Cultivating a Culture of Reading: Persist

10th graders lost in a good book

"The only books I have ever liked are the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books." The middle school boy grinned unabashedly as he delivered this announcement. 

I’d sidled up to him during sustained silent reading time and whispered what I’d noticed the last several weeks as I’d visited his class: one time he was flipping through the Guinness Book of World Records, one time he’d never moved off the first page of a YA romance, and this time he was looking over a friend’s shoulder at different book.

That was a significant piece of information he had offered me, whether he knew it or not.
"Our library has a lot of Wimpy Kid books," I came back. 

"Really?"

"I’ll go get one for you."

"Okay. Just not, like, 1 - 6 because I’ve already read them." 

I came back a few minutes later with number 8, and I think I detected a sparkle in his eye as he opened to the first page. I told him that the library had through 13, and when I came to reading time next week, I expected to see he’d made some progress—or maybe even had moved on to book 9!

Another boy in the group spoke up, “I have a hard time focusing on my reading.” He waved the copy of Ender’s Game he was holding as he continued, “I mean, I’m reading, but then I’m thinking about other stuff, like what’s for lunch, and I have no idea what I’ve been reading.” 

I quietly explained about our 2 reading voices—the reciting voice that sits on one shoulder and reads the words in the book and the responding voice that sits on the other shoulder and reacts to the words. How we have to make sure that both voices are interacting. When the reciting voice takes over and the responding voice shuts down, that’s when we realize we’ve turned 3 pages and have no idea what was on them. On the other hand, when the responding voice takes over and the reciting voice shuts down, that’s when we make a connection to the book and then forget the book and get lost in the connection. “Oh! a forest! That’s like when we went camping last summer. That was so great! There was a river, and a campfire, and we caught fish and cooked them….” And 5 minutes later, we haven't turned a page. He grinned ruefully and nodded in recognition.

I encouraged him to pay attention to the 2 voices and make sure both were participating. I offered him a couple of options, whenever one of the voices shuts down, to get it going again. He said, “I like that one about making a movie in my head.” A friend of his had been listening and chimed in, “Me, too!” 

And we all picked up our books to read some more.

That was a pretty good period. Plus the girls who’d asked me at the beginning what I was reading, giving me the opportunity to tell them about the 2 books I was carrying under my arm: A Single Shard and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

My biggest takeaway: Even when I’m not the classroom teacher—just the crazy reading lady who sits in their room and reads with them for 5 or 10 minutes every Thursday afternoon and has book posters plastered all over her classroom door and a stack of books next to it every Thursday morning—if I persist in being crazy enough long enough, I become a harmless part of the environment, and even okay to talk to!

Keep reading, loving, and sharing books. The students notice. They really do.

P.S. For more about monitoring the reciting and responding voices and using fix-up strategies when meaning breaks down, see Cris Tovani's books I Read It But I Don't Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers and Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? Content Comprehension, Grades 6-12. For more about our sustained silent reading program, see last week's blog here: "Cultivating a Culture of Reading with Sustained Silent Reading."