Holding Sacred the Time and Space for Choice in Reading

I'm taking this class, Literature for Children and Youth, as part of my school library certification coursework (I know, right!  Like, I get to read amazing picture, chapter, and young adult books for class...and get a grade!).   Every week we are assigned to choose anywhere from two to fifteen titles from an extensive list based on genre, award, topic, etc.  One week we were assigned to read four Newbery Award winners.  Another week was historical fiction, etc; then, we are supposed to blog about them.  Tough life, huh!

(part of) my TBR stash hanging out with some faves

But here's the thing...I'm getting ready to wrap up on this class.  This week is our final week of assigned reading (the topic, by the way, is banned and challenged books).  As I'm going back through my blog posts one last time and publishing them, my eyes keep wandering over to my TBR (to be read) stack on the book shelf that my excellent friend and reading mentor, Donalyn Miller, bequeathed to me last spring as she was packing up her classroom library in preparation of her move from 6th to 4th grade.  Here's a small sample of the greatness that awaits me:

• I am Arthur by Phillip Reeve
• The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
• Want to Go Private by Sarah Darer Littman
• Happy Face by Stephen Emond
• Wolves, Boys, & Other Things That Might Kill Me by Kristen Chandler
• White Cat by Holly Black
• This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel
• Witchlanders by Lena Coakley
• Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride

AND..two 2012 titles that I know are serious contenders for major awards this year:

• Wonder by R.J. Palacio
• The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

(just to name a few.  I failed to mention The Diviners by Libba Bray that I reward myself with a little bit each night before I go to sleep)

Yes, they are still on my shelf, sadly.  The thing is, I've been up to my eyeballs in graduate classes since June and do not allow myself to pull from my TBR stack until all of my assigned reading is done.  And--no matter how amazing the assigned titles are (believe me...like awesome books!)--since I did not choose them on my own from an organic, have-to-read-this-right-now kind of base place in my reading soul, my assigned books do not bring me near as much pleasure as those that I received from friends as recommendations or that I discovered on my own on Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, and review sources.

Guess where I'm going with this...

I count myself as a rather solid reader as an adult.  There's room for improvement--I could read faster, more extensively, widely.  I could read a lot more nonfiction, biography, and histories.  But on the whole...I'm not too shabby.  And even I, a strong reader, feel that the reading experiences that I choose to engage in lead to much more meaningful exchanges between myself and the book...no matter how GREAT a book may be that was assigned to me.

Now, I'm thinking about my students' reading experiences--all of them, from the alliterate, reluctant reader to my AP, advanced readers--all of them derive more pleasure, more meaning, more transformation as readers and people from the books they choose for themselves than any title I could put in front of them.

The message, folks, is simple.  There's a time and place for assigning reading.  But to grow readers--real readers, who see reading as breathing in their lives, necessary for the expansion of their lives and souls--we must hold sacred the time and place for choice in our classrooms and in our students' lives.

Happy reading,

Audrey

NCTE 2012: Classical and Current: The Hybrid High School ReadingCommunity

Classical and Current:  The Hybrid High School Reading Community

As a high school English teacher, my initial attempts at creating a thriving reading community were inspired by the type of reading community that I was most familiar with--the literature class.  There seems to be a shared experience among literature majors across universities and colleges; the community is based on the study of a canonical text, reading assigned chapters, coming to the lecture to be "filled with knowledge" regarding the Meaning of the text from the expert (aka professor), and then qualifying, defending, or denying that meaning through critical analysis.  For a literature student, there is nothing more exciting that to deconstruct a work, applying a critical lens, and then writing or talking about it in relation to Truth and Life.

For a high school student, there is nothing more tortuous than to come to class and have your (very naive) English teacher lecture to you for 45 minutes a day about what the boring book written by some dead white guy "means."  And this is where my journey to creating the conditions for a thriving reading community began.

It did not take me very long to realize that my carefully crafted reading guides, lecture notes, and essay tests were not helping me in my goals to facilitate a love of reading for my adolescent readers.  While I pondered, explored, and experimented with ways to help my students construct meaning from their reading experiences with works such as Lord of the Flies and Oedipus Rex, my administration recognized a certain fervor and energy within me and bestowed upon me a very special assignment:  the English repeat class.  My second year of teaching I was "selected" to take the freshmen English I class that consisted of students who had failed the course the first time.  

