When READ is a Four-Letter Word

Imagine for just a second that you HATE reading. You see it only as something required for school, instead of an enjoyable activity that brings you knowledge, escape, freedom, entertainment, or examples of gorgeous writing. Chances are this negativity toward reading has been affecting your grades, and probably your behavior, since elementary school. Because when other students are working on assignments independently, you can’t do it, get frustrated, and become gifted at using avoidance techniques. Then adding insult to injury, when you advance to middle school you have an elective taken away…a fun class like art, teen living, tech ed, or coding…so that you can spend 50 minutes of your day being forced to do something that you hate. Needless to say, at the beginning of the year, there are some VERY hostile feelings when students are placed in a reading intervention class.

So, I think it is extremely important to combat some of that negativity starting on Day 1. I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the year getting to know my students. We complete surveys about our lives, our attitudes about reading and writing, and our reading preferences. We also complete identity webs (Check out Being the Change by Sara K. Ahmed). I say we, because anything I ask the students to complete, I do myself. I believe that relationships are key in our classroom. The students need to know that they can trust me, especially when they are likely coming at reading from a vulnerable standpoint.

Another important key to my students’ success is that I am a self-proclaimed, proud book nerd. There is no way that I could serve as a reading teacher without being a reader myself. As Carol Jago stated in a recent article, “When teachers tell stories from their own reading lives about books they have read again and again, about books they have abandoned, about books that made them cry, students will wonder if there might be something between those pages for them.”

We have a classroom library of over 500 titles at different reading levels, including picture books, graphic novels, story anthologies, novels in verse, fiction and nonfiction. Students have time every single day to read a book that THEY choose. If our classroom library doesn’t have what they need, we are blessed with a beautiful, functional, fully staffed school library. We participate in book passes, book talks, read-alouds, and book trailers. We watch YouTube videos of authors reading chapters from their own books. And this year for the first time, thanks to #kidsneedmentors, we had an author visit our classroom! 

It's not always as simple as giving a child a book and saying, "Here...read this." I ease the students into a reading routine starting the first day of school. After a book pass, we read for five minutes to see if the book is a good fit for them. Then we work up to 10 minutes. It is possible to have classes read for up to 20 minutes, but after an extended break, we usually need to start building up reading stamina all over again.

Every day, students enter our room and read the agenda posted on the board. There is a reminder at the top that for the first 15 minutes, the classroom is device-free. This is dedicated daily independent reading time. Sometimes students read books independently, sometimes with a partner or small group. We have tried many different strategies to keep track of our reading, but what works the best for us is Status of the Class. (Check out The Reading Zone by Nancie Atwell and Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller). Basically, I keep a list for each class of the book titles each student is reading and their page numbers. This cuts down on the time it takes for students to figure out what page they left off on and allows me to quickly see how long it takes them to get through their books. 

A few years ago, I started using Donalyn Miller’s 40 Book Challenge. This is a way for students to examine different genres and find out what they like/dislike. I have adapted the genre choices a little each year, based on what is popular with our classes. It’s also super important to have books of varying lengths because the majority of my kiddos are overwhelmed by chapter books at first. Even when I’ve read aloud from novels in verse like Swing by Kwame Alexander and show them how much white space there is on each page, I am met with, “That’s too LONG!” 

I would LOVE to be able to tell you that with all of these strategies firmly in place in our room starting on Day 1, all of our students find a book they are interested in and jump right in and read. But, this is not always the case. We’re trying to overcome what could potentially be YEARS of negative feelings about reading. It's hard work. And here’s a little something I've learned…you can force students into intervention, but you can’t make them read. They legitimately have to WANT to. Sometimes a victory is a student who has never before read a book on his/her/their own finishing one book in a school year. 

Our students deserve the gift of daily reading time with access to books that they choose for themselves, because it is absolutely the best practice for helping our young people become self-sufficient readers. 

