principal's goal was "to make listening to students one of our all-school goals"
"once children have entered the 'swamp' of negative expectaions, lowered motivation, and limited practice, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to get back on the road of proficient reading" (Spear-Swerling and Sternberg (1994)
PK challenges students to find a 'reach' book (often, but here at 4th quarter)
"This is how most people live: sleeping on the bank of a fresh-water stream, lips dry with thirst." - Rumi
"What our students read in school is important; what they read the rest of their lives is more important" Gallagher Readicide (2009) 117
Gladwell - 10,000 hour rule -- 20 hours a week for 10 years
"What I am proposing in this book runs parallel to the accepted structure of English class. The study of literature is half the job; leading students to satisfying and challenging reading lives is the other, and we haven't paid enough attention to it." (19)
Developing Stamina for College and Beyond
Tom Newkirk "said that he didn't care whether all students read any particular book, only that they read a lot so they would have a variety of experiences to draw on and the ability to handle the volume of reading expected in college." (which is 200-600 pages a week. Providence college - 600 pages per week; Harvard -- 400 pages a week in one class; 100-600 pages from current college kids;
PK reads 142 books in 2011
typical HW - read at a comfortable pace for 2 hours or more each week outside of class; first week of class asks kids to read for 10 minutes and record the # of pages; multiply by 6 to get pages/hour; double it to get expected reading for a week; she rechecks the rate every month;
How she keeps track of 30 students at a time:
Goals for the semester: take pages per week and multiply by 18, then divide by 200 (average # for a book)... get a goal for # of books;
Kids keep a "To-Read-Next" list on the back of their notebook. (kids add things to this list from the Book Talks)
Ann Patchett (2009) "I'm all for reading bad books because I consider them to be a gateway drug. People who read bad books now may or may not read better books in the future. People who read nothing now will read nothing in the future."
The most important condition in my classroom is my relationship with my students. My students are not moving through a system that guarantees they'll read; I am moving them through a system that helps me manage the large number of students I teach. The magic formula is the relationship we form and my ability to meet them where they are, accept where they are, and then put books in their hands that will ignite their own intrinsic motivation to read. (35)
we need to balance these forms of reading in English:
1. study literature (whole texts)
2. read short mentor texts (in all genres) to understand the writer's craft and create a vision for what we ourselves will write
3. develop an indepedent reading life
PK does 50% - independent reading, studying short texts in class; 25% - annotating, thinking of mentor texts and using those lessons to write better; 25% - whole class or small group novel study
Daily Reading/Writing Workshop Plan
Chapter 5 - The Power of Book Talks
- I talk 4-5 books a day during the first week of school; kids keep a list of what they want to read next on last page of notebooks
- Book Talk essentials
- hold the book
-know the book (If you like... then you'll like...)
- keep records of what you've book talked
- accept help (students, parents, fellow teachers, librarians, bookstore owners, administrators)
- remember how important you are (passion is contagious)
Nancie Atwell (2007) "For students of every ability and background, it is the simple miraculous act of reading a good book that turns them into readers. The job of adults who care about reading is to move heaven and earth to put that book into a child's hands" (28).
Book Talk + Text Study = using a book talk to teach the qualities of writing (p. 65)
I copy p. 6 and 7 of Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrel... each student needs a copy to mark up with noticings -- annotations of word choice, details they see, feel, smell, taste, know to be true.
questions... what do you think is wrong with Mom? What do you think comely means? How would you describe the economic condition of this family based on evidence in the text?
I collect them as an exit slip to survey students' proficient reader skills.
use "Encyclopedia of an ordinary life" as inspiration for guided notebook writing.
words around Encyclopedia- covert cell phone use, freshman, hallways, cafe, food, parking, mean girls, short freshmen, subs, lockers, how to avoid walter, rules I didn't follow
Chapter 6- Conferences
"If there is no responsiveness between us, no openness to being influenced by the other, there is no trust."
