Week 23: A New Approach to Developing Reading Comprehension

This week, my school started the first round of SBA testing, which meant we were on a different schedule every day of the week. Meanwhile, my students had just started reading The Great Gatsby the week before, and I had to figure out a way to keep the momentum rolling despite losing time to testing. I also wanted to find a way to put more work on my students' shoulders without having to assign them multiple chapters to read for homework. In other words, I wanted to have them reading in class, but I wanted to get them to do actual work with that reading, because we all know that if you simply tell students to read silently in class (or to read in groups or to follow along while you read), some of the students will pay attention while the rest of the students will: a) work on other assignments, b) fall asleep, c) try to sneak out their phones to check __________ (insert name of any social media app here), or d) all of the above. In the past, I have read or had the students read and:

1. told the students to take notes.
2. stopped to ask the students questions that they then answered in the "Think-Write-Pair-Share" method.
3. asked the students to come up with questions that they then answered in the "Think-Write-Pair-Share" method.

All of these methods work, and they do promote engagement and help students understand a text, but... I wanted to do something different. If you've been following my blog, you know we recently came out of a unit on The Awakening, during which I did a lot of options 2 and 3, and I didn't want to just keep doing the same thing over again.

Therefore, I decided to adapt a method from Inquiry by Design originally intended to be used with short (expository) texts. The method asks students to identify "difficulties" in the text they are reading and to use those difficulties to construct meaning collaboratively. What I like about this method is that it levels the playing field; it allows - and encourages - students to admit they don't understand everything they are reading and to talk about the parts they don't understand. 

In the past, in order to lower the affective filter for my ELLs, I would tell my students to not worry too much if they didn't understand everything and that I wanted them to try to focus on what they did understand. This is all well and good if you understand enough of the text to piece together the story or the theme, but what if you really don't understand anything, as some of my ELLs sometimes tell me in exasperation? And what happens if you think you understand everything, but you really don't? And what am I teaching my students - that they should just ignore things that are difficult for them? How horrible. You can see why I felt a need to change my ways.

I started by recording myself reading all of Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 on my phone. I wanted an audio recording for a couple of reasons: 1) using the recording would allow me to walk around and watch my students follow along with the reading, which is something I can't do very well when I am actually reading out loud, and 2) the recording helped me figure out how I wanted to chunk the text because I decided that I would stop the reading approximately every 5 minutes. (Why 5 minutes? Because it wound up being about 4 pages of text. Also, it wasn't too short where I felt that I was making the reading too choppy, and it wasn't too long where I felt the kids would start to lose focus.)

In class on Tuesday, which happened to be a day where I had about 85 minutes with my 1st period class, as opposed to my normal 56 minutes, I explained to my students that I wanted them to focus on difficulties; I wanted them to follow along with the reading and pay attention to anything they had trouble with or anything that confused them for whatever reason; I told them that if they had no difficulties, then they were not reading very well because even the best readers have difficulties. I told them that they didn't have to worry about writing anything down while we they were listening to the recording, because I would give them 3 or 4 minutes at the end of the first chunk to go back, re-read, and write down their difficulties.

We read the first chunk. I gave them the time to silently look back over the pages we'd just read and to write down their difficulties. Then, I gave them another 3 or 4 minutes to discuss their difficulties with the person sitting next to them. On the next page in their notebook (after the page where they were writing down their individual difficulties), I wanted them to write down anything that they both thought was difficult and why they found it difficult. Essentially, in their discussions, they were filtering out some of the difficulties because they were working through what some of them meant, thus leaving them with only the ones that they couldn't figure out together. 

We worked through all of Chapter 2 in this manner. We were left with about 10 minutes at the end of the period during which I asked students to share out some of their difficulties while I compiled a list of class difficulties. At the end of first period, this was our list of difficulties:

• Who is Dr. Eckleburg?
• Why is Gatsby in West Egg? Is he really getting money from family?
• The description of Dr. Eckleburg
• Why does Tom get angry when Myrtle says, "Daisy?"
• Why was Myrtle upset about her husband borrowing the suit?
• Why don't the women make a big deal when Tom hits Myrtle?

As you can see, this list comprises some of the most important issues in Chapter 2 - many of the issues I would have asked my students about if I had used my old reading method. However, the beauty with this list is that it was entirely student created. They were reading carefully enough to pick out these issues, and they understood that these issues were somehow important in relation to the rest of the book. 

