To Read or to be a Reader, That is the Question...

...and far too many of my students are content just to read. While I am very happy to see the number of books my students are reading, I am disheartened at the level of books they consistently choose. It is always my hope that as students read more voraciously their appetite for challenging and thought provoking literature will increase. Indeed, I have seen this happen over and over again in past years. It does not, however, seem to be happening this school year.

In past years, the freedom of choice in self-selecting their reading has given students "permission" to try books that are outside their reading comfort zones, and they have risen to the challenge. I have seen students in past years, with great resolve and determination, maneuver through The Iliad and The Odyssey, Wuthering Heights, Bleak House, The Brothers Karamazov, The Three Musketeers, Jane Eyre, Don Quixote, and even Anna Karenina. They have tried out books of short stories, plays, and poetry, and tackled non-fiction books like The Federalist Papers. They have perused authors from Dante Alighieri to Alexis de Tocqueville, from Chaucer to Tolstoy, from Maya Angelou to Sylvia Plath - but not this year.

This year they seem perfectly content to devour series like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Maze Runner, and The Hunger Games, and authors like Rick Riordan, Ally Condie, and Lauren Oliver. Not that there is anything wrong with these authors or their books! Actually, I have read all of these series, and books by all of these authors myself. I have purchased them for my classroom library. I have recommended them to reluctant readers. In the past however, these books and authors have been stepping stones to more challenging and difficult literature. They have given students the confidence they needed as readers to attempt something more complex. Reading poetry by Shel Silverstein and Edward Lear gave them the confidence to attempt Keats, Coleridge, and Langston Hughes.

Now, anything challenging is deemed "too hard" (insert whiny kid voice here), and the idea that a book may take longer than two days to complete or more than one reading to understand is unacceptable. If you can't comprehend the book you are reading while watching television, playing a video game, and listening to your IPod at the same time; well, the idea is simply unthinkable.

Hmmm, now I sound like my old English teacher, never thought that would happen. Next I'll be reminiscing about walking four miles barefoot through the snow to school. I refuse to believe that the great literature of the past, or the present for that matter, is unapproachable to students today. I believe Shakespeare, Bronte, Homer, and Dickens are still around for a reason. These authors, and others like them, still touch something deep in the human experience that will resonate as much with today's generation as it did with my generation, and the generations before mine. The challenge is convincing my students, and sometimes their parents, of this fact.

One of the most gratifying experiences in life is completing a challenging book and discovering you learned something about yourself, human nature, and the world we live in. Personally, some of the books that have influenced my life the most were the most challenging and difficult to read and understand, but it was well worth the effort. I am convinced my students will feel the same.

So, the struggle continues. It is far better to be a reader than just to read. I didn't come to this conclusion when I was thirteen and my kids won't either, but they will have a passionate advocate of reading urging them on, just as I did, just as all true readers did.

A New Year Begins...

I approach each new school year with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. On that first day I will be confronted with 150 or so young human beings who are being entrusted to my care for the next 180 days. It is my responsibility to teach them English, that’s a given, but also to model for them responsibility, accountability, respect, interpersonal skills, a strong work ethic, a desire to achieve more than seems possible at the moment, and the belief that they can do so. That’s a hefty load!

Now that my room is ready; books are inventoried and on the shelf; bulletin boards await student work samples; my teacher page is set up and ready to go; my first week’s lesson plans are completed; and most of the copies needed for the first day are made, I have time to sit and worry about whether or not I am ready. Have I prepared enough over the summer? Are the professional materials I read enough to re-stock my “teacher toolbox” for this year? Are there materials I should have gotten to and didn’t? Should my department have met more over the summer than we did? Did I take enough classes and attend enough trainings over the summer? How can I incorporate the new ideas I have gleaned from professional resources and other teachers into my classroom? Will I be able to challenge my gifted students and have time to care for the needs of the students who need a little extra help in a class of 35+ in a 50 minute period? How can I infect all of my students with a love of reading and a desire to become and remain voracious readers? Will I be able to instill in them a love of learning for the sake of learning? Will I be able to make a personal connection with every student, a connection which is so vital to helping them learn and become the best they can be?

Whew! Now my head hurts and I want to curl up under my desk, suck my thumb, and hide. Perhaps no one will notice.