Questions: How's it going? Tell me what you're thinking abut your reading? What's this about? I haven't read it." What are you reading? How did you choose it? How do you find good books? What on your next-to-read list? What authors are your favorites? How much did you read last year? Do you consider yourself a reader? Where do you read at home?
Conferences that Teach a Reading Strategy
how is the reading going for you? is this an easy or a hard read for you? how do you know? tell me about a time when this book has confused you and what you're doing to get yourself back on track in your understanding. Tell me about these characters -- who are they, what do you think of them?
what questions are at the heart of the book? what questions might the author be trying to answer through the struggles of these characters? how has the character changed? how is the book different from the last book that you read?
"Park sits up taller. There is something powerful about giving students the authority to teach us."
"Will you lead an author talk on his work?" (vs book talk?)
I keep a pad of paper on my clipboard with a page for each student, and I cycle through the pages, day after day, class after class. If a student is absent, I write absent in my conference notes and move on.
Reading conferences fall into three categories: Monitoring the student's reading life, 2. teaching strategic reading, 3. helping the student plan the complexity and challenge of her reading.
My bridge between writing and thinking is notebooks. If I can get students to quick-write the first thing that comes to mind and follow that thinking, they discover the unusual, the thing they weren't thinking about, the thing that appears in their writing and must be attended to."
How often should students write about reading? Every other week works for me. Asking them to write about their reading every time they read destroys the process." (103)
Asking Questions that Drive Responses:
Fiction
Tell me about the narrator of your book. Is she believable?
How has the author taken a flat portrait of a character and added flesh and bones? What are the moments that define a character you've connected to?
Discuss the pace of the book. How fast or slow is the plot moving and how does that impact your enjoyment of the sotry?
Nonfiction
does the author present enough evidence to support the main ideas of the book? Do you feel there was an attention toa variety of sources for information?
Talk about the effectiveness of the organization of ideas in the book.
How are the elements of story evident in this book? Would you classify the book as informative/explanatory or argument?
What are things you've learned in your reading that still have you thinking?
Nancy Atwell: "Frequent, voluminous reading build fluency, stamina, vocabulary, confidence, tastes and preferences, loyalty to authors, and even that cultural knowledge that Diane Ravitch advocates. Students leave our tiny school in rural Maine as skilled, literary readers. They also leave smarter about words, ideas, history, people, places they've encountered only in the pages of the rich stories they have read."
Elaine Millen, Dean of Campus Development for the University Systems of New Hampshire "That's been our biggest challenge. They're waiting for someone else to tell them what they need to learn rather than using the tool of reading and literacy to learn."
Modeling Thinking About Themes (113)
brainstorm big ideas of 2 books; examples think aloud on 114-115 of how 2 works are similar
I believe in the power of setting goals and making them public. Don Murray used to send me his daily word counts; Don Graves forwarded me his daybook notes.... My students need to understand why and how to challenge themselves as readers, to set goals, and then be nudged to commit to them.
- plans and suggestions for each student passed on to next year's teacher, plus time before the start of the school year to get to know incoming students through their reading and writing portfolios. imagine starting the school year analyzing students' reading lists, reflections, and writing portfolios.
Heinemann website contains 2009 video of students who fake their way through reading. (Neal)
Survey... 20% of our students said they read books regularly, about 30% read a book or two a year, and the remaining 50% said they did not read books at all. (142)
Richard Allington (2001) We seem to be producing readers who can read more difficult texts but readers who elect not to read even easy texts on their own time" (8)
summer reading - we need books that can be and will be read independently
book club throughout fall... meeting each Wednesday at local coffee house.
Books to read
Tom Romano
Jeff Anderson. Mechanically Inclined (2005) Everyday Editing (2007) Ten Things Every Writer Needs to Know (2011)
Grave, Don and Penny Kittle (2005) Inside Writing: How to Teach the Details of the Craft
Zimmermann and Hutchins, 2003) 7 Keys to Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get it!
Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary LifeNewkirk. Thomas. 2011. The Art of Slow Reading.