The following class session, I started by having the students try to figure out one of these issues in their table groups. I told them they should look back in their books and that they could also use their phones to help them look up anything they wanted to look up. Again, I gave them 3 minutes. I told them that if they figured one difficulty out completely, then they should move onto another difficulty. 

After the 3 minutes were up, we discussed these difficulties as an entire class. I just asked the groups to share out what they found. Even though some of the groups discussed the same difficulties, each group was able to add something to the discussion; by the end, they figured them all out, and we were ready to begin reading Chapter 3. 

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Ease of use: It took me a little while to figure out exactly how to do this, but once I did, it worked fine. Also, the students didn't seem to have any trouble with it, once they understood the process. I did have to walk around the room the entire time, encouraging discussion, but other than that, it was a very easy method to implement.
Would I use this again: I used this for reading Chapter 3 as well, and I think I am going to continue using this method throughout the novel.
Downsides: It takes time. I was blessed with the block period that first day because we were able to finish the chapter. When we read Chapter 3, we started in class, and I told the students to finish for homework, looking for difficulties as they read; it worked out fine, but it would've been better if they'd been able to do it collaboratively in class.
Applications: Reading fiction or nonfiction texts in any subject area. Inquiry by Design uses this approach with shorter texts, about 4 or 5 pages long, but if you chunk a longer text like I did, it works just as well.
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UPDATE: 

As the unit progressed, I transitioned from having students read with the recordings to having students read out loud in their small groups. I assigned each person in the group a number - 1-4 - based on where they were sitting in the group, and I would roll a die to determine who was going to read. If I rolled a 1-4, then the person with the corresponding number would read (i.e., if I rolled a 2, then person #2 in each group would read). If I rolled a 5, then I would just choose a number. If I rolled a 6, then the students were allowed to choose in their groups who would read. 

When they read this way, I would have the person read out loud for 3 minutes. Then, I would give the groups 1 minute to discuss what they read and determine difficulties. I changed from the reading time to only 3 minutes, since only 1 person in the group was reading during this time; I didn't want the reader to go on for too long and have the other group members disengage. 

I would also use the numbers and roll the die when I asked the groups to report out difficulties to the class. 

Week 18: Fiction Jigsaw

At CATE 2015, I attended a session presented by Daniel Reynolds on postmodernism. Reynolds gave us a number of strategies and resources for not only reading postmodern texts but also for teaching in a postmodern way. One of the strategies he mentioned was the jigsaw. (For information on how to "jigsaw" your classroom, go here.) He asked the crowd what types of texts we traditionally use with jigsaws; we mentioned nonfiction texts, texts that we just need to "get through," texts that help provide background knowledge for our students, etc. Reynolds explained that we typically jigsaw pieces of nonfiction because there isn't usually a story line those texts follow, and since there's no story line, we don't have to worry about our students missing something or not understanding something by only reading the piece that they are assigned. If we jigsaw a fictional piece, we are playing with the order of the narrative, much in the same way that many postmodernist authors play with the order of their narratives. (In fact, Reynolds told us about a book called The Unfortunates by B.S. Johnson, which was published in 1969. It is a "book in a box" - all of the pages come, unbound, in a box, and you can essentially read them in any order you want.) On the handout he gave us, Reynolds noted, "This approach pushes into stark awareness for students how meaning is constructed, and how we understand plot, characterization, and other literary elements as steps in a process of meaning making." While I was sitting in the session, I immediately decided to use the jigsaw with The Awakening.

I'll be honest ... I have actually used the jigsaw with fiction during my student teaching with The Crucible; it didn't go very well, and I felt guilty when other teachers espoused strong opinions about how students need to read texts in their entirety and not in bits and pieces. Now, however, I have a new rationale behind the method - it is a postmodernist approach! It's perfect, especially since I am having them read "A Rose for Emily" soon after finishing the novel, and my students always have difficulty with the fact that the story isn't told in chronological order. Also... and, again, I will be honest... I am getting really bored with The Awakening because we have been reading it for so long! It is just over 100 pages, and we have been reading it since the beginning of February! If I am bored, there is no doubt in my mind that my students are bored. We need to finish this book, and we need to do so as quickly as possible.

I introduced the strategy Monday right after the conference. In groups of four, each student read a different chapter and then was responsible for teaching that chapter to the rest of the group. At the end, the groups were to write a one-sentence summary on what happened in all four chapters. By coincidence, my student teacher used the strategy again this past Tuesday and Wednesday in much the same way for a lesson she needed to videotape for her school. Her jigsaw got the students through chapter 28 out of 39. Toward the end of 2nd period on Wednesday, one of my students told me that he really liked doing the jigsaw because meeting in the "expert" group to hash out the details of his chapter helped him to really understand what happened in that chapter.

