Dog Man Rescues Reading Identities

 

A giggle broke the silence of room full of reading 4th and 5th graders. The culprit looked around for a friend to share the joke with. His neighbor looked up from his book, leaned over the first student’s book, and they whispered and giggled together for a moment before returning to their own books. 

The first time this happened, I briefly wondered whether I should insist on maintaining strict silent reading protocols. Then I thought, what do I do when my husband and I are sitting around in the evening reading and I come across a funny passage? I giggle. He looks up. I share it with him. He smiles. And then we both go back to reading. It is polite reading behavior to not interrupt other readers—unless there is a reading tidbit so marvelous we can’t refrain from sharing. That's what readers do.

This past winter, Dog Man graphic novels transformed a handful of English language learners in my 4th and 5th grade ELA class into avid readers. At least into avid Dog Man readers—which is a significant start. They suddenly looked forward to reading time. They passed their copies around to each other. They shared their reading. They had inside jokes from their reading. It was truly remarkable.

The students themselves started the movement. So when I passed the class on to another teacher this spring, and the 5th graders graduated into my 6th and 7th grade ELA class, I gifted the elementary classroom a set of the first six Dog Man books. I read them first, and brought them in on successive days. The teacher said the students looked forward to them.   

One morning before the school day started, a 4th grader knocked on the door of the teachers’ office where about 8 of us have desks and shouted in to his teacher, “Do you have any Captain Underpants books?” “No, I don’t,” she answered. The student responded, “Does Mrs. Essenburg?” No—but I’m happy to be seen as a probable source of interesting reading material!

What about the students that graduated into my 6th and 7th grade class? Are they limited to Dog Man? No. Some of them still enjoy Diary of a Wimpy Kid now and then, but they've naturally matured as readers. Halfway through the spring term when we made reading ladders and I demonstrated with the Dog Man books being the easiest books I’d read and Putin’s People being the hardest, there were a lot of nostalgic “Oh, remember Dog Man!” responses, but not a single student clamored to read one. The students who enjoyed it last year have now moved on to Peter Brown’s Wild Robot books, The Ranger’s Apprentice series, and Alan Gratz’s historical fiction. 

Meanwhile, I recently subbed in the 4th and 5th grade social studies class for a few days. They were working on posters summarizing a part of their study of Alexander the Great that had interested them. One 4th grader directed me to a particular portion of the cartoon images that illustrated his poster. He said, “I learned to draw that fist from Dog Man!” When he pointed out how he’d also used the common Dog Man misspelling of “supa” for “super,” I said, “Yes, I see how you’ve patterned your poster on Dog Man, and do you think your social studies teacher will understand that?” The student thought for a moment, then erased “supa” and replaced it with the accepted dictionary spelling. A teachable moment for considering the importance of audience. 

I’d long agreed with the thinking that graphic novels are “real” reading, that it only takes one “home run” book to create a reading identity, and that while a student who enjoys reading Captain Underpants may one day enjoy reading Hamlet, the student who doesn’t read, won’t. Now I’ve seen it in action. If in addition to educating students about the importance of reading, modeling a reading life, providing time for reading, and conferring with students about reading, I work to provide a wide range of reading choice--something (maybe even Dog Man!) to grab each student's interest--students will grow into a reading identity. And when that happens, they grow in vocabulary, writing, knowledge of the world, empathy, and so many other good things.

What books have you found for igniting a student's identity as a reader?    

Building a Reading Identity 10 Minutes at a Time

 

“What would you rate this book on a scale of 1 to 10?” one 6th grader asked another, standing in front of our classroom library last Friday after class. She was holding Maybe He Just Likes You by Barbara Dee. Another 6th grader drifted over to listen in on the impromptu book talk. After discussing several books, the first student walked away with Counting by Sevens by Holly Goldberg Sloan. Sharing book recommendations naturally is what readers do. That’s why it delights me to overhear my students doing it. They are taking on the identity of readers. 

Judging by cover wear, these are 6 of the top recommendations from my 6th and 7th graders

What helps students take on this identity? I have found time, choice, modeling, conversations, and reflection to be key. 

