A MiddleWeb Listserv conversation
Also see: " Suggestions
for Literature Circles"
On the Middleweb Listserv, it's not uncommon for a new strain
of rich dialogue to develop out of an already existing conversation.
This happened during a listserv discussion about the Accelerated
Reader program. Concerns over some of the limiting aspects of
this program encouraged readers to share various ways they entice
students to read.
One of our Listserv members wrote:
I have found that so many of the things we try with reluctant
readers appear to extinguish the desire to read and talk about
what you have read. Maybe Accelerated Reader can help us manage
our students and their reading, but can it help them learn to
think about, talk about and challenge what they are reading? Can
it help them to learn? As we struggle with accountability measures
and high stakes assessments, we get more and more desperate and
seem to provide lower level instruction -more "curriculum
in a box" type programs.
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Deb picked up this thought and further developed it by offering
possible reasons and solutions.
I agree with this statement. We can try all the techniques
and rules in the world, but if the kids don't want to read, if
they don't need to read, we're dead in the water. If students
aren't readers by the time we see them in middle school, we need
to explicitly address the reasons why. Generally speaking, those
reasons add up to a mix of material that doesn't reflect anything
about them or their lives, and an approach that has many hollow
rules, but doesn't empower them. Demystifying the strategies good
readers use to decode and comprehend seems like the key to me.
Surrounding our students with materials they're interested in
reading, at all different levels of difficulty and complexity,
is a must. This approach doesn't come in a box with work sheets
and tests, but it can rekindle a desire to read that has been
extinguished in far too many of our kids during the primary grades.
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The resourcefulness of MiddleWeb educators became evident as
they shared the many ways that they encourage even the most reluctant
readers to read. Books on Tape is one example:
One of the things we have started without SSR time is allowing
the kids to bring their own walkmans and listen to books-on-tape.
They congregate in the library--check out their tapes and curl
up! What is amazing to me is that after they do this for about
a month, they will say to me--"Why do they read so slowly?"
As their reading improves, they don't want to listen any more.
We have also begun playing classical music during SSR time. They
are really beginning to enjoy the time!
-Mary Anne
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Marsha was full of good ideas, including a science "read
around day":
I am lucky because the rep from NASCO sends a complimentary subscription
of Popular Science to my classroom every year. I make sure that
I order at least something from him that I would have purchased
anyway, and the subscription keeps coming. I have to tell you,
my Popular Sciences are dog-eared. The kids love them! I have
several years out on a rack that I "stole" from the
basement's leftover furniture.
I also go to the public library every three weeks and check out
high interest picture books that center around whatever I am currently
teaching, picture books that are nonfiction, for the most part,
and appropriate for middle school students. Lots of DK books,
Science Encyclopedias, all-in-one volumes, and Seymour books.
They sit in a laundry basket at the front of my room as resources
to read.
Here's my one tip that I have used and found wildly successful.
Every once in a while, we do a science "read around day."
On that day, I take those books from the basket and put them in
the middle of the lab tables. When I say, "go"! They
have to select a book and read until I say stop. Usually it's
about 3-4 minutes. Then they send their book to the next person.
This continues until all four people have read the books at that
table.
They don't have to start at the beginning; they can just look
at pictures, or use the index to find something that interests
them. From here each table interviews each person on what they
learned, or what they liked. From here we switch that pile of
books with another table and continue with the process.
They love it, and they hate it. They want to read more of at least
one book and they can't because it has rotated around. Well, let
me tell you, books fly out of the basket in extra time before
class, or if they finish early. The afterglow only last sa couple
of days, but it works. And sometimes, oh how I love those sometimes,
someone will ask to have a library pass so they can go see if
that book is in our library or if the media specialist can help
them interlibrary loan it.
That's what I've tried in science. Now math, well, that's another
story. I'm still working on it- --ostly working to find read-alouds
beyond the standards.
-Marsha
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Deb, Kathy and Marsha offer resources that connect reading and
math.
Marilyn Burns has written some. A couple I can think of off hand
are Anno's Multiplying Jar", The Greedy Triangle, The King's
Checkerboard, A Grain of Rice, and Math Curse. There are lots
more.
-Kathy
In terms of math, maybe you could use picture books and challenge
your kids to write new ones. There are quite a few new titles
that are clever and amusing, like "Sir Cumference".