Okay, not an option. I have to trust in my experience, my training, my love of each and every one of those kidlets I haven’t met yet, put on my big girl pants, and crawl out from under the desk. I have done my best to prepare and I am ready to meet another year’s challenges. There will be ups and downs. Words I will wish I had said and words I will wish I hadn’t. Students I will feel I reached and some I may never know I impacted in any way.

This year will pass like the twelve before and another group of kids will worm their way into my heart just like the ones before them did. I’ll cry a little at the end of the year, take a deep breath, and prepare to do it all over again the next year; because that’s what makes teaching a truly special calling, grueling and for the most part thankless, but special nonetheless.

2014-2015 Fiction Section (Beginning of the Year)

Summer Vocabulary #3

For words to become part of our working vocabulary (the words we use in everyday conversation) we need to do more than just know what they mean. We have to use them. Here are a list of words often used in adult conversation, newscasts, literature, and other types of media. Make it your goal to listen for the use of these words this week and to use them all at least once in normal conversation. Feel free to post a comment and let me know how you do. Find a partner (parent, friend, sibling) and let's play...

Untenable: impossible to maintain or defend, tolerate or endure. From the old French tenir meaning to hold.

Carte Blanche: unrestricted power to act at one's own discretion, unconditional authority or free pass. French: carte meaning ticket, blanche meaning white.

Ennui: dissatisfaction resulting from lack of interest; boredom. Old French meaning to annoy or to bore.

Ostracize: to exclude from a group. Greek from ostrakon meaning shell or potsherd.

Ok, let's see how many of these words you can find, read, or hear this week, but more importantly how many of them can you use? Remember, to have a word become part of your working vocabulary, you have to actually use it - more than once. If you are unsure how the word is pronounced go to www.dictionary.com and use the pronunciation feature.

The Importance of Text Complexity

Far too often I see students reading books that are significantly below their grade and/or reading level. When I try to suggest texts of more depth and complexity I receive the same old complaint, "it's too hard" (at this point please imagine the voice of a whiny two-year-old). Please don't misunderstand, I want students to read - almost anything that gets them to start reading is fine by me. However, once they begin reading it is vital that their reading material increase in depth and rigor.

Let's consider other examples. Let's say you play a musical instrument, perhaps the piano. You begin by learning your scales, but you don't stay there. If you have been playing the piano for two or three years and have yet to progress beyond playing scales there is a problem. Perhaps a more "hip" example, video games. If you have been playing a certain video game for two or three years and have yet to progress beyond level one - you get the idea. How silly would it sound to speak with another video game player and to say, "I never go to level 2 because it's too hard."?

There is nothing wrong with reading Little House on the Prairie, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, or The Lightning Thief they are excellent books, but if you never progress to more complex works there is a problem. If I never read anything but Dr. Seuss, as much as I love Dr. Seuss, I will never be able to read anything much harder than Horton Hears a Who. There is a world of great literature out there in which students need to immerse themselves. Yes, Wuthering Heights is difficult, but does that negate the value of reading it - NO! I have not even mentioned such authors as William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Dante Alighieri, or Jane Austen. Not to mention modern authors such as Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Zora Neale Hurston, or Leo Tolstoy.

I, too, enjoy reading "vacation" or "beach" reads, but I also endeavor to read works outside my comfort zone; books that are "hard". These difficult works exercise my brain. They help me learn to process information; practice my ability to analyze; increase my vocabulary; hone my concentration skills; learn to critique and synthesize difficult concepts and reasoning; and help me connect to time periods and character conflicts I, myself, will never experience.

To parents, text complexity does not necessarily equate to inappropriate content. There are innumerable complex works available whose content is not problematic for middle school students. Students need to be encouraged to attempt more complex works. Most are not going to do so on their own. They also need to be encouraged to stick it out and not give up when the book gets tough. It's okay if it takes a long time to read a difficult work; it's even okay to put it down and pick up a "vacation" read to rest your mind before diving back in - it is not okay to read Diary of a Wimpy Kid forever.

