Today is the last day of summer school, my last day working with 9th and 10th graders who failed English this year and are trying to recover either a half or full credit. I have seen miracles happen this summer. Students who I never thought would finish (even up to yesterday!) completed books and wrote papers. It has been magical for me to see.
What was different in summer school? For one, classes became smaller. As students finished their work, they were done, so my classes shrunk from 25+ kids down to 4-5 kids. This allowed the kids who needed the most help to get it.
Choice was also a huge factor in many of my students' successes. When faced with reading a book that was chosen for them, many students shut down. It seemed impossible to them. No way could they get through another book a teacher made them read. I could see that this was exactly the problem during the school year. Kids felt no ownership over the reading and wouldn't even try. So, in summer school, when resistance reared its ugly head, I just provided choice. Happy kids will work. They will read, write and they will learn. Runner by Carl Deuker was by far the favorite among my boys this summer. They eagerly gobbled it up. Choice = reading. Writing was no different. When provided options for narratives, stories flooded my desk. Same with expository writing. Same with arguments. Kids wanted to own their work.
Talk was another big factor. Once my classes got smaller, there was a lot more talk. I could check in with everyone frequently, and kids could talk about their books. I could check in on writing and kids could talk over their ideas before jotting them down. This helped kids tremendously. First, they were accountable for reading, understanding and progressing in their books. Second, they could clear up confusions by asking questions or talking through ideas. I can see that the lack of talk during the regular year makes it hard for those kids that need to process their thinking out loud. Summer school made it safe and easy, so many kids had more success than usual.
Finally, questions were huge. Not me answering questions, but the kids answering their own questions. Some of them were so unsure that they asked about every sentence they wrote. They did not see themselves as readers or writers or even thinkers who could trust themselves to put anything "right" on paper. The most powerful question I asked hundreds of times was, "What do you think?" And, guess what? They had answers! Tentative at first, but then growing with confidence over time. Kids started requesting longer chunks of time to read their books between check-ins by me. "Uh, Ms. Hagen? Can I do like 15 minutes of reading this time?" asked a long-haired boy from the floor.
"What do you think?" I'd response.
"Yep, I can do 15."
And he would.
With writing too. First, I'd get asked to read every sentence, to which I'd respond, "What do you think?" Answers were slow at first, but gradually, I'd get check-ins once a paragraph. Huge improvements from kids who said it was the first piece of writing they had finished in high school.
I am so glad to be a part of these students' successes, hard-earned this summer. These are not kids who lack as many literacy skills as I previously thought. They are kids that deeply need ownership, talk and a sounding-board. I only hope the will take some of it with them as they venture into regular classes this fall.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Book Choice Needed in High School
"Just as rigor does not reside in the barbell but in the act of lifting it, rigor in reading is not an attribute of a text but rather of a reader's behavior-engaged, observant, responsive, questioning, analytical."
-Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst
And...
Rigorous reading comes from engagement, significance, relevance, not by making books harder. -@BobProbst #BBLit15 (Twitter June 2015)
Kids who actually read experience rigor. Kids who fake read have no chance of rigor, no chance of becoming readers, no chance of deepening their own independence with texts.
How do we convince high school English teachers that kids reading books of their choice (nurtured by competent teachers who know what individual kids can handle and who know books) is the real place rigor lies? How do we encourage teachers to experiment with allowing more independent choice? How do we get them to see student learning and growth as the central piece of quality instruction instead of the books the chose?
We must take the lead. "We can't wait for others to shift their mindset in order to shift systems," tweets Jimmy Casas on June 28th, "We need to accept personal responsibility & shift." All of us who already believe in the power of student choice need to do what we know.
So, in my class next year, as I've already written, student book choice will be the grounding foundation of our reading work. Thanks to Penny Kittle's Book Love Foundation, this will be a little easier this year. I found out that I won one of ten foundation grants, and will get a whole classroom library tailored to the needs of my kids. What a great way to be a role model in my building and district. These books will allow me to get relevant, engaging books into the hands of my kids this year. All year long.
Now, my job has some significant parts to it:
1) match kids to books
2) develop thinking readers to wonder, question and most of all engage in the books
3) grow these readers across the year
Next books on my list are Kylene Beers and Bob Probst's Notice and Note and Reading Nonfiction by the same authors when it comes out in September. I want this study to help me help my students engage more deeply with all texts they are asked to read.
Ready to dive in!
-Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst
And...
Lynn Hagen retweeted
vickiboyd
.@KyleneBeers & @BobProbst remind us rigor lies in the depth of attention the S brings to the text. Not in the text, itself. #BBLIT15
Kids who actually read experience rigor. Kids who fake read have no chance of rigor, no chance of becoming readers, no chance of deepening their own independence with texts.
How do we convince high school English teachers that kids reading books of their choice (nurtured by competent teachers who know what individual kids can handle and who know books) is the real place rigor lies? How do we encourage teachers to experiment with allowing more independent choice? How do we get them to see student learning and growth as the central piece of quality instruction instead of the books the chose?
We must take the lead. "We can't wait for others to shift their mindset in order to shift systems," tweets Jimmy Casas on June 28th, "We need to accept personal responsibility & shift." All of us who already believe in the power of student choice need to do what we know.
So, in my class next year, as I've already written, student book choice will be the grounding foundation of our reading work. Thanks to Penny Kittle's Book Love Foundation, this will be a little easier this year. I found out that I won one of ten foundation grants, and will get a whole classroom library tailored to the needs of my kids. What a great way to be a role model in my building and district. These books will allow me to get relevant, engaging books into the hands of my kids this year. All year long.
Now, my job has some significant parts to it:
1) match kids to books
2) develop thinking readers to wonder, question and most of all engage in the books
3) grow these readers across the year
Next books on my list are Kylene Beers and Bob Probst's Notice and Note and Reading Nonfiction by the same authors when it comes out in September. I want this study to help me help my students engage more deeply with all texts they are asked to read.
Ready to dive in!
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