YOU get a car!

As you already know, Ollie's is a great place to buy discounted books. 

You can find your nearest location here.

The last time I was cruising through, I found one lonely Hot Wheels car from the 1940s. I walked by it the first time, but I backtracked once I decided that I really did need that $1.99 toy.

We're wrapping up The Diary of Anne Frank in my advanced language arts classes. Each child is completing a reading guide in order to get the big picture of Anne's diary without reading the entire work. As an incentive, I offered this brand new car to the first child to pass the optional open book Accelerated Reader test on the entire diary.

Here's LG with her sparkling new ride!

If you want to see my collection of online resources related to this unit of study, 

including the reading guide, click here. 

Borrow away!

What are YOU reading?

Here are some of the free choice independent reading books

 from my class of 27 (23 are boys).

We hope that you are enjoying some lit-tra-ture over the holidays too.

Visit the public libraries, but don't forget local thrift stores.

Sometimes you can walk out with a winner for 50 cents!

For those about to write

This year has been tough, but enough about that.

One benefit to our schedule is that my two fourth block classes are smallish.  This means 10-15 students most days.  Today I was enjoying myself so much; it almost felt like summer.  Almost.  We were down to 12 kids today because two of my students were on a band field trip; one was somewhere else.  All eighth graders spent their morning completing three intense timed Explore tests, so I thought I'd go easy on them.

This group loves independent reading time, so I made sure I gave them 20 minutes for that.  During that time I was also to get a child started on the audiobook for Frindle. Sadly the archaic technology of the cassette tape requires 1:1 instruction.  (Other books being read in that room include: the Lunch Lady series, the Vampire Kisses series, the Bone series, the Bluford series, the Wimpy Kid series, the Harry Potter marathon, World War Z, The Dead and the Gone, Cobra Strike, The Running Dream, Twilight, On The Run. The last title is part of, you guessed it, a series! It's Korman's Chasing the Falconers-- a sure sell for reluctant readers who can get bogged down by their reading pace. It's Friday night; I'm sure I'm forgetting someone.) Most children are reading good old-fashioned books.  One is reading on her cell phone.  By the way, if you haven't yet fallen completely in love with helping kids develop an individualized reading life, let the lovely Neil Gaiman  help you with that.

Back when I started this blog I had twice the amount of instructional time with all language arts students.  I've had to cut out some of the activities I enjoy.  On days like these when the children are a little spent or we have several absences, I try to move some of those lessons back in.

Today we created the My Name Is...  poems that I used to do the first week of school.   With only twelve students I was able to keep the art mess to one side of the classroom to make it easier on our custodians.  Students who finished first explained the secret second step of the assignment to their classmates as they were ready to pen their creations.  When they completed their work, we "published" by posting their poems on the magnetic white board with some cheap fridge magnets from Wal-Mart.   After that, I could move students around the room in order to give them other enrichment activities.

Some took Accelerated Reader tests and got new library books before the weekend.  Some played with my deck of I've Never cards.  Students sharpened our classroom supply of pencils.  They cleaned up after themselves and others. They used my school-provided iPad to play Chicktionary. They read their classmates' Six Word Memoirs as well as today's poems.  Two students helped cut apart my circus-sized copy of Chicken Soup with Rice.  (I want to create classroom posters with the pages.)  In short, we all just enjoyed each other.

I know that there is some research that negates class size as a positive variable in student achievement, but maybe it's all about the size of the room.  When I can plug learners in to different spaces with different activities when appropriate, my job is easier, and learning can be individualized.  I miss the days of being able to take my class to the technology lab in our former school building.  There were tables, a whole bank of computers, floor space, traditional desks, AND IT WAS RIGHT ACROSS FROM BATHROOMS AND A WATER FOUNTAIN.  The instructor was so cool about letting me have my class there during his planning period.  Think kindergarten classrooms for teens.

Back to reality...

So after the first student's poem was done, our assistant superintendent dropped by for an unannounced visit.  Stay calm.  It's okay.  It's always fun to see another adult in the room.  With the student's permission, I was able to show him a finished product while explaining what was going on.  He asked a young man what we were doing; the young man was additionally cutting out a snazzy moustache and other oddities while completing his 20 word collection.  I pointed out that wasn't quite what we were doing, but the assistant superintendent did remark that the child was engaged.  True.

Allowing children some time to socialize through appropriate, guided play can foster a love of language.  It helps balance out your classroom climate as well.  The classroom needs to be a place of play and experimentation in order for everyone to stay healthy and energized.  Play can build community.  Please resist allowing kids to plug into their iPods to listen to music while all of this is going on.  Believe me-- they will get all of their daily iPod time in later.  I love music too, but allowing them to detach from the "now" prevents them from connecting with friends through language and listening.  It will also dull their observational skills that you are trying to build for their writing lives.  Please don't let them disengage through isolation.  Besides, it will wreck all your feng shui up one side and down the other.