• Time: For most of the past 2 years, we have been starting every 45-minute class period with 10 minutes of independent reading. 
• Choice: I make sure a range of interesting books are available for students, and that I am familiar enough with both the books and the students to make recommendations based on interests and reading level. 
• Modeling: I model my own reading life as a curious, enthusiastic, and eclectic reader. 
• Conversations: I check in with where students are (book title and page number) once a week and conference with them once every 2 weeks. Students share their favorite book of the trimester with their classmates inn a presentation at the end of the term. 
• Reflection: And students set goals and reflect on their reading.

This first trimester of our new academic year (mid-April to mid-July), I added 2 experiments based on a re-reading of Book Love by Penny Kittle: (1) setting goals by reading rate (tested in a 10-minute reading time) and (2) adding a reading ladder reflection. The reading ladder reflection I initiated mid-term to help the students think about challenge and the books they chose. Students make a list of the books they’ve read from easiest (on the bottom) to most difficult (on the top). Then they reflect on their choices. It isn’t necessarily that easy is bad and hard is good. We can relax with an easy book, challenge ourselves with a hard book, and look for what is a good level of challenge and interest for learning. 

As it turned out, it was doubly good I did that mid-term reflection, because the last week of our term was a mad scramble with Covid cases sending us online. So in my own reflecting on students’ independent reading this term, I’ve used a combination of their mid-term start on a reading ladder, and their final reflection. 

Students in my combination 6th/7th grade class read an average of 8 books each (range: 2 - 15, mean and mode: 7). Favorites included novels in verse (Crossover), adventure (Hatchet and the Alex Rider books), historical fiction (Ground Zero and Grenade by Alan Gratz), memoir (While I Was Away), and fantasy (A Wish in the Dark, Ranger’s Apprentice series, and Inheritance). Books like Sideways Stories from Wayside School, The Wild Robot, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid fill the bill for students still building English reading proficiency. 

What did students learn? Here are some of their observations…

• I realized that I use the same word too many times when I write something, and that good authors don’t use the same word over and over.
• This term, I realized that I don’t dislike all fantasy books. Last year, I wouldn’t even try to read fantasy, but this year I decided I would try fantasy, and I really got into Ranger’s Apprentice. Since then, I realized that I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
• I can read Japanese books very fast, but I read slowly with English books. As for me, it is hard to image the scenes of each events or actions. I like books with pictures because it is easier to imagine them. Graphic novels—I like them and I can read faster than Alex Rider or The Faithful Spy, but I don’t think I can learn very much from graphic novels.
• The Tale of Despereaux was the easiest.... The hardest one was The Book Thief because it is hard to know who’s speaking. The most satisfying one is Inheritance because it’s so long and the last of the series.

Students had a variety of answers to strategies they use to help them understand: 

• Summarizing or translate into Japanese 
• Trying to guess what’s going to happen 
• Looking up words I don’t know

When I asked them to set a summer reading goal for themselves and make a plan for accomplishing it, one student really got specific: 1 day = 15 min; 1 week = 1 hour 15 minutes. Read while my grandma is doing yoga.

And my favorite final question, when I ask students to fill in the blanks of the following sentence: Reading is _____ because _____. Here are some of the responses from this term:

• Reading is inspiring because it helps me think of new ideas and new points of view.
• Reading is good because you can learn more English.
• Reading is important because you can learn about the world, and can also widen your imagination.

How do you help your students build a reading identity?

Can You Teach It? Harnessing Authentic Assessment for Language Learning (Part 2)

Student slide showing the location of the Mkugwa refugee came in Tanzania

 

In the hall outside the 4th grade classroom, one 8th grader was frantically digging through his backpack. More frantically than he ever looks for homework in my class. (Not that it happens that frequently.) His classmate is hovering over him anxiously. 

I hint, “Are you ready go in and teach the lesson?” 

The classmate says, “No.” 

“No? It’s time for class to start. The 4th and 5th graders are waiting. What’s the problem?” I say.

“He can’t find his script.” 

“Do you have yours?” I ask.

“Yes.” 

“Is it the same?” 

“Yes.” 

“Then hand it to me and I’ll make a copy.” 

Life lesson learned: Be prepared. How many times has an adult told him that? This time, I think it will take. Not because of a scolding or a docked grade, but because he was imagining walking into that classroom without his script, looking out over the expectant elementary faces waiting for him to speak, feeling his own embarrassment and his friend's frustration. 