Wednesday afternoon, I had a decision to make: we could keep plowing ahead and take another week and a half to finish the novel, or I could use the jigsaw on a larger scale to finish the novel by the beginning of this coming week. I opted for the latter.

At the start of class on Thursday, before I even explained what we were doing, one of my students asked, "Ms. Lewis, why do we keep doing that jigsaw thing? Is it because we need to finish the book?" I smiled and, as always, answered honestly, "Yes, we are doing it to help us finish the book. However, it is also a postmodernist approach to reading because it forces you to read the plot out of order. Do you remember how in your project on postmodernism you learned that postmodern authors often play with the sequence of events?" He did. "Well, the jigsaw does that same thing. Also, it will help prepare you for a story we are going to read called 'A Rose for Emily,' in which the events are not told in order." He nodded. The rest of the class nodded. I introduced how we were going to jigsaw the rest of the book.

In my classroom, my students are sitting in groups of three or four because I often have them work in groups. In 1st period, I have ten groups, so I assigned each table group a chapter between 29 and 38; these table groups would become the expert groups on their assigned chapter and would report on their chapter to the rest of the class. I told the groups to read silently. Then, when they finished reading, they were to begin working on a poster, in the form of a Frayer Model, that should include the following information:


On Thursday, students read and began working on the posters. Yesterday, after their vocabulary quiz, they told me they wanted to keep working on their posters. (!) I will give them about five minutes to finish on Monday, and then they will "teach" their chapters to the class. During the presentations, I am going to force my students to practice their listening skills by telling them that they are not allowed to write anything down while the expert group is presenting. However, after each presentation, the students will be responsible for writing down notes on the chapter. (I don't want them writing during the presentations, because then they will just copy what's on the poster, which doesn't help them internalize the information.) At the end of all the presentations, they will write a 3-5 sentence summary of what happened in chapters 29-38. Then, on Tuesday, we will finish the book together.
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Ease of use: Honestly, the jigsaw is very easy to implement once you have a text you want to use, especially if that text is already "chunked" for you. The most important thing is to make sure students understand what they are responsible for.
Would I use this again: Yes. This isn't a strategy to use all the time, but in certain scenarios, it can be very valuable, especially in getting the students to work together.
Downsides: The students don't actually read the entire text. (Not all of them got to read the part in which Edna finally kisses Robert!!! I still feel a little bad about this...)
Applications: As Daniel Reynolds explained and as I've illustrated, you can do a jigsaw with fiction as well as nonfiction. The website I linked at the top of this post - The Jigsaw Classroom - gives detailed instructions on how to use the jigsaw in your classroom.

Week 17: Sentence Wall and Cognitive Strategy Snowballs

Sentence Wall

On February 19th, I attended an all-day professional development workshop at Cal State San Marcos, as part of an on-going grant that Fallbrook High School is involved with. The second half of the day focused on grammar instruction, and as a side note to the strategies she was walking us through, the woman presenting (whose name I can't remember!) mentioned that, when she worked in high school, she had a "sentence wall" in her classroom. She explained that, while students were writing, she would walk around the room with a purple highlighter. When she saw a really well-written sentence, she would highlight it. Her students knew that if she highlighted one of their sentences, sometime during the period, they were supposed to go write the sentence and their name on a strip of paper and post it on the sentence wall. 

Her mention of the "sentence wall" was probably no more than 1 minute during her 90 minute presentation, but it stood out to me more than anything else she said that afternoon. It wasn't that the other strategies she gave us weren't good (they were actually extremely useful, and I look forward to implementing them in my classroom over the next few weeks); it's just that this was something I could do immediately, without much planning, especially since I had some unused bulletin board space in my classroom. Also, I really liked the idea of doing this with my ELD 2 kids because they work so hard to write complete sentences in English that it would be nice to do something to publicly recognize and display their hard work. 

So, at the beginning of the week, I tasked one of my TAs with cutting strips of paper, and I stole about 20 pushpins from another teacher. (I left her a note telling her I would repay her, but she emailed me to let me know I didn't need to.) I made a sign that says, "Super Sentences," and I stapled it up between 2 medium-sized bulletin boards; I labeled one of the bulletin boards for ELD 2 and the other bulletin board for English 11. When I got home that afternoon, I raided my desk for highlighters. (I didn't have any good highlighters at school, and we aren't allowed to order any supplies right now...) I found 3 green highlighters and 3 blue highlighters that were virtually brand-new, so I packed them into my school bag. I was set. 