(It may be a bias that I think personal listening devices are for alone time, cutting the grass, going to sleep and pretending to be busy to avoid talking to strangers on planes.  I like my music loud and shared. \m/ )

The Novelty of Reading

There's something about the novelty of chance that's always appealing, so why not let it work for you?

Remember that Christmas ornament swap game?  It can get downright cutthroat, always a fun scenario around the holidays.

Here's how it goes:

Everyone brings a wrapped ornament and tosses it in a community pile.

Everyone draws a slip of paper with a number.

The person with the number "1" unwraps a gift, shows it off and sits down.

Person 2 may "steal" the ornament that's already unwrapped or pick from the pile.

Person 3 may nab either ornament or pick from the pile.

Any time someone's ornament is taken, the person returns to the pile for a new one.

And so on, and so on, and Scooby dooby doo-bee.

Here's how you can make this work for you:
Get a whole bunch of short high interest books of a similar size.  These could be read in 15ish minutes.
Stuff them in a bag/ box.
Let kids draw numbered slips of paper.
Same idea with the ornaments...but unless you want to wrap all of those books, just let the kids pick from the bag without looking.
The kids show off their book.
Subsequent players may steal or pick something from the bag.

EVERYBODY READS.   Will they complain?   Yeah.  But not for too long.  You've heard worse.

If your school uses the Accelerated Reader program, kids then take an open book test.   Then they want to read another book.

Children can switch titles with a friend or pick something new from the bag, once they are done with their first book.

The key is using high interest books with a visual element. Bigfoot, monster trucks, NASCAR, Disgusting Bugs, Area 51, Bermuda Triangle, ESP, sharks, urban legends, movie monsters, bats, hunting, extreme sports...you get the picture.

These books are usually expensive, but they are worth the investment.  A wide sampling of kids love them, and they are an easy way to build cultural literacy and general background knowledge.

Sweet Spot

On days that I don't have planning, I find myself summoning all of the powers of the universe to come to my aid.   I imagine some hybrid of Cat Woman and Aqua Man.   Telepathic rings radiate from my being and lasso the tiny bits of extra energy that I will borrow from the world.   When underwater animals show up at my classroom door, I will change my approach.

I do this before leaving the house, and when I'm in my truck I scan radio stations until I find the right song.   After filling up my gas tank, I found a little Zeppelin to energize me.   Halleluyar.

I was feeling pretty good about today, and it went better than even I anticipated.   I almost don't want to talk about it for fear of jinxing myself, so I'm just going to tell you.   Got it?

One of my five language arts classes seems more diverse than my others.   I have all kinds and levels of readers in there.   My preference is to have children grouped, so I can dial in instruction and book choices based on what works for them.   I know that I lost some of you right there, but it works for reading.   I teach struggling readers with as much heart as I do my confident readers; trust me on that.  And no one is worksheeted to death.   It just makes it so much easier for everyone involved when children are closer in reading abilities.

Back to this particular class.   I only see them every other day, and I've been feeling like I just wasn't getting any traction with some of them.

It takes some time for new 8th graders to:

1) figure out that I'm not kidding when I say read
2) realize that I can smell fake reading a mile away
3) understand that I'm not giving up or letting it slide
4) decide to get with the program.

This class hit their sweet spot today.

I looked around the room, and everyone was reading...for real.   Then the assistant superintendent came in right in the middle of the magic.   He saw it too.   I wanted to cry happy tears and dance around to James Brown.

No one was reading the same book.   Everyone was doing his/her own thang.   We had everything from Dr. Seuss, the graphic novel of Paul Bunyan, The Fault in Our Stars and some Tolkien.

Holy Hobbit Toes, Bat Girl!   I'm telling you the truth.   Who knows what will happen next time, but today was more enchanted than a British wardrobe.

I hope that your day had a few great surprises in it too.

Adventurous, Charming, Hopeful, Optimistic & Loyal

I admit it.   I do not enjoy teaching vocabulary.   Ever since I heard Ms. Laura Robb explain the frequency with which some struggling readers need to meet and remeet a word before they own it, I just got tired thinking about how to make that happen.   I think this makes the strongest case for building vocabulary instruction around root word studies.

Last Thursday we did a little harmless vocabulary work, but I can't promise you that all of it will stick.   I made copies of the "Sample Word Wall of Adjectives That Describe a Character's Personality."   You may find it inside Laura Robb's Easy Mini-Lessons for Building Vocabulary.   It's published by Scholastic.

