As this year has progressed, I'll admit that I've found it, at times, difficult to adequately challenge my advanced English classes. At the same time, I have struggled with how to get them more engaged in authentic, voracious reading.
Over the Christmas holidays, I searched my mental catalogs for ideas, and my mind wandered to my undergrad work in adolescent literature. After thumbing through my literature journal, I decided I'd challenge my kiddos to create their own. Of course, I created a number of guidelines and scaffolded the semester-long project with interim due dates to help ensure their success.
The basic journal entry requirements include the title, author, publication information, a plot summary, personal analysis and reaction, and a discussion of theme(s) in each book, plus a peer review of each entry. In an effort to encourage my kids to also read more news and explore current events, I decided to require journal entries on current news articles as well as books in various genres.
I presented the project when we returned to school on January 7th. My kids seemed a little nervous, but many of them also seemed excited at the prospect of having a challenge. Aaron told me in a very respectful tone, "I think it's a little much," to which I replied, "You're in pre-AP." He dove right into reading some new books that day without another complaint. (I also created a less demanding project outline for my academic English classes.)
As the first due date draws near, I've watched something very interesting and exciting happen. My kids are helping one another with their entries. They are doing honest peer reviews for each other, and they are talking about what they are reading. They're doing it without prompting, and their discussions are passionate. Real. Engaging.
One of the seeds of literary zeal was planted in the form of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars.
I had a student who came in super excited about having read this book over the Christmas break. We chatted briefly in class that day, and that evening, I realized I had read another of his books, Paper Towns, last summer. So the next day, I suggested that book to her.
Over the next week, I started researching books for next summer's pre-AP reading assignment, and I ordered Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley. In the meantime, I learned that many of my students were passing around copies of The Fault in Our Stars. Once I finished Where Things Come Back, I realized it wouldn't be a good summer read because it is too mature and has too much objectionable language for me to feel comfortable requiring it. But it is a fantastic book - smart, well-constructed, and genuine.
So the movie trailer for The Fault in Our Stars debuted yesterday, and the student who first introduced me to the book came in to first period super excited this morning. Like any good teacher, I seized the opportunity to engage my students. I showed the trailer to the class (there is one very brief part I censored), talked about how much those who had read it enjoyed the book, and encouraged them to read it before the movie debuts in early June. This started a really enthusiastic dialogue since several in that class have now read the book, and I took heart in the fact that my suggestion to read the book first was met with the ardent commiseration of my fellow bibliophiles. :)
Anyway, as we discussed John Green, I decided to introduce my 8th grade students to Whaley, and I had several ask to borrow my copy of Where Things Come Back. I also talked to them about what I had observed evolving among them over the past few weeks. They seemed really connected and interested in the idea of authentic reading. Reading the way REAL PEOPLE read. Not reading for a test or because something was assigned, but because they find a connection with literature. And they are so impassioned by that connection that they want their friends to experience it.
So they share. Fervently, earnestly, and wholeheartedly.
On the flip side...
After school I had a 7th grader who is an English language learner and who sometimes struggles ask if he could stay after and get help with his journal entry. I sat with him and helped him locate the copyright information and other details in his book. Then I helped him navigate Microsoft Word as he wrote his summary and his analysis. Finally, we talked through his grammatical edits. When he finished, he just sat there smiling at his computer screen. Then he printed his journal entry and asked if our principal was still there because he was so proud of what he had accomplished, he wanted the principal to read it!
By the end of the day today, I had emails from several parents saying their kids had called or texted asking them for books. And I borrowed The Fault in Our Stars from one of my students. I'm 20 pages in, and I'm thinking I might stay up all night reading if I'm not careful. Pretty sure you couldn't wipe this smile off my face if you tried right now!
And so...
I fervently, earnestly, and wholeheartedly implore my fellow teachers to read The Book Whisperer and Readicide and In The Middle and anything else you can get your hands on that emphasizes the importance of getting kids to connect to literature in authentic ways. Internalize their messages and then make them your own and put them into action in your classrooms. I did not come up with these ideas on my own. I have spent years reading other teachers' accounts of how they got kids engaged in reading and reciprocal discourse and talking to fellow teachers about what works for them (and what doesn't), and I've taken it all and cobbled together something that will work for me - something that will complement the way my crazy mixed-up brain works. And I have to tell you, it's simply amazing what can happen when we persevere through the frustration of trial and error that's necessary to figure out how to make these ideas work for each of us.
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