3-24-15

Guest author: Ed Devos

BREAK When we return, it’s presentation time: 3/24 – Joy, Ashton 4/7 – Stephanie, Hannah

Commercials, Trailers, Reviews: Contemporary Realistic Novels

The Teacher as Model Reader Follow a “reading improvement plan” (112-117): Commit to a certain amount of reading every day Choose books that are personally interesting to you Include children’s books in your reading Take recommendations from your students Investigate recommendations from industry sources Create you own reader’s notebook Reflect on what you are reading Share your struggles and your successes

Re-Thinking the Whole-Class Novel Teaching whole-class novels does not create a society of literate people. Take a poll of your friends and relatives (those who did not become teachers), and ask them how they feel about the books they read in high school. Now, ask them how much they still read. … [According to an article in Phi Delta Kappan,] “Students are not reading more or better as a result of the whole-class novel. Instead, students are reading less and are less motivated, less engaged, and less likely to read in the future.” If reading a book together as a class doesn’t improve students’ reading ability or enjoyment of reading, what is the purpose of this practice? … Reading historically and culturally significant literature enhances readers’ background knowledge, to be sure, but at what cost? (123)

Re-Thinking the Whole-Class Novel Reasons not to read whole-class novels: No one piece of text can meet the needs of all readers. Reading a whole-class novel takes too long. Laboring over a novel reduces comprehension. Students spend more time talking than reading. Whole-class novels ignore student interests. Whole-class novels devalue prior reading experience. If you really must use a whole-class novel… read the book aloud to students. share-read the book. take a critical look at arts & crafts extension activities. limit the number of elements & skills for any one book. (Ideas from Ch. 6 of TBW)

Alternatives to the Whole-Class Novel Select one theme or concept for students to understand, gather a wide range of books on this theme, and form book clubs. Create one or two guiding questions for everyone to answer. Let students preview book options and select a book. Have all writing and discussions circle back to the guiding question(s). Use short stories, excerpts, or poems to teach literary elements or reading skills, then have students apply their understanding to their independent reading books. Connect everything – even grammar – to independent reading. If you can’t connect it to an authentic text, why teach it? (Ideas from Ch. 6 of TBW)

What about Comprehension Tests? For countless students, successful scores on a comprehension test are the culminating goal of every book they have ever read in school. Instead of savoring the books they’ve read or celebrating what they’ve learned from them, the ability to pass these tests becomes students’ purpose for reading. … We cannot confuse assessment techniques with motivation techniques, either. Reading for the goal of performing is not motivating for students beyond their desire to earn a good grade on the test and may actually reduce their reading enjoyment and enthusiasm for reading outside of school. (131)

What about Standardized Tests? I know that students who read widely and can talk and think critically about the books they are reading have little trouble doing well on standardized reading assessments, and my students reinforce my beliefs by acing the state test every year. (133) Instead of narrowing my instructional focus to test prep, I prefer to teach reading standardized tests as its own genre. Here’s how you read a map; here’s how you read a newspaper article; and here’s how you read a test. … I teach students how to read a test, but I do not teach reading through the test. (134)

One More Shameless Plug for Independent Reading Of the factors that students identified ([on their end-of-year reading evaluations] as contributing the most to their increased motivation and interest in reading, in-class reading time was selected as a significant factor by all fifty-four. Fifty chose our classroom library, and forty-six commented that having a teacher who reads helped them develop as readers themselves. I was surprised, in light of the fact that our class had no home reading requirement, that forty-two students indicated that they spent more time reading at home than they did before entering my class. This information reinforced my belief that students who read more at school are more likely to continue reading at home. (156)

Remember to update your reading log, which I will collect on the final night.

Looking ahead: 3/31 Spring break; no class 4/7 Discuss war & genocide novels; presentations by Stephanie & Hannah 4/14 Discuss mystery, adventure, sports, humor, and survival 4/21 Discuss romance; discuss final exam; end-of-class celebration