Approaching the Text

Don't Get Rid of Class Novels Just Yet

Students don’t have to be good at reading in order to be in the book-reading club. The way that we approach whole-class novels can help alleviate that misunderstanding. Let’s build their confidence. Let’s show them what investment looks like in reading. Let’s show them that they deserve a book in their hands just as much as anyone else.

We as educators have heard over and over that lecturing students is not as successful as student engagement. Yet, it can be intimidating to face a unit in front of you with the intent of student engagement in mind which is why I felt it was necessary to create a resource that provides specific, relevant strategies to engage students when addressing whole-class novels.

Pedagogy

Studies show that the teacher is the biggest factor of learning in a classroom. That may seem obvious, but it’s not often said out loud. Pedagogy matters. So, when we want to become better reading teachers, we have to analyze the way we teach reading.

Literacy-based Classroom

Shorten your units by focusing on one overarching area of growth so that you can increase the amount of books your students come in contact with. It's about the sparking the love/usefulness of reading (same difference, right?), not the love of Old Man and the Sea. Experiment with a book a month challenge and weekly book talks about what students (and you) are reading outside of class texts.

A literacy-based classroom creates investment because a web of learning is happening. We write, read, and talk about connections to personal lives, political climates, scientific findings, etc. Context-building and overlapping of all types of reading creates a literacy-based classroom.

Equity

In order to address inequality in the education system, educators need to look at how to provide equitable education. We have brilliant, real-life students sitting in our classrooms who are people with lots of different strengths, weaknesses, advantages, disadvantages, interests, etc.

It's possible to have differentiation within whole-class texts that supports students equitably. The main goal of differentiation is to find students’ learning gaps and leaps which can be done in the workshop model, the next category of approaching anchor texts. Because from there, you can offer accommodations and extensions.

Workshop Model

I highly recommend reading Kylene Beers’ When Kids Can’t Read What Teachers Can Do and No More Fake Reading by Berit Gordon. Both of them go into detail about the reading workshop model and the best part, give lots of first-hand experience about using it. The workshop model is break-through stuff; students get the front-seat position in their reading which is the way it has always needed to be.

Conferencing

The point of bringing the two desks side by side in the corner of the room is to ask the students what they’re reading within a 3-minute span. You can start by getting them to talk about their reading life, in all its diverse forms; the mutual investment can do wonders for all reading levels. Then, ask them about the whole-class novel: “Do you like it?,” “Is it harder or easier than other books you’ve read?,” “How have you connected to it personally?”, etc. Conferences are a great place to gauge which students are struggling and need extra support and which students might need deeper thinking questions because they’re already going there anyway.

Book Club

Use sticky notes like a boss. One way to utilize these handy tools is to have each student write a theme they’ve noticed in the whole-class novel on their sticky note and sort them out into categories on the white board (or wall or whatever). You can use these categories for book clubs; the students further discuss these themes they noticed and start writing down specific instances from the book in their notebook in order to build their textual support for a future essay, project, or just good ol’ practice. The students are mastering dialogue by getting more chances to talk about what they’re reading, especially with a small group since talking in front of the whole class can be intimidating to some students which eliminates the opportunity to talk about the text at all.

Support Materials

It takes a village to be a good teacher and, unfortunately, it’s just you most of the time. We have to use our resources in order to best serve our readers. They need relevant, specific mini lessons; engaging, applicable projects; diverse, accessible multimedia; and context that they connect to. Pairing your reading with activities, presentation skills, other content areas, mini lessons in identity, and support material is also a good way to make reading more accessible.

Conclusion

Whole-class novels can be a drab. Think back to an English class where this was the case. You were probably frustrated in all the worksheets you had to complete on a book you didn’t care about. Educators don’t always have the choice to choose a text that students do care about--as if it was possible to find one that fits every student’s interests--but you do often have agency in how you approach that novel. Overall, we want students in a literacy-based classroom that doesn’t seclude reading to a stand-alone sector; we want students in an equitable classroom that supports differentiation; we want students participating in a workshop model that engages them in dialogue with their teachers one-to-one and peers in small groups; we want students applying their skills in different forms; and we want students in the 'book-reading club.'

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