"It didn't work for them the first time, Audrey, so do something different with them."  Different.  What did I know that was different?  Luckily, that summer, a friend introduced me to a "new" author, Walter Dean Myers and this book about a teenage boy on trial for murder.  Since 95% of my students were boys and 75% of them were hispanic or black, I said, "hey, this is different" and managed to collect enough copies of Monster to spread around my classroom.  After the first day, I realized that I had found the difference that makes the difference--young adult books that engage students with stories about protagonists who they can relate to.

My little class of repeaters eventually became my first taste of what a reading community can look like in a high school English class.  Students were sharing books, talking about what they liked and didn't like, writing in response to what they read, and making meaning through Literature study.  Since then, I've heard many stories about how YA literature was first introduced to high school remedial or reluctant reader classes because they "can't handle" real literature.  At the time, I might have nodded in agreement.  Today, however, I've come to realize that YA literature IS real literature and that with an appropriate balance and reader-response based practices, ALL adolescents not only can handle the canon, but can come to see it as a part of their reading lives and communities.

As my confidence in what I was doing with YA literature grew, I began to integrate the same practices into my on-level English classrooms.  I brought YA books such as Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak into my classroom to book talk and share and even took my classes to the library to check out books.  Simply showing my students books did not ignite a love for reading, however.  I decided that because reading was not a regular habit for my students--many reported having never finished a book for pleasure on their own-- or they were just too busy to read on their own, I borrowed a  practice from my experience as an elementary student:  DEAR (Drop Everything and Read).  I started incorporating DEAR into the first five minutes of every class as my "bell-warmer" but realized almost immediately, that five minutes was not enough time to engage in a book.  

Before I could consider extending independent reading time every class period, I had to consider what I was ready to let go of.   What practices was I clinging to out of familiarity or peer pressure that I knew weren't really contributing to my students' growth as readers and writers?  I return to this question regularly to make room for the community to continue to thrive.  First on the chopping block were ten assigned vocabulary words that we would define on Monday, write sentences with on Wednesday, and quiz on Friday.  I upped our DEAR time to 15 minutes each day with a five minute reader response time and the shift in our values as a community was immediate.

A typical class period would begin with a book talk, trailer, or read aloud to introduce a new title to my class.  We, ALL, would read for 15 minutes.  Yes, I read with them.  I did not take attendance, answer my emails, or grade papers.  I settled myself in my director's chair, set my timer (because I would often stop watching the time, losing myself in my book), and read with my students.  At the end of the time, we all wrote in response to our reading.  Some days I included a mini-lesson or think aloud about my book, but most days was open for students to respond as they needed.  After DEAR, we would go on to our literature study or writing lesson.

Students were sharing books, asking for recommendations, borrowing from my collection or visiting the school and public library.  But when DEAR was over, our community seemed to take a back seat to the Literature we had to "cover."  I began to wonder, "how can I help my students find the connections and "intertextuality" between the books they love to read and the traditional texts we study?  

Isn't it amazing how the stars all seem to align at the same time?  Images, culture, events, and your own burning questions start to take shape and have momentum.  At the same time I wondered how to create bridges between my students' reading experiences with YA and traditional titles, the Prius started to become popular.  Everywhere I would see ads, hear commercials on the radio and T.V.  The Prius seemed to populate streets and highways overnight.  A hybrid vehicle:  the best of the traditional model with the efficiency and innovation of the contemporary world.  

As the Prius gained in popularity, "hybridism" seemed to be infiltrating mainstream life.  One day while perusing my grocery store's apple collection I came across the "grapple."  The grapple is a grape-apple!  How ingenious (and yummy).

And then I realized,  my classroom is a grapple;  a hybrid high school English classroom integrates the contemporary stories, texts, and reading experiences with constructive literature study, allowing for a reading community to take root, grow, and explore life's big questions. 

I've thought a lot about the "how-to" part of creating these communities.  There are three real practices or "simple rules" that are non-negotiable for a healthy high school reading community.  For each of the following practices, I've included tools, resources, and samples that I have created with and for my students.

Three practices that foster high school reading communities:  

1)  Let your students get to know you as a reader-- read in front of them, to them, for them, and with them.  Seek out and join a reading community--either in person or online.  

