Introduction:
Sometimes, as an English teacher, I struggle with what my true goal for students is by the end of the course. In math, students should be able to effectively utilize certain formulas to solve difficult problem sets. In science it may be to understand various life styles. In English it should be to create lifelong readers and effective, skilled writers.
Chapter 1:
Reinforcement of backwards design. Having a good test in existence at the start of a unit or novel study. Therefore, as you go through the unit or novel, as a teacher you facilitate the style of thinking students will be evaluated in by asking those same good questions WHILE reading.
Frequently question yourself as an educator and the philosophy of the school to determine if philosophically and practically we are following. Gallagher provided some good questions to consider...
What do we mean when we say our school values reading?
Why is it that the higher the grade level, the higher the chances that students are turned off to reading?
Is our treatment of struggling readers helping to lift them out of the remedial reading track? Or are the same student mired in remedial classes year after year? Is our treatment working?
Is the percentage of students who love reading dwindling? What is our school doing to contribute to this phenomenon?
Are our students doing enough recreational reading? If not, why not? What can we do to change the downward trend?
Are we giving our students the kinds of reading experiences that lead them to be "expert citizens"?
Chapter 2:
Love this strategy!
Give students difficult passages or editorials that highlight corresponding ideas with a main text/novel and have them highlight anything that confuses them. Once students read/highlight they collaborate with other students within a group to work through their rough spots.
Value and study the classics, but make it a point-in efforts to develop passionate lifelong readers-to, as a school,a put good books in front of students. Make this a school priority.
Making it a priority and SCHEDULING sustained silent reading (SSR) into class time. Some research from Stephen Krashen to support the investment in SSR:
In 38 of 41 studies, students given free voluntary reading (FVR) time did as well as or better in reading comprehension tests than students given traditional skill-based reading instruction.
The longer FVR is practices, the more consistent the results.
Reading as a leisure activity is the best predictor of comprehensions, vocabulary, and reading speed. Kids who do the most recreational reading become the best readers.
Readings is too complex to learn one rule at a time.
Love this strategy!
Article-of-the-week activity for students. Essentially, Gallagher distributes an article to each of his students on Monday. (You can access the articles on his website, www.kellygallagher.org ) Sometimes the articles correlate with big ideas in class, sometimes they have nothing to do with the bigger scheme in class other than they are interesting topics. Alongside the article the directions to student are as follows:
1. Demonstrate evidence if close reading.
2. Highlight your confusion.
3. Answer the two questions at the bottom of the pages (What is the author's purpose? Who is the intended audience?)
4. Write a 1+ page reflection in your writer's notebook (day book).
My idea is the reflections can be checked alongside other day book checks or day book defenses. * I'd love to get my entire English department on board with this, as Gallagher did, and, in that way, the responsibility for choosing an article can be shared among teachers. Just a thought.
Chapter 3:
Love this strategy!
When reading Shakespeare, provide students with a passage from anywhere in a play, particularly one that highlights an idea or advice that transcends time period and establishes relevancy with today. Have students read and translate the advice/ideas line for line into their own, modern language. In doing so, students can be invested in the text from early on.
Other strategies I love!
Topic Floods
A way to augment a text. Provide students with a variety of written material covering a wide spectrum of opinions on a topic covered in the text. I doing so, students color code various arguments throughout the texts to see what ides on the topic exist. Great starter to a whole class discussion!
50/50 approach. Essentially 50% of what students read is academic and the other 50% is recreational.
Three ingredients to building a reader:
1. They must have interesting books to read.
2. They must have time to read inside of school.
3. They must have a place to read their books.
Chapter 4:
Big Chunk/Little Chunk philosophy with reading
Assign students a big chunk to read (maybe a chapter or two). This "big chunk" of reading allows students to enter that "zone" of reading, where they are captivated by the text and can read for a longer, uninterrupted duration. The "little chunk" is a portion of that bigger reading assignment that hones in on an idea or requires the student to analyze the author's particular writing techniques, a character's motives or another important part of the text.
Tasks while close reading the "little chunk":
1. Read with a pencil in hand, and annotate the text.
2. Look for patterns in the things you've noticed about the text-repetitions, contradictions, similarities.
3. Ask questions about the patterns you've noticed-especially "how" and "why."
I love the idea of an ongoing, year-long chart tracking what good readers do. I will be using this idea this coming school year. As you read and analyze text, make note of students doing things that "good readers due". By tracking these techniques and skills, students can reference-specifically struggling students- these strategies throughout the year.
If you've made it this far, thank you for bearing with me! I hope you found someone relevant and useful.