I decided to start the strategy with ELD 2, and then I will roll it out with English 11 next week. Why? I don't know; it's just working out that way. Anyway... I told my ELD 2 students about it one day while they were working on writing their vocabulary sentences. I just explained to them that I would walk around with a highlighter, and if I saw a sentence that I really, really liked, then I would highlight it. Then, they would be responsible for writing it on a strip of paper and putting it on the wall. I demonstrated this with a sentence a student had written the day before - "At the sea, there is a considerable number of fish." ("Considerable" was the vocabulary word.) Is this sentence absolutely perfect? Not quite. It would be better if it said "in" instead of "at;" however, the student wrote it completely on his own after I explained what "considerable" meant, and he used the word perfectly. 

For the most part, the students seemed to like the idea. One student said, "Aw, Ms. Lewis, why are you doing this? Now we will feel bad if we don't write sentences you highlight." Another student, throughout class, kept asking me when he was supposed to write his sentence on the wall; I had to explain to him that I would let him know. I told them that all of their sentences were good, but the ones on the wall are just ones that I really, really like. He understood and went back to his work.

Here are a couple pictures of the bulletin boards:

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Ease of use: Since I already had the wall space, this was really easy to implement. It doesn't take very much thought or instruction to get the students used to the idea either.
Would I use this again: I am going to continue to use this throughout the year. My goal is for each of my ELD 2 kids to get a sentence up on the wall at least once (which shouldn't be difficult since I only have 13 students in that class).
Downsides: As my one student said, the students whose sentences you don't use may feel sad, that's why I'm going to make an effort to highlight a sentence by each student sometime during the remainder of the year. The woman who presented the strategy said that you could even highlight a sentence that you help a lower-level student construct as a form of scaffolding; the important thing is that each student eventually gets a sentence on the wall that has his/her name on it. Another downside... I am going to have make sure that I actually remember to keep doing this! Sometimes, that is the hardest part...
Applications: You could do a "sentence wall" in almost any subject area, especially now that with the new ELD standards, students are supposed to be getting language instruction in all subject areas. However, you could also tweak the strategy and call it a "problem wall" or "formula wall" or etc. and have students write down math problems that they were able to solve. The point is just to get good examples of student work up on the walls.
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Cognitive Strategy Snowballs

Ok... so since I used to train teachers in Advanced SDAIE, the snowball is not a new strategy for me. In fact, I used to use it All. The. Time. In fact, it used to be one of my go-to strategies. However, I realized that I have not used it at all this year, and I can't remember if I used it at all last year either. :( My poor students. 

To be honest, I didn't create this activity so that my students would get to make snowballs; I created it because I was getting bored with out reading routine. I've been having my students practice using different cognitive strategies (like making predictions, asking questions, etc.) to help them understand the texts we are reading. Sometimes, I would read out loud to them, stopping at different points in the text and asking questions that they would answer following the "think-write-pair-share" model. Other times, my students would read in groups, and at the end of a chapter, one student in the group would choose a cognitive strategy and ask a question, and everyone in the group would discuss the question and write down the answer in their notebooks. It was working well, but, as I said, I was getting bored. 

While they were reading in their groups on Wednesday, I went over to my computer and created a simple graphic organizer that looks like this:

I had the graphic organizers copied on two different colored papers - yellow and purple. On Thursday, after I read Chapter XXI of The Awakening out loud to the class, I passed out the graphic organizers, alternating between the two colors. I told them to fill out the first 2 boxes of the graphic organizer. Then, I asked them to crumple up their paper and throw it toward the front of the classroom. After everyone had thrown their papers, I told them to get up and pick up a "snowball" that was the opposite color than they had originally. They unfolded the snowballs and answered the questions. 

I didn't let them have an actual "snowball" fight this first time around, because I usually graduate them to this once I know that they aren't going to abuse the snowball fight and try to get away with throwing other items around the classroom. (I also usually play the intro to Van Halen's "Jump" while they are having their snowball fight; it is high-energy and about 30 seconds long.)

After the activity, there were exclamations from the class: "That was so fun!" "Can we do that again?" "Ms. Lewis, you're so creative!" So, again, to be clear, all I had them do was write a question, crumple up the paper, throw it at the front of the room, and then go pick up another paper. 

