What I've Noticed

This is my second year teaching Literacy Seminar, a high school class for struggling readers.  Last year, I was new to high school and feeling rather unsteady in this new role.  I also got my position in August (after setting up my classroom at my old building) just before school began.  While I was thrilled with the new position in a brand new building, I began in a whirlwind, grateful for the help of my colleagues and their diligent lesson planning.  I scooped up all their ideas and walked into class.  At the end of first semester, however, my test scores were awful.  My students really had not grown at all.  Was I really better at teaching middle school?  Was I just better at teaching a more affluent population?  Or was I doing the wrong things in my classroom?

I made a decision right then to assume the best:  I wasn't teaching the way I knew was best.  I needed to do what I knew about best practice in reading instruction.  I stopped doing "high school" stuff (whole class books and discussions) and returned to what I had done for years in middle school:  self-selected independent reading as the heart of my instruction.  I supplemented this with short-shared texts, mostly nonfiction articles.  Our growth at the end of the semester was much better; well, it was forward growth, anyway.

This year, I started the year off how I ended last year:  self-selected texts, short-shared text, lots of strategy instruction.  Growth at winter break was strong.  Then I did what we typically did in middle school - we moved on to more small groups and whole class instruction.  Scores now?  Not great.  What happened?

My theory is that my high school struggling readers need nowhere to hide.  They must be engaged in activities that offer no hope of riding on anyone's coat tails.  With small groups, there is room to hide behind others' thoughts, summaries, and "help."  With whole group texts, there's a whole class to hide behind.  And these kids have hiding strategies galore.  They are WAY more savvy than my middle school kids ever thought to be.  The end result?  They didn't really read.  Or they read just enough to piece together with others' reading just enough, that they could get by.

It's only when I require independent reading AND conference with kids that they must actually read.  Each student must do the reading, must talk with me, must think and write his/her own ideas.  In the actual pages of a self-selected book, kids are reading, constructing meaning, questioning and thinking.  In the conference with me, they must talk about their books, and I can see immediately what they understand, what they are struggling with, and where to nudge them forward.

That is where significant growth happens.  We build confidence, stamina and fluency by reading in our comfort zone.  We also face the fact that our hiding places have been removed.  Out in the light of actual reading, growth has a chance.

The Journey Begins

I'm starting this blog today to document the journey of my high school reading class and the reading life at our school.  As a teacher of struggling and/or alliterate readers and as our building reading specialist, I have goals of each student becoming a comfortable reader and of a school where reading is part of the our culture.

It's May 1st, the start of Get Caught Reading Month, and we're beginning this journey with some fun.  Teachers can send me pictures of students reading books by choice and they'll get entered to win a $25 gift card to a book store.  Teachers are also sending me book recommendations that will be read on the announcements throughout the month.  And, on Monday we'll start a month of YA Lit trivia where classes can email their answers and win candy.

Just getting our feet wet.

In my classes over the last two years, I've been growing from being a regular language arts middle school teacher to being a high school intervention teacher. I spent 15 years teaching middle school, and then we opened a new school last fall.  The first year had some serious bumps.  I felt like I was a first year teacher again getting to know kids, getting to know books, getting to know high school culture.  Some days I wanted to hide under my desk.  Some days I wanted desperately to fit in and be a "real" high school English teacher.  Some days I glimpsed a peaceful future where kids had turned into true readers and class ran smoothly.  Some days.

This year has been a million times better in many ways.  My feet are back under me, I have grown to love my BIG kids, I have more books, and still, it's not enough.  I haven't engaged all my readers.  I haven't seen tangible evidence that they are growing as readers in ways that stretch across their school experience.  I don't regular see kids reading in their free time.  I have much to learn and improve.

So welcome to this blog.  Let the journey begin!