Here's what we did:

1.   Highlight the words that are unfamiliar to you.

2.   Choose five of those words to define.

3.   Identify five words that describe you.

4.   Support your choices.

5.   Watch a clip from "The Muppet Movie."

I showed "Rainbow Connection" to the end of the segment below.

6.   Choose five adjectives that describe Kermit.

7.   Support your choices.

8.   Choose a character from your independent reading book

and five adjectives to describe him/ her/ it.

9.   Support your choices.

A modification I made for my inclusion class is to put them in pairs.

They did all of the same work, but more.

Putting them in pairs made it more natural to say the words out loud to each other as they decided which words they did not know.   Also, they chose five different words to define and shared their answers with their partner.   I put some kids on the class computers to use dictionary.com instead of the paper dictionaries.

And if you are wondering who the title of this entry describes, it's not me; it's Kermit.

Face the Front

It's library day...the best day of all.   Before school, drop by the shelves for some primping.   From each shelf , choose one book to "face the front."   Pull it from its snug little spot and place it on the empty right side of the same shelf with its cover facing out towards your readers.  

You'd be surprised how difficult the fine art of browsing can be for struggling readers.   Advanced readers love teacher recommendations too.   Everybody wins.

Just any old book?   NO!   Think about your first class of the day and what tantalizes them.   Choose those books first.   As your time in the library is drawing to a close, replace any vacated spots with books that you know have some appeal to the next set of kids you are bringing.   Also, if you have recently done read-alouds in class, include those in the featured books.

This may bother your librarian.   Talk it over first.   If done correctly, this process will make ushering 25+ readers through the stacks easier for both of you.   Keeping the books on their same shelves also gives you, any support staff, and the librarian reference points for sending students to the right bookcase.   For example, flipping Stargirl's bright blue cover around will indicate where the SPI section is as you help students quickly track down books.

Readicide


Kelly Gallagher is a full-time English teacher who writes about the crafts of teaching teens how to read and write.   He's a dynamic speaker.   If you see his name listed among the choices of presenters when you attend your next conference, he's worth your time.

I found a copy of Gallagher's Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It in my principal's office last week.  It's a topic that I've heard him address in a hotel ballroom full of educators.   I've also read parts of his book online and seen him featured in a YouTube video.   Finally, I was able to read his book in its entirety.   You should too.

Gallagher elaborates on finding the sweet spot of reading instruction which lies somewhere between underteaching and overteaching books.   Our primary goal as reading teachers is to develop lifelong readers and critical thinkers.

The 50/50 approach is what works for Gallagher.   His students' reading is split evenly between recreational and academic.   He gives credit for the recreational reading, but he does not "chop it up" with worksheets and quizzes.   This type of reading is independent.   To develop academic readers, Gallagher puts in more supports for the reading.   He makes sure students use fix-up strategies when they become confused.   He creates a purpose for reading.   He activates prior knowledge.   These books may be too difficult for students to read them "recreationally."   Gallagher approaches classic literature by connecting the thinking that the book requires of them to the thinking that the real world needs from them.

You will benefit from his outline of the 50/50 approach, list of books that appeal to reluctant readers, explanation of what good readers and struggling readers do (don't do) while approaching a text...the list goes on and on.   Gallagher is a master teacher.   There are a couple of points that we do not quite agree on.

Gallagher does not have kind words for the Accelerated Reader program, a program I find helpful in aiding my students.   Yes, it can become a nightmare when teachers don't use it the right way.   Also, I think it was designed with a reward system in mind.   For example, when you reach a specific number of points, your teacher or school may reward you with a treat.   With the exception of end-of-year certificates, our school does not operate that way.   The students and I agree on a reading goal based on their independent reading level for their homework credit.   I provide silent reading time in class for them to reach their goals.   They take oven-book multiple choice tests on the book, so I can track what works and does not work for them.   The records are incredibly helpful to me as I can see their likes and dislikes and come up with book recommendations for them based on level, length, and/or topic.   I can also initiate conversations with them about books we've both read.   It's powerful for students to have lists of all of the books that they have read during our school year together.  

Additionally, in 8th grade I have not quite mastered the 50/50 model.   Most of my students, even the advanced ones, do not like reading more than one book at a time.   Many adults I know feel the same way.   In Gallagher's classroom, his students are reading one recreational and one academic book at all times.   This split focus frustrates my 8th graders, especially the ones who read slowly or have memory challenges.   I do occasionally have them use Probst's questions for interacting with texts, writing prompts or graphic organizers as they read.   Even so, I don't think that the amount/type of work I attach to their independent reading would qualify as the "chop up" approach that Gallagher rails against.   In eighth grade, students seem to enjoy telling me all about the book that they chose to read for themselves.   It's identity.