-Deb
Our students love Science World, and I have just started the classroom
edition of the Wal Sstreet Journal. If you take a classroom subscription
to WSJ, you get a complimentary daily paper from them. It has
terrific read-alouds for math class and tons and tons of excellent
graphics in the ads to use. You do have to pick and chose, but
then you usually have to pick and chose inside the article, so
it's not too hard.
The WSJ has been a great place to work on fractions as well as
positive and negative numbers. Who would have believed that 7th
graders would finally understand a negative change in a number
by using the NASDAQ? I'm even learning tons, too! (Hah, a good
role model, now if we only had some money.) A few of my students
signed up for one of the mock stock market games as a result.
-Marsha
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Turning kids onto all varieties of poetry surprised these middle
school students and delighted their teacher!
Marsha,
I love [the read-around idea]! I used to do a similar activity
in April using poetry. (April is poetry month.) We spent about
20 minutes a day reading and sharing poetry. My kids each read
a poem by themselves and then each group would decide which one
to share with the whole class. As you said, during free reading
time and before and after school they'd be lined up to find the
poem that caught their interest.
The sharing and reading was part of a broader individual assignment
that required them to experiment with different poetic forms,
copy their favorite poem etc. culminating in the development and
presentation of their book of poetry.
Some kids gravitated to the funny poetry, but others were drawn
to Maya Angelou and Shakespeare. (My book of sonnets disappeared
mysteriously last year...grr. I've had it since I was 16, so I
hope they're enjoying it.) The important thing was that they discovered
so many types and titles and began to see the possibilities of
poetry for many different voices and occasions.
-Deb
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Using magazines in the classroom continued to generate ideas
from Listserv members:
I also got an idea from Marsha's idea of bringing science
magazines into the classroom. I have a huge drawer filled with
old Read magazines that I have acquired from teachers who had
class sets and didn't want them anymore. Once in a while I will
bring out an issue that pertains to a lesson or unit we are on.
For instance, I have a class set of Read magazines with a medieval
play that we use when we study the Middle Ages. This idea would
work well for so many other issues that are just collecting dust.
Thanks Marsha!
-Paulette
I have also gone to estate sales in my area and found lots of
ancient collections of National Geographic, Ranger Rick, and National
Geographic Magazine for Kids. Usually when I tell them I'm a teacher,
and it's the last day of the sale, after 12 PM, they just give
them to me. So if I'm feeling lucky I wait on buying them. Otherwise,
I go ahead. I had a wonderful experience when I went to a retired
university professor's sale.
When his wife heard me explaining what I was going to do with
his collection of Earth and Sky magazine (wow, what a terrific
astronomy resource even if I don't understand much of it), she
gave me his collection of star maps! I didn't have the heart to
tell her I didn't teach astronomy, but I gave them to our District
Coordinating Teacher who put them in the district's lending library.
-Marsha
I am excited with these magazines ideas. Asking doctor's offices
for their old copies of magazines is terrific. One of my personal
favorites is Zoo Books. Some might think they are for elementary
grades, but the content and comprehension level is much more appropriate
for Middle School. I think it is a monthly publication -- it focuses
on a different animal each time. I LOVE the idea of using a full
range of magazines in classrooms, especially the fine science/geography
ones. I'll bet if you sent flyers home asking for old copies,
you'd get a good response, too. Don't shoot me, anybody, but I
used to throw my old Smithsonian magazines away about every six
months. Not any more!
-Joanne
Here is something that has worked for us. I spent about an hour
on the phone calling various offices in our community, anyplace
I could think of that had a waiting room. I asked if they would
donate their old magazines to our school. Once a month I send
out our trusty attendance clerk to pick them up. By now, he actually
looks forward to a two-hour drive outside of the schoolhouse.
Very carefully, I weed through them and distribute them to homerooms.
Those I weed out, make their way to our staff room. There are
also several credit card companies that are using magazine subscriptions
as incentives to their customers. I called one and got a subscription
to National Geographic and Smithsonian donated to all 35 of our
homerooms. One thing I have realized is that if you ask, most
business people will come through. The key is, you have to ask!
-Mary Anne
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Betsy reminds MiddleWeb readers how critical it is that schools
provide reading materials that will grab student interest.
