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In the Zone: Time for Independent Reading by Lynne Dorfman's on CCIRA's blog -- an exceprt

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In the Zone: Time for Independent Reading by Lynne Dorfman's on CCIRA's blog -- an exceprt

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The Heart of Reading Workshop

We value reading. As readers ourselves we look for extended times to sit and read. This is something we strive to give our students in the workshop setting. Some of you will remember the Sustained Silent Reading practice (SSR) or Drop Everything and Read (DEAR time). You may have experienced this as a student or perhaps have taught using this practice. In a classroom that practices SSR, children read for extended periods of time from a book of their choice and so does the teacher. In a readers’ workshop, independent reading time offers more than just reading time. In a workshop approach, you will see teachers observing the readerly behavior of their students, conferring, and offering feedback. You may see a teacher interrupt her independent readers to deliver a mid-workshop teaching point or offer praise to spur them on.  Teachers will sometimes guide or model the book selection process (when it is necessary), monitor use of skills and strategies, teach small groups, hold roving conferences, and help their readers set goals. This work happens during independent reading time… the time every student can get “lost in the zone” reading something they love. Independent reading time. This is the heart of reading workshop.
https://ccira.blog/2021/03/08/in-the-zone-time-for-independent-reading/

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Listen to Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher confer with each other and then talk about conferring with their students.

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Thanks, Three Teachers Talk, for this great resource.

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Teaching high school English is a difficult job. In a world overrun with cell phones and gadgets, getting students to actually sit down and read a book seems like an impossible task. Every year that I taught the classics, students would depend on outside sources to get them through the reading, and sometimes completely ignore the book.

It was when a former student came back to me and proudly declared "Ms. Scoffield, I never read one book in your class!" that I decided to restructure my class and implement a Readers Workshop. While researching, I heavily relied on books by Nancie Atwell and even traveled to Maine to see her school first hand.

After implementing the workshop in my classroom, I have eventually come to the conclusion that allowing students to pick their own books in the English classroom drastically increases student interest and allows them to take a more active role in their learning.

During the introductory unit, I hold a book tasting in my classroom. I hold conversations with the students and direct them to genres they would be interested in. Between my classroom and the library, they find their top three books.

After finding their selections, I introduce them to Goodreads and have them read the reviews of their chosen books. Once they make a final decision, we are finally able to launch into the unit. The process of choosing books takes several days.

Topics that we cover in the unit are:

In my classroom, we use the Station Rotation model of Blended Learning. When a student walks into my classroom, they look at the board and decide what assignment they want to complete that day. They are required to come to "Table One" sometime throughout the week, because that is a teacher led and often the hardest assignment for the week.

What do the assignments usually look like?

Book Talk: For this assignment, students are required to start a Twitter conversation with a classmate on Twitter. They have specific questions they answer and a hashtag we use for the class. Check out #mhhsfreshies for ideas! This is also a good way for the students to ask authors questions. You never know who might respond!

Journal: Using excerpts from a mentor text, we practice skills like analyzing passages or creating a character profile. Once the skill is practiced, they apply it to their own books.

Blog: Students work on a blog post once a week. The question focuses on what is currently being discussed that week in class. Students are required to respond to other classmates. This is also a great opportunity to connect with other classes across the globe.

Supplemental activity: This can be an assignment that the teacher uses to help students learn the skill that is being discussed. I have used it as an opportunity to do Cornell notes, make videos, or create Buzzfeed character quizzes.

Because I allow my students to choose their own books, a love of reading has been developed throughout the classroom. I have students zooming through books and talking about them with their peers. I even have two students going through a book a week.

As a class, we have a class goal of reading 70 books by the end of the semester. Students are constantly checking the thermometer on the board to see our progress and they are excited to see the number go up.

One of the biggest concerns I hear about this way of teaching is students not being able to read a piece of text deeply and get an analytical experience with a piece of text. While this concern is valid, I would like to state that I have never had students read more deeply.

Give your students time to read and make their assignments worthwhile. Fewer and yet more meaningful assignments are more impactful. It also gives students more time to read in class and hold meaningful conversations with the teacher.

I also believe that teachers need to remind themselves who their audiences are. Teaching kids in the 21st century is hard and it is vastly different from our own high school experiences. We need to think carefully about our students and what will help them be the most successful. For me, it means implementing a readers workshop.
Shelby Scoffield is a high school English teacher. She loves reading, writing, and playing with her nieces and nephews. You can find her on Twitter at @sscoffield.

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Implementing Readers Workshop by Shelby Scoffield

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Teaching high school English is a difficult job. In a world overrun with cell phones and gadgets, getting students to actually sit down and read a book seems like an impossible task. Every year that I taught the classics, students would depend on outside sources to get them through the reading, and sometimes completely ignore...

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Grief is a house. We were using this quick write from Linda Reif's The Quickwrite Handbook since in AP Language and Composition we were beginning an analogy essay (For this essay, students extend compare/contrast form and write an extended analogy.). As I wrote my quick write about how grief is like a black hole, I soon discovered that while I could produce words like point of no return, event horizon, gravitational pull, I wasn't confident in my use of them. AHA. Impromptu mini lesson: after we "[rode] the wave of someone else's words" (Ralph Fletcher wisdom at its finest) and experimented with analogy writing, shared our best line or idea with someone in the room, and revised some part of that quick write, I shared my writing and explained how I realized I needed to research my known (black hole) more if I was going to write about it accurately. Quickly, I directed students to share their topics at their table groups and ping pong ideas off each other until they had ideas for further research for improved development. Undoubtedly, this quick write was just-in-time for us as writers. In Linda Reif's words, it gave my students "frames and ideas for their own writing"; it encouraged them "to take risks in a non-threatening, informal situation"; it offered "ongoing practice for writing in sensible, realistic, and meaningful ways on demand"; and it provided an example of "fine, compelling writing."