Recently my 8th grade advanced EFL class had the opportunity to teach an elementary class. From the day I announced the project, students took so much ownership for their learning—the energy and focus in the classroom was palpable. I wrote about it here. Now that the project is finished, it’s time to reflect on how it went. Was it worth it? Would I do it again? The short answer—in a heartbeat. Not all the time, but maybe at the end of every trimester.  

After the nerve-wracking prequel in the hallway, the 8th graders introduced themselves and started the lesson with a hook: “Imagine that you suddenly had to leave the country. What would you do?” It was meant to draw students into the life of a refugee who suddenly had to flee home. After a few moments of thought, a 5th grader responded, “Email my teacher to tell her I would be absent.” I watched the 8th graders realize what it means to engage a real audience that doesn’t always respond as you expect. And they did. 

They began to work the room. I watched them adjust instruction as they identified the different levels of the students they were teaching. I watched them ask follow-up questions to prompt deeper engagement (“show me how you would scrunch a piece of paper”), or give hints to clarify confusion (“Look in paragraph 5”). I watched them answer questions from the students, and sometimes get stumped (“What’s the difference between scrunch and crumble?). (Note to self: Let them in on the secret that even better than a teacher who knows everything is one who models delight in finding something new to learn. “Great question! I’m so glad you asked. I don’t know the answer. I wonder how we could find out?” )

That is learning I really want to build on. 

What exactly were the benefits?

• Motivation. Authentic assessment is powerfully motivating. They spent two weeks fully immersed in making sense of the content themselves (big ideas, like how global issues create refugees; facts, like where Burundi is located; vocabulary, like scrunch; grammar like present perfect tense), planning the lesson, and creating effective materials—a slide deck and assessment (see photo).  
• Learning. Acquiring information is one level of learning. Applying that information to a new situation is another level. Teaching someone else to acquire and apply information is the apex of learning. Conversely, the ability to teach is a characteristic of a good language learner. So learning to teach language not only ensures that my students have the highest mastery of the content and skills taught, it also makes them even better language learners!   
• Flourishing. We exist to love God and neighbor. When we can use our learning to teach others, actually helping them to develop the potential God has placed in them, we are living part of God’s purpose for us. Learning is purposeful and learners flourish. 
• Role models. Sure, teachers can be role models for students. Older students, whether they realize it or not, are also role models for younger students. This project capitalized on that natural connection. The elementary students told their teacher afterwards, “They’re so COOL!”  They don’t say that about me…
• Metacognition. Eighth graders learned how teachers construct lessons, with a hook, goals, frontloading, the lesson itself, and assessment to demonstrate to what extent the goals have been met. They realized how much more teachers know about their subject that they can pass on to students in one lesson. 
• Empathy. Putting themselves in the shoes of elementary kids: what do they already know? What do they need to know? What will engage them? Putting themselves in the shoes of their teachers: Thinking like a teacher thinking about students.
• Practical life lessons. Checking your materials ahead of time. Including running through your slide decks. (When I had them practice the lesson the day before, they discovered one of them was teaching the definition scrunch as in "to smash into a small ball" and the other was assessing the definition "the sound that walking on gravel makes.") 

I asked the 8th graders about their thoughts for next time. They would pick a shorter reading. Try different goals. Ask some deeper questions, like “What did you learn?” (a question the elementary teacher asked the 8th graders at the end of the lesson).

So I’ll be looking for a good shorter reading to use at the end of next term. Or maybe ask 8th graders to be on the lookout for one. And I'll be re-reading this post to remember the learning I'm building on.

How about you? Have you ever had students teach a lesson to peers or to younger students? What were the benefits? How did you build on them? 

Reset on Reading Conferences

School's out in three weeks: Gearing up our online library splash page for summer reading!

“Mrs. Essenburg! This talks about learning from failure, too!” a sixth grader whispered at me, excitedly waving her independently reading book, From an Idea to Google, across a sea of students silently buried in their own choice reading books. The surprising relationship between failure and success has been the topic of our whole-class readings, and this student just realized it is a much bigger topic than an English class unit. Making connections from a text to yourself, to the world, and to other texts is a vital strategy of effective readers, and this child is using it! Maybe because I've restarted reading conferences.