Check out these sites and blogs to follow:

Goodreads.com

Shelfari.com

Nerdybookclub.wordpress.com

yabooklove.com

teachmentortexts.com

2)  Support their exposure to young adult literature with book talks, trailers, and lists that draw a thematic connection to literature.  

Survival Book Talk on Prezi

3)  Invite them to explore difficult themes, contexts, and situations in young adult literature alongside classical literature with peers through literature circles.  Bring in contemporary authors as writing exemplars and mentor texts to engage students in young adult and adult literature while empowering them as young writers.  

Dystopian Literature Circles on Prezi

Memoir on Prezi

VoiceThread book talk sharing titles that explore questions regarding war and its impact on the individual to accompany Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. 

(This blog post is a re-telling of the round-table presentation for The Nerdy Book Club panel at NCTE, 2012--special thanks to all of the amazing Nerdy members I met and connected with in Vegas!)

Independent Reading Myth #3 Students Won't Read

Myth #3--Students won't read in class if I give them time.

This is the #1 management issue I hear from teachers and that I've faced myself.  For some reason they think when I say, "reading time starts now," its code to begin whispering to one another, working on homework for another class, sleeping, or not-so-covertly texting

My first question for a teacher who comes to me with this concern is, what are you doing during SSR?  Nine times out of ten the teacher "borrows" a few minutes to take attendance, check her email, or enter those last few grades for the essays she stayed up well past midnight to grade;  I'm guilty of all of the above.  

Stop it!  When you stop everything that you are doing to read it sends a powerful and unforgettable message that reading is so invaluable nothing is to interrupt it, not even your own perceived needs.  This was probably the most difficult part for me.  I am a perpetual multi-tasker.  But, oh!  The freedom from trying to do so much revitalized my reading life. 

When all of the above fails,  I have to ask, how are you helping match your most tangled readers with an appropriate text to spark their interest?  We'll spend more time on this learned talent later, but until then here are just a few pieces to the machinery of my reading community.

•  Book Talks--Talk about what you are reading.  What do you say to your friends when you are excited about a book you can't pull yourself away from?  You don't spill the entire plot, right?  Rather, you give them just enough so they want to snatch it up as soon as you are finished.  This is the perfect opportunity to model what real readers do as they share their reading experiences.  Also, it's an opportune time to sneak in a mini-lesson (very mini) about previewing and predicting texts.  Book talks work especially well at the beginning of SSR.  I'm very purposeful with my booktalks.  Sometimes, it's a book I've chosen for a reluctant or stalled reader, knowing he or she will be the first ask for it.  And other times the book might have a thematic link to our shared reading;  my more sophisticated readers understand the magic that can occur when you begin to read for themes across genres and across books.  If you're still unsure what to say, read the cover.  Publishers usually do a pretty good job o inviting readers to try the book on. 
Survival Book Talk on Prezi
• Read-Aloud--I fight hard to preserve my read aloud time.  This is also a good practice to begin SSR with.  During read aloud, you are reading and the students are listening.  That's it.  Period.  I begin read aloud by reminding my students of the purpose--listen to enjoy.  Read alouds can be editorials or articles, cartoons, excerpts from novels, picture books, or entire novels.  One of my favorite read aloud experiences was with a little book called Same Kind of Different As Me.  Written by two Fort Worthers, this precious story describes the unlikely relationship between an entrepreneur, his terminally ill wife, and a homeless felon and how they learned that it's not the differences that matter, but the sameness.  Choose texts that are pleasing to hear, good strong story arcs or structure, and challenge the reader just enough to help build an understanding of structure and vocabulary.  At the end of a read aloud, don't start in with twenty questions over plot, character, support, or theme.  Invite students to respond however they need to with a simple, "what sticks with you?" 
• Excerpts-  I love to be sneaky and bring in an especially enticing YA excerpt to pair with traditional literature.  Some of my favorites include Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak paired with The Scarlet Letter, Gordan Korman's Jake, Reinvented with The Great Gatsby,  Sharon Draper's Romiette and Julio with Romeo and Juliet, just to name a few.  The excerpts are used not only to draw connections between texts, but also as vehicles for many litearcy skills.  I find that examining the isolation and social-outasts from the perspective of a 15-year old freshmen is a little more approachable than through Hester Prynne.  Inevitably, some reader will ask to check out the entire book once we spend part of  a day exploring a snippet.  Excerpts also make for terrific mentor texts during writer's workshop as well. 
• Conferences-  I've already discussed the power of talking to your readers about what you read.  Talking to them about what and how they read is as equally important.  I'm not talking about asking them to provide you with a five sentence summary, analyze the intrinsic motivation of the character, or expound on the symbollic or thematic elements.  The kind of transformative talk that makes readers grows organically from a student's reading experience, how he or she relates to the text.  Conferences, one-on-one or small group discussions with readers, allow this transaction to come to the surface.  Tangled and alliterate readers may not have recent experience with a text that invited them to make their own meaning.  Their experiences stem from teacher-selected reading tasks and purposes.  Again, I like to start with a simple question, "What sticks with you?"  From there, with some probing and modeling, I allow the conference to take its natural shape.  Not only can I judge whether or not a book is a good match for a reader, but I can facilitate a deeper reading experience and recommend subsequent titles. 