Back in the early '70's I took a course from Ken and Yetta Goodman
who had been developing reading approaches for inner city youth
in, if I remember correctly, Detroit. The bottom line in this
six-week course on teaching reading was: Get students to read
a minimum of 20 minutes every day, reading something of high interest
to them personally -- even if it was comics-- and have them tell
someone else about what they had read.
We tried it with middle school students who were about 2nd to
3rd grade readers, and some who were K-1 readers. We bought magazines
like People Magazine, Pop Mechanics, - you get the idea. After
they started reading on their own, it was much easier to have
them do serious work on developmental reading skills using materials
that were not of high interest to them because they began to realize
that they could read what they were interested in more easily
if they worked on improving their basic reading skills. Great
and very useful discussion by all!
-Betsy
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Quantity counts, Joanne says:
One of the "new" ideas being taught in graduate library
schools across the country is that the library media center start
rotating collections of reading materials for the classrooms.
That surely should/could include newspapers, journals, and magazines.
The research shows (Stephen Krashen, I believe - I'll find and
quote the source if anyone needs it) that when it comes to making
kids readers, AMOUNT COUNTS. Not what they read, how well or poorly
they read, but HOW MUCH they read. By reading and reading and
reading, they BECOME readers- adept readers. So, getting into
our students' hands reading material that appeals to them is crucial.
Now, please don't anyone think that I am saying teaching reading/literacy/having
workshops don't matter. I am not saying that. I am simply saying
what we all know, but now the research proves- AMOUNT COUNTS.
Ask your school library teacher about the viability of a rotating
reading collection. It takes time and help to coordinate, but
perhaps some students could volunteer to select what books/materials
to include and help the librarian with the clerical aspects of
checking them out. What I hope is that MOST librarians will consider
this method of pushing literacy. The traditional scowling, hair-bunned,
tortoiseshell glasses-wearing librarian who held onto her books,
almost avariciously, is becoming a thing of the past.
Another push for the Amount Counts method is to convince schools
and libraries to do away with the two-book limit checkout rule.
I can't think of a better way to convince administration that
a reading program is working than for them to see empty shelves
in a library. It is also another great way to convince them that
more funding is needed for more books. Books HAVE TO get off the
shelves and into the student's hands for reading to take place.
-Joanne
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Avis Breding offered some strategies she uses to encourage
reading:
With the group I have who do not like to read and are always challenging
me to find a way to make them read.... I came up with a few ideas.
I call them the *Ring Sheets*
We run them off on colored cardstock, laminate, punch a hole and
put a ring in them.
The rings hold about 8-9 sheets of different colors. Each question
on the sheets have point value.
We are asking for 35 points a week, and they have to use different
colors.
I also decided to do one other thing for accountability. When
they have chosen a book that is not included in Accelerated Reader
(not up for debate! I like it for record keeping.), we figure
out about how many points it is worth. The least amount most of
my class can have a week is 2. So we divide the pages in the book
by how many weeks/points they need and that is what is expected.
It gives them an idea as well of what they should be doing.
Then we also do a readback once a week or every other week. I
know that is impossible with a lot of middle school classes.
Avis
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Avis Breding posted an example of one of her "ring sheets":
This is one of the sheets my students keep on a ring to work on
during
reading... so far it has really helped.
Blue Sheet
(means it is run off on blue light cardstock)
| Points | Assignment No. | Assignment |
| 10 | 1 | Write a book review that might be published in a newspaper. |
| 10 | 2 | Write an original poem that expresses the plot of your book. |
| 6 | 3 | Prepare a list of 6 questions you could ask other people about they book to see if they have read it. |
| 10 | 4 | Make a travel poster inviting tourists to visit the setting of your book. |
| 15 | 5 | Write a letter to the main character of the book asking questions or making complaints about the situations in the book. |
| 10 | 6 | Design some costumes for the characters in the book. |
| 20 | 7 | Rewrite the story as a picture book. Use simple vocabulary so younger students can understand your version |
| 10 | 8 | Make a poster advertising your book. |
| 12 | 9 | Write a feature story news story about the book that tells the story as it might be found on the front page of a newspaper. Give it a headline. |
| 10 | 10 | Make a time table showing the most important events that happened in the book. |
| 20 | 11 | Make 3-4 puppets of the characters in the book. Write a puppet show about your favorite part of the book. Plan to perform your puppet show to the class. |