When 2nd period started, one of my students, who is notoriously pessimistic and sarcastic, said something along the lines of, "Can we please do something fun today?" I told him that 1st period really liked what we did, but he was still skeptical. After the activity, he said, "That was fun!" I'll admit that I did not stop myself from saying, "See? I told you so!" 

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Ease of use: The snowball strategy is really easy to implement, which is part of the reason why I used to use it all the time. I don't know why I stopped... maybe because we do so much in notebooks now, that the kids don't have papers they can easily "snowball."
Would I use this again: Yes. It's a great strategy, and, as I mentioned, the kids loved it even though I didn't let them have a real "snowball" fight.
Downsides: I actually printed 3 of those graphic organizers on each paper. We read 2 chapters, so we only did the activity twice. However, that was a good thing. If the kids had crumpled up those papers one more time, they probably would've started falling apart. It turns out you really shouldn't snowball the same paper more than twice. Also, some of the students were slightly appalled when I told them to staple the pages in their notebooks ("But... they're all crumpled up!"). I told them it was okay, but they were still annoyed by it.
Applications: What I really love about this is that I can use this same graphic organizer in a number of different ways. I can snowball it; I can have students trade with a partner; I can use it as a reading quiz; I can use it with fictional or expository texts; and the list goes on...
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Week 14: Walking In My Students' Shoes

I am pleased to inform you that our independent reading program continues! Today, my students met for the third time with their partners to discuss the books they are reading. While some pairs discussed their books and then quickly moved onto other topics, many of the students were engaged in discussions about their books for a good 10 or 15 minutes. As I wandered around the room asking students about their books, I was happy to find that most of them are enjoying what they are reading; they might not be reading quite as much as I would like them to be reading, but they are reading nonetheless, and they are enjoying it.

Last week as I walked around, one student was very eager to tell me about the book he was reading - The Celestine Prophecy. In fact, when I first introduced the reading program the week before, he immediately asked me if I or the school library had the book; we didn't, so he wound up buying the e-book on Amazon. He tried to explain to me what it was about ... something about "a manuscript which tells us the purpose of life, but it's an adventure, and they're trying to find the manuscript, and I can't really explain it that well, but you should read it." It didn't sound that interesting to me, but I decided to order the book myself and at least try since this student was so enthusiastic about it.

At the end of the class, a few students shared out with the entire class what they were reading. Provoked by his partner, one student, who did not want to talk about the book he was currently reading, informed the class that his favorite book of all time was Dune. "Doom?" I asked. "Dune," he said. I hadn't heard of it, so I asked him what it was about. He explained a little and said I should read it. I told him I probably wouldn't like it because I am not very "big" on sci-fi. I am just not a sci-fi girl. Sure. I will admit that I love some sci-fi movies, especially superhero movies. (Do those even count as sci-fi? I don't even know.) However, I do not enjoy reading sci-fi. It just doesn't appeal to me at all. I like my books grounded in reality. I like to allow myself to get wrapped up in the world of the book I am reading. I am sure plenty of people can do that with sci-fi, but it is just too... fictional for me.

When the bell rang, the same student approached me with an old copy of the second book in the Dune series. He told me it included some information on the first book, so I should read it to see if I thought it would be something I would enjoy. I skimmed the page and reported that it "might be something I could get into." "Might be something you could get into? It's only one of the best sci-fi books of all time!" he exclaimed. "It is on par with The Lord of the Rings!" I flinched at this and then admitted, "I've never actually read The Lord of the Rings. I just can't get into it." He looked at me, with a mixture of disgust and disbelief on his face, and walked out the door. I sighed to myself, walked over to my computer, opened up Amazon, and ordered both Dune and The Celestine Prophecy. I decided that since I, as an English teacher, often force my students to read books they don't necessarily want to read (like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Great Gatsby) and try to get them to open themselves up to the possibility that these books could actually be good, that I should probably force myself to step outside of my comfort zone and read these books that my students recommended to me.

The books were due to arrive on Sunday, February 1st (thank you, Amazon Prime), so I took home The Fault in our Stars to fill the two days before they arrived. Why The Fault in our Stars? Well, I actually really wanted to read it. A student had just returned it and said it was really good. A lot of the other girls wanted to read it, but since nobody asked to take it home that day, I figured it was my chance. And while it was bit of a let-down, it served its purpose perfectly, and I finished it in those two days.

As of February 1st, since the start of the reading program, I had read 3 books - a total of 964 pages - in 15 days, which averages to 64 pages a day. Not too impressive, but not bad either.