Any new practice takes time to adapt.  Most of your average 17-year olds have very vague recollections of choosing a book AND being given time in class to read it.  Some have no memory of such a practice as they were probably never given that freedom.  Sad, I know.  And so it's going to take some time.  In the fall we are warming up, building those reading muscles, forming good habits as readers, exploring our own reading interests and styles.  Sometime before Christmas my new readers might finish the first book they have ever read by themselves that they chose.  Between New Year's and Spring Break everyone is exploring their reading identities.  And in the spring, we all sit back and marvel at the transformation.  Just remember, for some of your readers, one or two books is a success. 

Still unsure or need more convincing?  Check out some of these resources:
Teri Lesesne's Making the Match
Kelly Gallagher's Readicide
Penny Kittle's Book Love (coming fall 2012)
Janet Allen's Yellow Brick Roads

How are you able to facilitate a reading community that reads together?
Happy reading!

Audrey

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

Myths Surrounding Independent Reading in High School

Often, when I'm out visiting with teachers and consulting, I make the positive presupposition (Thank you Kathryn Kee! ) that teachers are having their students read a text of their choice everyday.  I might make such comments as, "This would be an easy strategy to integrate into students' independent response time during their free reading time in class."  Or, "When you book-talk to your students, you might frame it in terms of genre..."

Sometimes I receive polite head-nods and sometimes I receive eye-rolling.  Independent reading time in a high school English classroom?  (And unicorns poop rainbows.)
Every now and then, I'm greatful for the honest and inquisitive participant who timidly raises her hand to ask, "What exactly do you mean by 'independent reading'?"  She is usually within her first 5 years of teaching,  graduated from a stellar English literature/ composition program, and is the dark horse of the English department who spends her time reading things like  English Journal or following Jim Burke on Twitter.

When these gems come my way, I leap at the opportunity to unravel some perpetuative myths that exist in high school English departments and their most faithful faculty regarding independent reading.  These conversations allow me to dig down to my most fervent beliefs about reading communities and often do challenge some of those beliefs.  But, by the end of our conversation, whereas we may not still agree with one another, both the participant and myself have expanded our views just a little bit broader. 

And so, here they are!  The top 5 most common myths surrounding independent reading in high school: 
Myth #1--Today's teenagers don't read.
Myth #2--I have to know a lot about YA literature.
Myth #3--Students won't read in class if I give them time.
Myth #4--It'll mean more time spent on grading poster and book reports or messing with those leveled reading programs.
Myth #5--I don't have the time.  We have all this literature we have to "cover."

Boiling down all of the-- honestly-- valid obstacles to independent reading I have encountered myself and heard from colleagues to these five things is probably oversimplifying the issue.  If I've learned anything about problem solving as an educator, it's that I need to start with what seems simple first.  Then, as I work my way through one problem at a time, the larger obstacle doesn't feel quite so overwhelming. 

As a novice teacher, the five statements above floated above my head as I began to dig more into the possibility I knew was there for amazing reading experiences for myself and my students.  Please understand, I am not trying to be-little anyone's experience or perspective.  The following "myths" I'll offer as a series of posts echo my deepest, darkest, and most powerful experiences along my own journey. 

More importanlty than de-bunking these "myths,"  I hope to provide a snippet of success here and there and resources that I rely on to create a transformative, empowering reading community. 

Happy reading!