Reading Culture

Reading Disrupting Thinking and tweets from #ILA2018 last week have focused my thoughts on reading cultures in schools.

In Disrupting Reading, Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst, make a case that “we read to explore, to wonder, to grow, to  become what we did not even know we might want to be. We read to change.” Powerful and capable reading skills are established through student choice, so that reading is relevant.  It is built further with talk – about the book, what students think about it, and how it has changed them (BHH – Book, Head, Heart). And there is a firm nod to a reading culture within a school, that the classroom and school should be a place where reading is valued and discussed by adults and students alike.

While I was working my way through the Beers and Probst book, I was reading tweets from those in attendance at #ILA18.  Two that stood out to me were:

This coming school year, 30% of my job involves “intervention”.  I know that the majority of this time will be spent helping readers grow, and I know the expectation will be to use a program that has been approved by our school division.  I’m wondering though if we’re missing the mark.  Should we be spending more of our time creating a stronger reading culture in our school?  Should students, especially our struggling readers, be given more opportunities to read those materials they are most motivated to read, and working on individualized strategies related to what they have chosen to read?  The answer to these questions seems obvious.

Thinking about the importance of student choice in reading reminds me of why I’ve always loved the Daily 5 and Cafe format in my classroom. They provide the structure to allow student choice, while providing the time to teach and practice the strategies a student or group of students requires.

This school year, I hope to persuade and influence the adults around me that the best intervention is “volume-based intervention”, and help to grow a positive reading culture in the classes I teach, as well as in the school as a whole.

 

 

 

What Surprised You?

I’ve been enjoying reading Reading Nonfiction by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst.  I participated in a book study of their earlier Notice and Note a couple of years ago and was excited to see them add this book to their canon.

One of the high-yield strategies that has entered my classroom because of the book is the question “What surprised you?”  These three simple words have proven to be intensely powerful in getting my grade 7/8 students to talk about reading we’ve done in social studies, or current events we’re discussing.  The question is a strong invitation for students to think about the topic, and leads to deeper thinking.  As Beers and Probst state, students should “expect the text to offer something surprising.”

As I’ve been using the question after reading nonfiction texts, my students are beginning to naturally ask themselves the question before I do.  I hope that this one question will help lead them to think more deeply about their reading, and to become questioners rather than consumers of the nonfiction in their lives.