To conclude, I cannot urge you strongly enough to increase the complexity of the texts you read. Stretch yourself. Seek out books that are outside of the genre you usually pick up. Seek out works that are outside your comfort zone. Join a book club, ask a librarian, check out a book review or bestseller website, google "classic literature" or "1001 books you should read before you die". You might even consider, novel thought alert, talking to your English teacher. I don't know one who would not love to take time out to talk books with you. I would absolutely love to point you in the direction of complex texts you might enjoy.

Enjoy the remainder of your summer and Happy Reading!

Summer Vocabulary #2

For words to become part of our working vocabulary (the words we use in everyday conversation) we need to do more than just know what they mean. We have to use them. Here are a list of words often used in adult conversation, newscasts, literature, and other types of media. Make it your goal to listen for the use of these words this week and to use them all at least once in normal conversation. Feel free to post a comment and let me know how you do. Find a partner (parent, friend, sibling) and let's play...

Oeuvre: the works of a writer, painter, or the like taken as a whole. French. Ultimately from the Latin meaning opera, plural of opus: Latin for work.

Zeitgeist: the spirit of the times, the characteristic feeling or spirit of a particular time period. German: literally means time spirit.

Entre Nous: between ourselves, confidentially. French.

Insouciance: carefree, indifferent, lack of care or concern. French.

Ok, let's see how many of these words you can find, read, or hear this week, but more importantly how many of them can you use? Remember, to have a word become part of your working vocabulary, you have to actually use it - more than once. If you are unsure how the word is pronounced go to www.dictionary.com and use the pronunciation feature.

Off Topic...

I know, I know, for me to post on anything other than ELA content or literature is unusual in the extreme - however.... As you may, or may not, know I LOVE ballet. Actually classical music, opera, and the ballet, but ballet in particular. Last night I watched Snow White, a ballet composed and conducted by Emilio Aragón, Spain's popular conductor-composer. The lead was danced by Tamara Rojo. The ballet premiered in 2005, the DVD was released in 2008. I am not a fan of modern dance in general, and I make no secret, or apology, for being an avid Russophile. I will watch virtually anything provided the lead dancers are Russian or the ballet is performed by the Bolshoi or Kirov (now Mariinsky). That being said, Snow White was magnificent. The music was achingly beautiful and the choreography by Ricardo Cué was very classical; not Petipa, but beautifully done. The story is so well known even children will have no trouble following the ballet. This DVD would be a great way to introduce young children to classical ballet. I can't wait for Maureen, my friend and former principal, to return from Florida so we can have another ballet night, at which Snow White will be the featured performance. If you enjoy ballet, or even if you don't, I highly recommend you check out this production of this classic fairy tale; then, of course, you can move on to the Russians. :)

Summer Vocabulary #1

For words to become part of our working vocabulary (the words we use in everyday conversation) we need to do more than just know what they mean. We have to use them. Here are a list of words often used in adult conversation, newscasts, literature, and other types of media. Make it your goal to listen for the use of these words this week and to use them all at least once in normal conversation. Feel free to post a comment and let me know how you do. Find a partner (parent, friend, sibling) and let's play...

tête-à-tête:  a private conversation, usually between two people, French, literally means head to head.

schadenfreude: satisfaction or pleasure found at someone else's misfortune, German, literally means (schaden - harm + freude - joy).

 

gravitas: seriousness or solemnity as of conduct or speech, from Latin word meaning heavy.

 

ascertain: to find out with certainty or assurance, to make certain or clear.

 

 

Ok, let's see how many of these words you can find, read, or hear this week, but more importantly how many of them can you use? Remember, to have a word become part of your working vocabulary, you have to actually use it - more than once. If you are unsure how the word is pronounced go to www.dictionary.com and use the pronunciation feature.

Partial Classroom Library Pictures from 2012-2013

Paradigm Shift Part II

After Fall Break, I explained to my Honors students and their parents that we were going to begin a new reading program. Students were going to be required to read 40 minutes every night, but they were going to be allowed to choose their own reading books, within certain limits which I set. They could choose books they owned, buy their own books, get them from the public or school library, or check them out from me. I had parents sign a “Classroom Library Permission Slip” stating their child could check out from my classroom library, clearly marking the level of books their child could check out, and agreeing that if their child lost or damaged a book from the classroom library the parents would pay to replace that book. I explained that we would be reading a whole class novel, but all other reading would be independently chosen by the students.

