01.21.15In Favor of Books
Working on Reading Reconsidered this morning, my book on reading with Colleen Driggs and Erica Woolway. Found myself going a bit manifesto in this tiny–but strident–snippet on the power of teaching books–real books- the whole thing:
We are strong believers in ‘the power of the book,’ of students building a sustained relationship with a text over time and coming to understand its perspective and mode of narration, even the various types of narration with in it and how they shift. In fact, only by glimpsing these changes and variations within a book as part of a sustained relationship between reader and text can students really learn to read. This was one of our first realizations when we began studying successful teachers for Teach Like a Champion, even before we’d dreamed of Reading Reconsidered. Even in an era of test-based accountability that some might think implies teaching excerpts to prepare students to read excerpts on tests, the most successful schools and teachers consistently opted for books—and books of substance—as the core of their instructional choices. Of course they included short stories and poetry and other forms of texts but the year was built around books, rather than a constant mélange of excerpts and articles and smaller pieces that replicated the structure of exams. To read well still means to read books, great ones, we think.
It’s really all about the books, isn’t it? When I think of your last three posts on reading — the importance of text selection and text complexity, the importance of questioning and addressing the knowledge deficit, and this one, on the power of books of substance — I find myself giving a good hard look at the principles driving text selection at our school (a job that primarily falls to me as the ELA curriculum coordinator at an innovation school with freedom to pick its own texts).
Text selection is critically important, and I feel confident giving answers to the “choice and voice” crowd about why knowledgeable adults should be picking quality texts for kids, at least a lot of the time. But I want to hear from you about engagement. Specifically:
– what strategies do you recommend for creating interest in difficult, archaic texts? My instinct has been to pair difficult excerpts with more accessible, modern, longer texts (eg excerpts from Frankenstein with “Flowers for Algernon”). The conceptual connection creates interest, but am I selling kids short by excerpting the hard stuff?
-do you have any recommendations for managing the actual reading of the books? We have a “J” shaped achievement curve in our school — a substantial number of kids below grade level and most students who read well above grade level. We are committed to heterogeneous classed, but differentiation is hard. Whole group strategies like Control the Game and Interactive Reading don’t push the high achievers enough, but if we give too much AIR time, our lower kids don’t read or don’t get it. And in reality, if we were to push our best readers, they would probably need different texts altogether. Any thoughts on sharing shorter anchor texts, but differentiating the longer novels with reading groups (all texts connected conceptually)? I’m considering that structure for next year.
I’ve really enjoyed your last three posts that give us a glimpse into Reading Reconsidered. They’ve given me a lot to think about, sometimes even shaking me up a bit. So thanks for that (I think!). Our department attended the Reading and the Common Core training in Albany last year and got so much out of it. Looking forward to the PD associated with this book!
Jennifer Snodgrass
McAuliffe International School, Denver
Thanks, jennifer. i think that text selection is so important even without considering how powerful “shared’ text selection–teachers do it in a coordinated fashion so that, say, every sixth grade teacher reads the giver–is as a PD tool among teachers. every time you meet to talk about writing questions or checking for understanding or infusing more writing into classes, you develop examples for the giver. teachers can then use them in their actual lessons…. all teachers… and you can spend time having teachers simple talk about what’s important to analyze in the text. an unspoken lever to good reading instruction is deep teacher mastery of the text in question. i want my best teachers forever talking to my developing ones about how they approach that question. anyway thanks for your thoughtful response!
-doug