those who have been abused and their abusers?     As the consequences of her fatal choice in Divergent fall like dominoes, faster than she can process, her dearest relationships are endangered;  her self-searching and determination to understand the truth about who she is at the foreground of a crumbling societey. 

True to many other “seconds” in a series, I found myself spending a painful amount of time teetering at the edge of our hero’s abyss.   In the first installation, we walk with Beatrice through the threshold (Divergent fans recall Tris catapulting herself from a rooftop) as she finds a loyal band of followers and undergoes a series of tests and trials as part of her initiation.  Once her quest is determined in Insurgent, other figures emerge as part of the dystopian landscape: the evil figure with the untimely good heart, the temptress, even death and rebirth.  As her plunge into the abyss drawers nearer, she must go deeper and deeper into her most fearsome landscape-- her own soul-- in order to proceed with her journey of self-discovery.

It is impossible to ignore the similarities between Tris Prior, Katniss Everdeen, Harry Potter, Todd Hewitt, Cassia Reyes and countless other YA sci-fi/ fantasy heroes, teens teetering at the edge of their own awakening to their true powers.  Every one of their societies is fighting to analyze, sort, and label who they will become.  The societies and settings, too, bare familiarities leading me to believe that Gale or Katniss will suddenly appear, running alongside the train with Four and the other Dauntless.  I hear Manchee’s searching “Todd?” from under some discarded street rubble.  At any moment, I expect Hermione to pop out of the Erudite crowd, toting a long lost volume that holds the key to what really lies outside of the fence. 

And so, as I sprinted through the final chapter and the shadows on the wall were revealed to me as they are revealed during the jaw-dropping finale, I couldn’t help but wonder …Why are we so drawn to adolescent heroes who are standing on a precipice, waiting and daring to take such a leap, whether it be bravery or curiosity that compels them?

 There is no denying the sudden rise in popularity of dystopian literature.  A recent Goodreads blog examined the growing trend in popularity of dystopian novels and described its over-arching themes over the last 50 years.  The blogger labels this latest explosion (The Hunger Games, Matched, Diverent) as “Romance” Dystopian and sites such inspirations as 9/11, War on Terrorism, and the prevalence of pop culture.  Tough heroines and anti-conformity drive these stories. 

After reading Divergent and now Insurgent, I am taken back to an Erudite’s explanation,

“Insurgent,” he says.  “Noun.  A person who acts in opposition to the established authority, who is not necessarily regarded as a belligerent. “ 

Do I hear anti-conformity?  Oh , yes.  But I think it extends beyond being radical, to being purposeful.  In a futuristic society where every member knows his or her purpose as it is handed down to him or her, where does that leave free-will?  As a constructivist, this resonates with me.  As information is funneled into our teens (as it so often is at many bytes per minute), they are persistently bombarded with labels, categories, and profiles, what choices then are left to them to determine what their truth is? 

Are we--all of us as educators, librarians, readers--not all insurgent, seeking truth for ourselves and then deciding how we will assimilate that truth into who we are and what motivates us?

Are teens devouring dystopian literature for their love triangles and star-crossed lovers?  Yes, probably.  But, are they also entering a landscape of their own fears, beliefs, doubts, and dreams in order to choose what they will take with them as they emerge from their own abyss and cross the impending threshold into adulthood?  Absolutely!

Official book trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/NqfvAyuxPeU 

This is Audrey’s second post for Nerdy Book Club.  She is still the mother of a fantastic, nerdy little boy who can read Tigger over and over again, ready to wave “bye-bye” on the last page every time.  She is still an advocate of creating brilliant reading communities that allow for choice, identity, and risk-taking in the high school classroom.  And she is now and forever, insurgent.   Follow her blog at www.readwriteteachlearn.blogspot.com.