And then I started reading The Celestine Prophecy. Why did I start with that one? Honestly, I was getting ready for bed on Monday night and asked my husband to go grab one of my new books. He asked if I had a preference; I didn't. I really didn't have any desire to read either of the books I'd ordered, so I just told him to choose one for me; that was the one he brought upstairs. Right now, I am on page 150, which means I have read an average of 30 pages a night this week - less than half of my average from before I started reading this book. It's not that the story isn't interesting. It is. But it is not go-upstairs-and-pretend-to-go-to-the-bathroom-but-actually-read-on-the-bed-and-then-quickly-go-to-the-bathroom-when-you-hear-footsteps-coming-up-the-stairs interesting. And I am not trying to sneak glances at the pages while my son is playing nor trying to convince him to read one of his books while Mommy reads her book (which never works from more than 30 seconds anyway). I just didn't feel any urge or impulse to read it at the beginning; I wasn't dying to read this book. (And don't even get me started about how not dying I am to read Dune...)

Now that I am 150 pages into The Celestine Prophecy, I am getting hooked and starting to read more, but it took me at least 100 pages to get to this point. What does that mean for my students? How many of them have the stamina to read a book that I (or anyone else) am telling them to read for at least 100 pages before they start wanting to read it on their own? Especially when they have so many other things they would much rather be doing and that they find much more interesting? No wonder I (we) lose so many of them when we try to get them to read something for class. Even when we read in class, it is difficult to hold their interest because the reading is broken up so much by everything else you are trying to accomplish in those 56 minutes, not to mention weekends, holidays, testing, etc. Despite the fact that I was able to effectively hook my students into the topic of the book before we started reading, I am dying right now trying to get us through The Awakening because I lost one instructional day this week and will lose five more over the next two weeks. At this rate, it will be at least two, maybe even three, weeks before (*spoiler alert*) Edna kisses Robert, and most of my students probably won't even care when it happens because they'll just be thinking, "Man... we're still reading this? I thought Ms. Lewis said this would be a short unit."

I would say that The Awakening starts to get really good about half-way through, when Robert leaves for Mexico, and Edna realizes she loves him. When I read the book in college, for a college class, I think I read it in a day or two because I read it on my own time. Yes, I had to read it for school, but really, I chose to read it. We all know that every college student picks and chooses what reading to do and what reading can be skipped; we do it to survive, but since we signed up for a class we were interested in the first place, what winds up happening is we read books and articles that we actually want to read. I wound up loving The Awakening so much that I decided to convince my boss to order a class set, so I could share it with my students. Have some of them wound up loving it? Yes. But some of them have also wound up hating it, and, unfortunately, since they hated The Awakening so much, they definitely weren't too enthusiastic about reading our next book - The Great Gatsby. And this is how we create non-readers. It isn't that my students don't read in my class. They absolutely do. And we have great discussions about the books. But the problem is that they don't all love what they read in my class, and since those books are the only exposure some of them have to any books at all, they think they just don't love books in general, and they don't even bother going out to look for a book that they do love. And I guess that's why I started the independent reading program in the first place.

The problem is that when we tell our students what to read, we are imposing our own interests onto them. We are saying, "I really like this, so you are forced to read it because I like it," which is essentially the same as someone saying, "I really like Brussels sprouts, so you are forced to eat Brussels sprouts because I like them," which is absurd. Why would you force someone to eat something they may not want or like just because you like it? You wouldn't, especially because you probably know that that is almost a sure-fire way to make the other person hate Brussels sprouts. Why, then, haven't we realized that this is also a sure-fire way to may students hate reading?

What do we do about this? I don't know. I am happy with the way my independent reading program is going, but I am not about to up and abandon teaching some of the classics. I think the key is to find a happy medium. Figure out a way that works for you to encourage independent reading outside of what you read in class. And figure out a way to only teach books you really love, because if you are teaching something you don't even want to teach in the first place, the kids will pick up on that. (It's like saying, "Here, I hate Brussels sprouts, but I am going to force you to eat them anyway even though they are the most disgusting thing that you will ever put in your mouth." That is obviously not a good idea.) If you start from a place of love, and you are encouraging the students to find things that they love too, while they may not wind up loving what you love, they will at least be able to respect and appreciate what you love. And I guess when it comes down to it, that's why I'm going to try to read Dune.