In spite of minor differences in the way that we approach reading instruction, I still believe that Gallagher is telling us the hard truth.   I do not oppose standardized testing in moderation, but some teachers, schools, school systems are losing sight of what it takes to create real readers.   Achieving a level of success on standardized tests and developing critical thinkers with a passion for reading are not mutually exclusive.

What can you do today?   Increase your students' and children's access to books, magazines, comic books, graphic novels...the printed word in general.   Providing a variety of reading material to students is the cornerstone of any effective, authentic reading program.   What changes can you make in your classroom to connect students with high interest reading materials in the weeks ahead?

The Library for Struggling Readers/ Pt. 1

This way to the Bedford Public Library.

Although my classroom was considered a total loss, our library rode out the storm with all of our collection in tact.   If I had ever to choose between the survival of the two, the library would win every time.  

If you have not yet created an alliance with your librarian, now is the time to rethink your relationship.   If you are a language arts teacher, your librarian can make your job a whole lot easier for you.   I know that sounds tantalizing.

The middle school has a big case of middle child syndrome.   And being in the middle means that some kids are really more "high school" or more "elementary school" when it comes to literacy, so the library has to be all-inclusive and downright spectacular.   There needs to be something in your library for every one of your students to read independently and successfully.

There's something called the ZPD in the educational world...the Zone of Proximal Development.   Stay with me; it's simple to grasp.   There's a range in which each reader can function independently and grow.   Additionally, there's a higher range in which each reader can function with support and grow.   In math terms, you would not hand a child who had conquered pre-algebra a math analysis text and expect mastery without providing support.  

It's also good to remember that your struggling readers are hungry for success, even if they don't show it.   How would you feel about getting on the school bus every day to go to a place that pushed you past your frustration level hour by hour, a place where you never felt like you knew anything, a place where it looked like no one was having the difficulties you were having and a place that gave yearly standardized tests that you consistently failed in spite of your best efforts?   That sure could eat away at my soul.

I'm not saying that schools should lower our standards, but as teachers, we need to meet struggling kids where they are when it comes to independent reading.   Leave whole-class instruction for stretching them...at least until they get their sea-legs.   Give them some pre-reading strategies to help them tackle the stories in the literature book.   Model the skills that a good reader possesses.   Eighth grade is year that we need to zoom below-level readers as close to being on-level readers a.s.a.p.   The high school literature book waits for no one.   You know that for sure!

By eighth grade, most teens have entered the developmental stage during which they want to start focusing on who they are and what they think about their world.   This is why the teen problem novels fly off of the shelves.   It doesn't matter that the problem is not the reader's current problem; they want to see realistic portrayals of teens negotiating the world independently.   You'll notice that young adult novels are often devoid of adult main characters.   This would be too easy.   In reality, most children do have some adult role models to turn to for help, but in literature, readers want to see characters solve problems on their own.

If you have limited library funds, I would start with the teen problem novel to beef up your collection for 8th graders.   You would also need to investigate high-interest/ low-level books.   Now, teen problem novels aren't always great literature, but sometimes they are.   So, don't turn your nose up at them too soon...at least, not in front of the students.   The Hi/Lo Bluford Series of books is well-loved by many students who are not quite ready for reading a longer novel on their own.   Girls love Sarah Dessen, Lurlene McDaniel, Beatrice Sparks and Jacqueline Woodson.   Boys love Gordon Korman, R.L. Stein, Neal Shusterman, Dav Pilkey and Todd Strasser.   And vampires...anything short with vampires, since Twilight is probably too big for them right now.   Besides, they already saw the movie.

If you are really low on library funds, then focus on Gordon Korman.   His writing covers a lot of ground, and girls will read his books.   If you are choosing a title for a novel study, No More Dead Dogs will appeal to a variety of readers.    Here's his official website: http://www.gordonkorman.com/

In closing, everyone loves to be able to decide how they would like to spend their days.   For the most part, school is not designed that way, nor would it be able to function successfully that way.   Creating a time for free-choice self-selected reading (within reason, of course) helps teens on their journey to self-discovery.   It gives them practice in decision-making and a voice in their course of study.   By meeting them where they are, we honor who they are today.  

Note: If your school is looking for an assessment to identify students' reading levels, I recommend the Gates-MacGinitie.   It gives you a vocabulary and comprehension level separately.   Ignore the composite score because it can muddy the issue.   It's a great tool to measure growth from year to year.  
Find more information here:  http://www.riversidepublishing.com/products/gmrt/index.html