At the end of the school year, my Honors class had read 567 books, not including the whole class novel we read together. This averaged out to approximately 15 books per student. The AIMS reading scores for the Honors class went from 84% Meets and Exceeds to 90%. I was stunned by this increase because, other than the reading program, I had not done anything instructionally different than in previous years. The other classes’ AIMS scores were around 82%, which was in keeping with past years’ scores. I met again with my principal and agreed to try the program with all my classes the next year.

The next year I rolled out the program to all my classes and the results were beyond anything I could have imagined – and continue to surprise me every year. I keeping thinking the kids will plateau, but that has yet to happen. Here are the stats up to this point:

2009-2010 my seventh grade classes read 3265 books

2010-2011 my seventh grade classes read 3822 books

2011-2012 my seventh grade classes read 4341 books

2012-2013 my seventh grade classes read 3837 books, and so far in

2013-2014 my seventh grade classes have read 4788 books

Every year each student averages between 18-20 books each. And what books! They are not just reading the Percy Jackson series, Twilight, or Harry Potter. I have students reading the complete works of Poe, Wuthering Heights, Moby Dick, and believe it or not nonfiction and books of poetry – yes, your heard me right – POETRY! Mary Oliver, William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, and William Wordsworth are yearly favorites.

My AIMS reading scores popped up above 90% and have never come down; they average between 94-97% Meets and Exceeds. I even had a year where 100% of my students Met and Exceeded. This school year (2013-2014) my district went from K-8 schools to building two new middle schools. The demographics I now serve are different from what I have served in the past and the number of students I teach has risen drastically. However, the program is still seeing success; students are reading – a lot! They are choosing their own books and finding they actually enjoy reading. I do not have this year’s AIMS scores, and while I expect them to be lower for several reasons (mainly related to opening a new school with kids who come from a K-8 environment and all the problems you would expect moving into a new building), I fully expect them to return to 90+ levels in 2014-2015.

          I can’t sing the praises of individual reading choice loudly enough. It is possible to get middle schooler’s to enjoy reading; yes, even those who didn’t come to you readers. I still teach whole class novels, but only those students need my help to comprehend fully – Dickens, Shakespeare, etc. I require students to read a minimum of thirty minutes every night, 40 for Accelerated classes, and once they get used to the idea, I find they often read much more. I have found parents love this program, and it has completely done away with complaints about books. Since parents have a say in what their students are reading, and I am not explicitly teaching titles they find questionable, complaints and requests for substitutionary titles have disappeared. Actually, I am often surprised by what parents allow their students to read when they know I’m not teaching the work in class. I’ve had many parents who read books with their kids.

          I have found that when I teach students to choose and talk about books the way adult readers do, and create an environment in which this is possible, they begin to respond as adult readers do. When I first came across Atwell’s books, there wasn’t much like them out there; recently this has changed. Donalyn Miller’s books: The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild, Kelly Gallagher’s Readicide, and other books are showing the amazing results that can be had when students have independent choice in their reading. My own results, and that of other teachers I work with who have adopted this approach to teaching reading, have sold me.

          So, this is the story of my own personal paradigm shift and how it occurred. I discovered if I treated students like the readers I wanted them to be, and showed them I wasn’t asking them to do anything I wasn’t doing myself, they responded like the habitual voracious readers I wanted them to become. We now have glorious conversations about books in my class, and most of the time I’m not included in them – the students talk to each other about the books they are reading and I sit back and smile. We had to start a book club at school to give students more opportunity to talk about their reading, as there just were not enough minutes in class, and attendance has grown every year. The book club is now attended not just by students and English teachers, but by teachers from all disciplines, the school counselor, and other administrative staff. Students have the opportunity to see that not just English teachers read, and to experience the way adult readers choose, discuss, and interact with books.

          I look forward every year to learning about great books from my students and sharing with them the great books I have discovered. If only 10% of them continue to read after they leave my class I will feel like I have succeeded. I still hear from former students who email me at school, come by, or contact me via my book blog to ask what they should read next, share with me a book I “must read”, tell me they are still reading, or ask if I’ve read thus-and-so book and if so, what did I think of it. This has been a strange and wonderful journey and I can’t wait for the next chapter.

