Fortunately this week’s topic is one in which my school has been actively working in the last year and will continue with this year. Small groups of teachers have been working on inquiry projects that foster a love of reading, thereby creating stronger readers.
When trying to create a reading culture, getting the reluctant and struggling readers on board is the biggest challenge. When reading is difficult or boring the kids view it as a chore. The single biggest indicator of success in student engagement is putting the choice in their hands. Taking the choice away turns reading into hard work. I’ve seen this first-hand with my own children who are strong and avid readers but fight with me about reading homework assigned by the teacher. If the child is being forced to read a book, are they truly engaging with it and reaping the benefits of the reading? Neil Gaiman (2013) tends to think not: "The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity. And that means, at its simplest, finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read them."
This sentiment is supported by Stephen Krashen (2012). The following video is lengthy, but engaging and worth watching. Krashen makes statements such as “The kind of reading we do that really counts is free voluntary reading” and “When you give kids interesting things to read, they will read them. No question.” But how can we define what is “interesting” to kids? Of course that will be different for every child and so letting THEM decide what is interesting is key.
The same theory is repeated in Malvika Bhagwat’s blog post Four Classroom-Ready Tips to Boost Reading Engagement and Drive Learning (2018) “Giving students a choice in what they read is crucial for student motivation and engagement; students are more likely to read purposefully if they can choose what they read. In fact, self-selected reading activities are approximately twice as impactful in driving reading development as teacher-directed reading activities.”
While there are innumerable sources supporting the theory that readers will be more engaged in self-selected materials, the challenge my colleagues and I encountered in our classrooms was that students didn’t tend to digress from the books they knew they loved, and so we’d have kids re-reading the same books over and over again. In an attempt to expand their horizons we partnered with the teacher-librarian to do some lessons around different genres and then she’d pull books from a particular genre that the students possibly hadn’t encountered before. In our classrooms we put a big focus on “read-to-someone” (Boushey & Moser, 2009) hoping to expose students to different materials through reading with peers. After a “read-to-someone” session the students would fill out a simple reflection about their partner’s book including whether or not they’d choose that book in the future. Our findings were that peer-opinion had a big impact on student choice and that it did encourage kids to look past their comfort zones.
I think one thing the staff at my school does successfully is that we are all working towards the same goal in different ways. Every classroom teacher as well as the teacher-librarian is working towards fostering this love of reading and so year after year students are working towards the same goal as well. On the last Friday of every month the entire school, including staff, bring their books into the hallway and sit and read for half an hour together. Students seeing their older and younger peers as well as adults engaging in reading for pleasure is a big motivator and is invaluable in fostering a culture of readers.
Works Cited
Hi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI also focused on the importance of choice for book selection. It’s actually a big deal at our school because we have a high proportion of students who are considered at-risk readers. But how do you force an intermediate student to check out a book at Grade 1 or 2 level? In my opinion, this doesn’t work and isn’t ok. We have some high interest lower level books but they are not always appropriate, nor desired. Instead, we try to offer other ways and supports for students to access the chosen text. I think there is sometimes different ideas of what is considered reading, and that when audiobooks or ‘read-alouds’ are used, it isn’t considered reading. We are experimenting with this right now in an effort to support struggling readers. Dr. Stephen Krashen’s quote in your post strongly resonates with me: “The kind of reading we do that really counts is free voluntary reading.” I think this is so important, and can be applied as an audio option.
I was also interested in how you discussed how your students don’t digress from books they like. I’ve encountered this with a genre or series (ie graphic novels only) and we have to work hard to suggest alternatives. We are currently trying visuals available to show students similar book choices (i.e. if you like this, try this). I really like your idea about “read to someone sessions” that are focused on sharing book choice. We do “read with someone,” but not with this focus and I am definitely going to give it a try. I think this may be more successful that the standard individual book recommendation sheet that students fill out periodically through the year. Thanks for the tip:)
Hi Jen,
ReplyDeleteI love Gaiman’s articles because they are so great for my motivation as a reading teacher! Have you read any of his children’s books? I was curious after reading his article so borrowed ‘Fortunately, the Milk’ from my local library - it was quite entertaining. It actually led to me making a connection with a new student this week when he mentioned that was his favourite book. From his surprise, I’m guessing he doesn’t come across many people who have even heard of it. Now I want to read more!
I've added my name to my profile but it's not showing up here yet. This is Kristi =)
DeleteA good blog post on how you are working within your school community to support and foster a vibrant reading culture. You have described a very similiar situation to many schools, and are challenged by the same type of students and approaches that most Teacher-Librarians face. How to we engage students in new materials that stretch their abilities and expose them to new authors, genres and stories? Your post describes a whole school approach with each teacher taking their own approach, I wonder if there are opportunities for a whole school approach using the same strategy, or theme? Your blog post was well done with a good video embedded and some links, also, good use of labels to categorize your post.
ReplyDeleteHi Jen,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing all your ideas. I agree with you (And echo what many of our classmates have said) - choice is SO important in building students love of literacy. I love your strategy of "read-to-someone." From what I've observed with my students, many love performing, so having them get to perform to a friend by reading to them is brilliant. And yes, students often listen to their peers more than they do to teachers. In the past, I've had students sign up to give book talks to the class, sharing amazing books they have read. It really boosted their interest in certain books/series, and it was really fun to hear what students had to say about different genres. My personal favourite was when a student shared a biography she read and introduced it by saying "It's a biography, so it's real and based on her life... but it's like, it's still a story. It's not a real story, but it's like the story of her life." And the students all gasped with wonder. It was hilarious (and students started checking out more biographies after that!)
(Kelli)