Week 11: A Paperless Week with Google Classroom and Google Drive

This week, I was extremely thankful for technology, because, due to unforeseen circumstances which lead me to being in and out of doctor's offices every day either before or after school (a story worthy of its own blog entirely), I had very little time outside of class to do very much planning and absolutely no time to submit papers for copies. Luckily, my 11th graders were wrapping up the project on the different American literary movements that they started last week. I had already planned on having them share their presentations digitally with each other, as opposed to giving a live presentation to the class, but I knew that I needed to create something in order to hold them accountable. The projects were due on Tuesday, so on Monday, I began making a note-taking guide that the students would fill out as they went through each presentation. I created a chart with rows for each of the movements and columns with the questions I wanted the students to answer. With the requirements for the project open in another window, I began creating the questions. Those requirements were:

• The name of your literary movement (5 pts)

• The dates of your literary movement (5 pts)
• Any important historical events that influenced your literary movement and an explanation of how they influenced your literary movement (10 pts)
• The defining characteristics of your literary movement (10 pts)
• The names and brief biographies of the most important and well-known American authors of your literary movement (10 pts)
• An example of at least one text (a poem, short story, or excerpt from a longer text) from your movement, with annotations pointing out the characteristics of the literary movement (20 pts)
• Pictures and/or any other relevant information (10 pts)
• Ex. Artists and musicians who were also part of the movement; pictures and paintings that represent the movement; texts we’ve read in this class (or you’ve read in other classes) that are part of the movement; etc.
• In-text citations for anything you quote or summarize (15 pts)
• A works cited at the end including every website you referenced while conducting your research (15 pts)

My questions started out quite basic:

• When did this movement take place?
• What is one historical event that influenced this movement?
• Who is one famous author from the time period?

I stopped there. I wasn't happy. Essentially, I was just asking my students to copy down information, but I wanted them to think. So I did a little thinking of my own, and then went back to work. I wound up with this note-taking guide, including these questions:

• When did this movement take place?
• What is one historical event that influenced this movement? How/why did it influence this movement?
• Which of the famous authors from this time period stands out the most to you? Why?
• How is the literature from this movement either similar or different from the literature in your movement?

In creating these new questions, I ensured that my students would be forced to actually think about the information they were reading because the questions cover all steps of Bloom's taxonomy. Here's how:

• When did this movement take place? 
• This is level 1 on Bloom's taxonomy, "Knowledge," because the students simply have to find the information the the presentation and copy it down. They aren't doing anything with it.
• Why include a question like this at all? Some teachers like to just jump into the higher-level thinking, but I like to guide my students there. I usually find that by starting with an "easy" question and gradually building the difficulty, the students are more likely to complete an assignment. If I just immediately started with a "hard" question, some of the students would just give up and not bother doing the assignment at all.
• What is one historical event that influenced this movement? How/why did it influence this movement? 
• This is level 2 on Bloom's taxonomy, "Comprehension," because the students should be able to find all of this information in the presentations, but they need to understand it in order to complete the box in the note-taking guide.
• Which of the famous authors from this time period stands out the most to you? Why? 
• The first part of this question is level 3, "Analysis," because the students are reading through the information and analyzing the information and determining which author stands out the most. The second part of the question - the "Why?" - is level 5, "Evaluation," because students are being asked to explain and support their opinion.
• How is the literature from this movement either similar or different from the literature in your movement? 
• This question is level 4, "Synthesis," because students are asked to either compare or contrast two of the movements.

The point is that I created a basic graphic organizer which asks the students to do more than just copy down information. A lot of time handouts and worksheets get a bad rap because some teachers argue that they are all just "kill and drill" and don't require students to think at all. However, it really depends on what the worksheet is asking the students to do. Could I have made this worksheet completely pointless and mind-numbing for my students? Yes, and I almost did. But instead, I created a worksheet that forced the students to think on multiple levels multiple times. (Was it still mind-numbing for some of my students? Probably, but not in the same way.)

Now, I know what you're thinking. "You said this was a paperless week! Why are you making worksheets???" I made this worksheet because I wanted to take advantage of a particular feature in Google Classroom which automatically creates a new copy for each student who opens the document and links it back to classroom. This allows the students to start typing immediately in the document, without having to "Make a copy," AND it puts a "Turn in" button in the top right-hand corner of their document, right next to where it says "Comments" and "Share." All the students have to do is type in the information and then click "Turn in" - they don't have to worry about changing the sharing options, getting the shareable link, or anything like that. For students who don't always remember to do all the steps involved with sharing a document with their teacher, this is wonderful! Also, once the students turn in the assignment, it becomes "view only" on their end, meaning they can't make changes after submitting the assignment. In the past with Google Docs, I always wondered when the students would figure out that they didn't really have to be done with an assignment before they turned it in since they were always able to go in and edit it after sending me the link or turning it in through Edmodo; now, they don't have that option.