Conducting reading conferences with students is important not only for monitoring and encouraging their reading lives in general, and mentoring them in the types of conversations that readers have, but also for scaffolding the transfer of specific reading strategies. Unfortunately, I’ve found it all too easy this term to slide into frittering away my first 10 minutes of class, while students are reading their independent choice books, in organizational tasks—passing back papers, touching base with students who have been absent, connecting my laptop to the projector. These are tasks that have to get done sometime, but I’m losing the two most important things that have to happen while students are reading: modeling reading myself, and conferencing with students about what they are reading. This week, I got back on the conferencing bandwagon, and I’ve had some really interesting conversations.

Since we worked on determining a theme together as a class, asking individuals, “What is a theme of the book you’re reading?” is a great check on how they’re doing with transfer. When I asked the student reading The Wild Robot, he looked at me blankly. “What are some big ideas in the book?” I prompted, as I pointed to the poster of one-word big ideas on the wall. “Oh! Um...family…um…love,” he responded. “Okay, now put those into a sentence that tells me what the author believes about family and love.” He lit up: “Family love is important!” 

When I asked another student the same question about her fantasy book she ventured, “Well, the main character looks different from everybody else, but she keeps trying and finds she does have a gift…so I guess the theme would be, even if you don’t fit in, keep trying and you can succeed.” I considered this young woman with one Japanese parent and one American parent and then took the conversation one more step: “Does that theme connect to your life in any way?” She paused for a moment and then responded, “Yes, because I looked different from everybody in Japanese school I went to.”

Another student has devoured all the fantasy books in my classroom library that he finds interesting and has resigned himself to exploring other genres in the last few weeks. Curious about his findings, I asked him which of the non-fantasy books he’d enjoyed the most. He picked the one he was currently half-way through, The Last Cherry Blossom, about a Japanese girl living in Hiroshima during World War 2. Wondering whether he was saying that just because it was at hand and easy, I asked him, “What do you like about it?” He said because it connected with the novel we’d read as a class back in the winter, When My Name Was Keoko, about a Korean girl during the Japanese occupation of her country. The two books taught him about the experiences of two different people living through the same war on different sides. “Give me a specific,” I pressed. He answered, “They were both hungry.”

I’m still a novice at conducting reading conferences with students, but these and other conferences I conducted this week, and the further connections they’ve inspired, motivate me to keep practicing. It just takes two to three minutes per student, so I can do three or four a day. I plan to get around to every student once every two weeks. 

Sometimes I’m afraid I won’t be able to think of good questions, so when I walk around conferencing, I carry notecards with questions I can ask if I go blank. They come from Penny Kittle’s book Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion in Adolescent Readers, where she categorizes reading conferences into three types and gives typical questions for each:

Conferences That Monitor a Reading Life (Kittle 80)

• What are you reading? How did you choose it? How do you find good books?
• What’s on your to-read-next list? Which authors are your favorites?
• How much did you read last year?
• Do you consider yourself a reader? Where do you read at home?

Conferences That Teach a Reading Strategy (Kittle 82)

• How is the reading going for you?
• Is this an easy or a hard read for you? How do you know?
• Tell me about a time when this book has confused you and what you’ve done to get yourself back on track in your understanding.
• Tell me about these characters—who are they, what do you think of them?
• What questions are at the heart of this book? What questions might the author be trying to answer through the struggles of these characters?
• I see you’re almost finished with the book. When you think back over the way a character has changed in this story, can you point to specific moments when something was revealed about this character? Could you make a claim about this character and support it with evidence from the text?
• How is this book different from the last book you read?

Conferences That Increase Complexity and Challenge (Kittle 84-85)

• What else have you read by this author? What other books have you read that are as difficult as this one?
• Which books on your next list are challenging? Have you considered how to push yourself as a reader?
• Which genres have you read this year? Tell me about a genre you don’t usually read and let’s think about books that might ease the transition from what you love to what will challenge you to think differently.
• Tell me about a book you’ve dropped this year. Why did you drop it?
• How are the books you’ve been reading this year similar?

How about you? Do you conduct reading conferences with students? What questions do you ask? What great conversations do they prompt?