Grammar Geeks: What's Wrong With This Notice?

Paradigm Shifts

          My paradigm shifted in the fall of 2008. I had been part of a language arts team hired in 2006 to grow our school’s reading and writing scores on the AIMS (Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards). We had been at it for two years and were seeing modest success, but not what we had hoped for. For some teachers Meets/Exceeds scores in the 80s are acceptable, but I am a perfectionist and was not going to be satisfied with any percentage below 90. I believed all students were capable of at least "meeting" on the AIMS. It was painfully obvious that I was doing something wrong. But what? I had a M.Ed., and by this time five years experience teaching English. I was teaching the novels required by the district the way I had been taught (and had experienced in school) to teach novels – whole class reading and literature circles, complete with chapter by chapter quizzes and discussion, vocabulary tests, and the requisite book report upon completion. I was “digging deep” into each novel to extract every last ounce of meaning, much like one of those juicers you see advertised on late night television, yet a large percentage of my students were disengaged, not reading, and my AIMS scores were hovering around 85%. Something needed to change.

            Then our sixth-grade language arts teacher, who like myself, was always seeking ways to become better at her craft, handed me a copy of The Reading Zone by Nancie Atwell.

            “You should read this,” she said.

            I did, and promptly went back to her and said “This will never work. It sounds great, but she teaches a class of 20-25 students at a small private school. This will never work at a public school with lots of kids: with high kids, with low kids, with ELL kids, with special needs kids, (although I didn't say it - with breathing kids) and besides it’s too much work.”

            In October 2008, still not seeing what I was looking for from my students; I was desperate. I felt like a complete failure. I had been hired because the principal believed I had what it took to make kids readers and raise their scores, and I was nowhere near where she had expected me to be after two years. With nowhere else to turn, I bought my own copy of The Reading Zone and the companion book In The Middle and read them both. The concepts did make sense, and I had nothing to lose at that point. I went to my principal right before Fall Break and presented her with the new reading program I wanted to institute after we returned to school. It was so far outside the box, considering what was normal at that time, that I felt like Rod Serling had transported me into my own personal episode of The Twilight Zone, complete with theme music.

            She looked over what I proposed and the data I had put together and said. “Oooookay, but why don’t you try it with your Honors class first.” The unspoken idea being, “there will be less damage done if it doesn't work.” I agreed, thanked her for her support in letting me try something new, and went off to prepare.

            I had a little money in savings from the severance package I received when the company I had worked for before becoming a teacher had gone under after 9/11. Over break I went to a small used bookstore that was going out of business and the day before they closed the doors, when everything was cheapest, bought the entire young adult, classics, and poetry sections loaded them in my car and my friend’s car and lugged them home. I spent break sorting through what was useable for seventh grade and what was not and putting together a small classroom library of around 200 books. The school where I was teaching was a K-8 school and most of the school library was children’s books for the younger readers. The “upper level” section, at that time, was very small. I wrote up letters to parents explaining the new program, and put together lessons to explain it to students, bought two book shelves for my new library with the last of my savings; then sat back and prayed – a lot!

            What happened, you may ask? Well, like any good series I’ll leave the answer to that question for my next post. I am three hours short of a B.A. in Journalism, emphasis broadcast, and spent years working at the campus radio station in college. In the broadcasting industry this technique is called a “tease”. Ha! to this who thought I learned nothing spinning records from midnight to three every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for three years.

Greetings

OK, I have finally given in! I always swore I would never do a teacher blog, but I have caved to the pressure. I will make every attempt to post at least once a week, yes, even in the summer. I have some friends in education whose thoughts and suggestions might be helpful as well, and they have promised to join in the fun. This blog is open to all: parents, students, former students, colleagues, friends, and family. It is intended for educational purposes only. We will discuss books, assignments, language arts questions and resources, books, best teaching practices, helpful websites, ways to improve language arts skills, and did I mention books? Let's keep things professional and be careful of privacy concerns. If you have questions, comments, or concerns that need to be handled privately - let's do it that way. I have set up the blog to allow me to review all posts before they are able to be seen publicly, and reserve the right to delete any inappropriate items. Thanks in advance for your understanding and cooperation.

Miss Dayna