The students finished reviewing the other groups' projects on Wednesday. On Thursday, I introduced www.turnitin.com to my English 11 classes, since I hadn't done so yet, and I had my students write a one-paragraph comparison of their literary movement to one of the other movements of their choice. I had already planned on doing this, which was the reason for the last question on my note-taking guide; I am a big believer in backward-mapping. The reason I had already planned on having them write this one paragraph was because I know that we are going to start a unit on The Awakening in the next week or two, and at the end of The Awakening, I like to have my students write a comparative analysis on the novel and either the short story "The Feather Pillow" by Horacio Quiroga or "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson. (On a total side-note: another reason why I love Google - because I just accidentally closed this tab, and when I opened it back up, Blogger had automatically saved my work. Love.) Why do I have my students write a comparative analysis? Common Core doesn't say our students should be writing comparative analyses! Well... as I pointed out earlier, asking students to compare and contrast is asking them to think critically about more than one subject. It helps students make connections... (Hmmm... I'm getting an idea for something new... you can expect to read about it in probably about a month or two...) Plus, the essays my students turn out on these topics are usually really good! I don't know... there's something about a person who has everything and yet has nothing at the same time that they can connect to and are drawn to. Or they just wind up really hating Edna and like to tell me why.

Anyway, after the writing on Thursday, that left me with Friday. We had just wrapped up what we were doing, and I didn't want to start the new unit the Friday right before a holiday weekend; therefore, I decided to take the opportunity to introduce our new reading program. Now, I will be perfectly honest - I had every intention of not going digital on Friday, but, as I mentioned earlier, I found myself planning on Thursday night without any copies ready to go for Friday morning. "No problem..." I thought, "I'll just walk them through the information with a Google Slides presentation..." No. I quickly realized that that was a terrible idea because what student wants to be talked at on the Friday before a holiday weekend (or ever, for that matter)? No. No Google Slides. I knew I could use Peardeck to do whatever I wanted with Google Slides, but I didn't really like that idea for this. Instead, I decided to make a couple of linked forms to present the information.

The first form included a letter I wrote to my students explaining the new program and asked them to check a box stating: "I have read and understand the independent reading assignment." After students completed this form, they were automatically given the link to the next form. However, in between both forms, I asked them to stop while I explained the program in more detail and answered some of their questions.

I developed the program based on the article I shared last week - "Seven ways schools kill the love of reading in kids - and 4 principles to help restore it." Basically, I wanted to encourage my students to read by imposing as few restrictions on them as possible and creating a culture in which independent reading is a thing everyone does and talks about in the classroom.

First, I decided that I could not tell my students they had to read for a certain amount of time or read a certain number of pages every day. As Alfie Kohn explains, when teachers do this, students will often set a timer, read for that much time, and then stop. Furthermore, when I started thinking about it, if I am able to help my students find books that they really want to read, I don't think there is any way that they can only read for 5 minutes a night; anyone who has ever found a really good book knows that this is true.

Instead of telling my students how much to read, I simply told them that I want them to read every night. Am I going to hold them strictly accountable to this? No, because that, again, would make the reading seem like a chore. Therefore, I developed a reading log that I am going to let my students use as they best see fit - they can fill it out daily or weekly - and I will check for a parent signature at the end of each week. Will my students be able to "fake it?" Yes. I'm sure they will, which is why I am not the only one who is going to be holding them accountable.

As I mentioned, I will involve their parents. I am going to send a letter home next week informing parents of the new program. Also, I am going to have students meet with a partner every Friday to discuss what they've been reading. (The purpose of the second form was for students to tell me who they want to work with and what types of books they enjoy reading.) On Fridays, a few students will also share out with the entire class. I told students that they will be able to share with the class on a voluntary basis, but I expect each person in the class to volunteer at least once throughout the semester. Furthermore, I told them that I will be participating in the program with them, because, as a teacher, I often get so involved in my work that I don't make time for my own reading (unless you count reading One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish to a 2-year-old a million times a day); just as they will, I will share with them what I'm reading and why I'm excited about it. I am hoping that by including these opportunities to talk about what we're reading, that the students who aren't as enthusiastic about the program will start to get hooked and drawn in by the other students. We will see. As I wrote at the end of the letter to the kids, "This could be the most awesome thing we do all year, but it could also be a horrible, terrible, failure. It is really all up to you. Please make it awesome."