Juli Kendall's Weekly
Reading Workshop Journal
A MiddleWeb Listserv Project
Self-selected members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List are joining
together to explore the Reading Workshop and other ideas about supporting
young adolescent readers. Juli Kendall, a reading teacher/coach in Long
Beach, California, is helping moderate the discussion. Juli is also keeping
a weekly journal of her own Reading Workshop initiative. Find out more about
our project at our Reading Workshop homepage.
You'll find Juli's background article here.
Links to many of the tools created by Juli and her colleagues are embedded
in these journals. Most often, when you click on them, a PDF file will begin
to download. You'll find a list of the downloads here.
Week #18
Helping Students Find Books
in Which They See Themselves
"In November 1960, all of America watched as a tiny six-year-old black
girl, surrounded by federal Marshals, walked through a mob of screaming
segregationists and into her school."
That's how the book description of Through
My Eyes by Ruby Bridges opens. Vivid with history and sepia-toned
photographs, her memoir brings to life Norman Rockwell's 1966 painting
("The Problem We All Live With") of Ruby walking to school escorted
by federal Marshals. Among the Reading Workshop books ordered for this year,
it arrived in early September. Shaquila immediately fell in love with it.
A few words about Shaquila. At the beginning of the school year she didn't
like to read. If she could find something to read, other than a fan magazine,
she couldn't sit still long enough to read it. But Through My Eyes
was a "just right" book for her. According to her reading level,
it was much too difficult and way too long, but, as usual, she was engaged
so she never noticed. She kept the book, with its really large format, secreted
away in her desk, and read it every chance she got. "I can't believe
what happened to that little girl, and she looks just like me," Shaquila
said when we conferenced about the book.
In A
Framework for Understanding Poverty, Ruby Payne explains what many
already believe of education. "Poverty remains a primary influence
on the educational progress and attainment of our children." It's "the
extent to which an individual does without resources."
It gets awfully complicated, in case anyone hadn't noticed, and much of
what I have read and understand about teaching and learning shows me that
readers often need to "see themselves" in what they read, exactly
like Shaquila did with Through My Eyes. If we can supply resources
in Reading Workshop that help students see themselves -- and the support
to understand what they are reading -- then we may be able to make a difference
for our readers. It's an opportunity to provide a pathway to change for
students like Shaquila. But the need is so great.
So why try? Many years ago, a great hurricane struck an island in the Caribbean.
After the storm passed, stranded starfish covered the beach. During a walk
along the shore, visitors encountered a local resident picking up starfish,
tossing them one by one into the sea. "How will she ever get them all
back in the water?" they wondered. As the woman worked, they could
hear her softly saying, "Making a difference for this one, making a
difference for this one."
It's not a matter of choosing whom to provide with resources; rather, it's
about getting started. Look what a difference a tiny 6-year-old girl can
make.
Read
a PBS interview with Ruby Bridges Hall
See an animated version of Loren
Eisley's "Star Thrower" story
See Juli's January curriculum map
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Read Juli's previous journal entry
Read Juli's backgrounder about her work
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