We Really Need a Strong Foundation

In a recent leadership meeting, we participated in the Spaghetti Marshmallow Tower Challenge. The winning team had to construct the highest free-standing tower that could support a marshmallow sitting on top, using only spaghetti and masking tape. We had 15 minutes to complete the task. Our team completely agreed that the base needed to be strong in order to support the weight. The height of the tower depended on the strength of the foundation. As far as the actual structure, well…. Let’s just say that we did not win. I’m going to be totally honest with you…I lost interest in the task pretty quickly. It was challenging, and I really didn’t have any interest in struggling with it. At one point I actually said, “I’m sorry. I stopped caring a couple minutes ago.”

The week prior to the marshmallow challenge, we were asked to complete a walk-through of a colleague’s classroom. I visited a social studies class. The students were reviewing for their upcoming unit test. The teacher had divided the class into groups, using data acquired from previous classwork. The directions for each task were on the board for reference. The teacher specified directions before students rotated to the next activity. It was a beautifully planned and executed lesson.

It just so happened that one of my reading intervention students was in this class. His first activity was working on a computer program (read an article, answer some questions). He raised his hand because he was having trouble with a multiple-choice question that was asking for a synonym of the word “decision”. He couldn’t read the word. I read the question aloud to him, and he immediately clicked “choice”. His next activity was an independent walkabout that matched people and terms to their correct descriptions. Students were to read clues posted at different spots in the room, then walk to the correct answer in order to receive their next clue. The rest of his group chose a clue and took off in different directions. My student just kind of stood there. He was looking at the clues and glancing down at his notes. By all appearances, he was fully engaged in the task. But in reality, he was at a complete standstill.

So, what did I take away?

Just like the height of that spaghetti tower, our students’ learning is solely dependent on what kind of foundation is in place. My student did not have the necessary foundation to be successful in that classroom on his own. That thoughtfully planned, beautifully constructed, and well-executed lesson was inaccessible to him. And the truth that no one seems to want to talk about is that this problem is not just isolated to one or two kids in a class. A strong literacy foundation is missing for SO many of our students. Imagine for a moment trying to make it through a school day when you are unable to read or write about the materials being presented. What I see happening on a daily basis is the students’ response becoming, “I’m sorry. I stopped caring a couple minutes (or months or years) ago.” 

We need to do better. 

My Journey as a Literacy Teacher

My career began in January 1998 when I was a student teacher. I graduated in May and worked as a substitute teacher and private reading tutor. My first full-time position was as a Title 1 assistant in a first-grade classroom. The next year when the Title funds shifted, I was moved to the middle school. And I have been there ever since! So although my undergrad degree was Elementary K-6, and I intended to be an elementary school teacher, I have spent pretty much the entirety of my career with middle school kiddos. 

While working as an assistant, I began a Master’s program in reading. I obtained certification as a reading specialist, and a Master’s Degree in Reading K-12. I taught 6^th grade reading in a middle school where reading and English were taught as two separate subjects—I focused on reading comprehension and vocabulary while my teaching partner focused on grammar and writing. In 2005 I relocated to Virginia when I accepted a position as a middle school reading specialist. I co-taught English with special education teachers in grades 6-8. In 2007 I began my new assignment as a reading intervention teacher in grades 6-8. I have been working predominantly with students who have difficulty with/have no interest in/would rather be doing anything BUT reading for 20 years. So, this is the lens from which I view the educational system.

I don't just say this to impress my students...I also really do love to learn. I read professional books each year because I didn’t want to fall out of the loop once I finished grad school. Below are books that have greatly impacted my classroom practice and beliefs. 

If you ask people who have worked with me, they will tell you how dedicated I am to literacy instruction. I am an avid reader myself, and I want nothing more than for my students to love reading as much as I do. I have also formed some strong opinions about the best practices for our students. At a recent conference, I was reminded that if we are brave enough to state things in private conversations in the hallway or workroom, we need to be brave enough to say them out loud in public. So before I begin to do just that, I wanted to give you a brief glimpse into how my ideas have been shaped.