From that moment, I began to reflect through the lens of my AP classroom on all the other ways my students benefited from quick writes this year. While quick writes serve so many of our novice writers (and less-so-novice writers like me!) well, they partner well with the aims of an AP Language and Composition course. Moreover, they serve many of the students with whom I work in this course, students who tend to be advanced learners (with labels like gifted, talented, twice exceptional, high achieving, college bound, etc.), students who tend to be highly self-critical, perfectionists .
Slaying the Beast That Is Perfectionism (or at least wounding it)
Some of my students in this course maintain a distorted or unrealistic perception of self, believing, as Sal Mendaglio writes in "Gifted Sensitivity to Criticism," that "knowing everything and doing everything right-perfectly-the first time" is actually realistic. Of course, it's not. And, in a high intensity course like AP Language, where students must write, write, write, it's important to address these perceptions of writing: writing doesn't have to be perfect. It rarely is in general, let alone on a first stab.

Quick writes arm my students again and again with opportunities to slay this mindset. These short, ungraded bursts of writing get pen to the page-with urgency. There's no time for second-guessing or trying to compose just-right language or-common with gifted and high achievers- avoidance. There is only writing. Quick writes have not completely destroyed this mindset, but they've poked holes in it, particularly useful when students later face the high pressure of the on-demand writing of the AP exam. I wonder: how many of my students who struggled to get words to the page or to finish an on demand writing might have been helped had I employed quick writes sooner? If thinking, on demand, and getting words to the page had been a routine?
Sky Diving But With Language
Within my population of gifted and talented learners and high achievers, there is the potential for their creativity to soar in their writing. But for many of them, unless I optimize conditions for jumping, keeping them safe while they take risks as a writer, they won't. They won't jump because it might mean a spiralling-out-of-control, fall-flat-on-your-face, splat kind of failure (to them), which is precisely what so many of my students want to avoid. They'll cling tight to five paragraph essays and divided thesis statements. They'll grasp on to worn topics and expressions. Why? Because they maintain image this way; they can't look stupid or inferior.

But the quick writes give them parachutes-a controlled way to jump into the possibilities of language because they offer that "non-threatening, informal" and mostly private opportunity to jump into possibility. This semester in particular (teaching on a block schedule sure accelerates my learning as a teacher-this is my second lap through AP Language this year!), I see my students jumping, taking risks in form and expression. I wonder: with so much beautiful, powerful meaning to explore in these micro bursts, why wasn't I giving them this opportunity to dive before?

Paper, Paper, on My Desk, What Line Is Fairest of Them All? THIS ONE!
With the students I serve in this course, quick writes-in addition to serving as a way to dispel assumptions about writing and encourage risks-also help address tendencies toward self-criticism. For some of my learners in this course, self-criticism debilitates. It is not enough that the teacher or peers recognize writing that is good; the learner needs to as well. For the exceptional learner, this tiny shift in perspective may reflect in their self-talk.

Quick writes afford this, a glimpse at a time. Routinely, I ask students to highlight or underline an idea or a move they feel good about or they feel successful with. This trains them to look for what went well. We then affirm these successes by finding a partner to share with. And, as Penny Kittle would recommend, we try to share those ideas and words of beauty with the class. There's affirmation from self and others, which is critical for ALL learners (even I need this when I model writing in front of my students or in front of peers) but especially for those who expect so, so much of themselves. I wonder: how might quick writes-had I implemented them sooner-have improved the self-efficacy of my writers?
Sneaking Vegetables In-Mini Lesson in Disguise
Of course, one of the more known attributes of gifted learners (and often high achievers and definitely creative thinkers) is their propensity for learning, transferring their learning, and applying their learning.

For my learners in this course, quick writes serve as a way to scaffold toward mini lessons, as Lisa writes about here (or for more on 3TT about quick writes, here; here; here ; here); however, I can also sneak in a mini lesson, serving up a particular skill I want to see them absorb and then apply into their own writing. The element of novelty, too, as Noah Waspe writes about here, nurtures these learners. Hungry, they consume the mentor texts used in these quick writes and find ways to fuel their writing, often benefiting them in wholly unanticipated ways. I wonder: if I had implemented quick writes sooner, would I have nourished my writers more?

The value of quick writes abound for my AP Language and Composition learners: finding topics (and themselves), practicing revision (another way to counteract perfectionism), further rhetorical analysis practice. And more. Linda Reif's rationale lays it out beautifully (please purchase The Quickwrite Handbook if you have not yet!). I know: in the ever-expanding universe of workshop moves, quick writes, for me right now, have the greatest gravitational pull.
Kristin Jeschke teaches AP Language and Composition and College Prep English at Waukee High School in Waukee, Iowa. She knows the force of quick writes personally: they've helped her own writing and her own self-talk. She's at a point of no return-no return to the days in AP without quick writes. Follow her on Twitter @kajeschke.

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Are You Doing Quick Writes in Your Classroom? Why You Should Be (Especially in an AP Language and Composition Class)

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Grief is a house. We were using this quick write from Linda Reif's The Quickwrite Handbook since in AP Language and Composition we were beginning an analogy essay (For this essay, students extend compare/contrast form and write an extended analogy.). As I wrote my quick write about how grief is like a black hole, I...

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Mark Beverly (curriculum director of Sevenoakes School in Kent) and David White (formerly an IB teacher at United World College of Southeast Asia) explain the importance of incorporating independent reading in IB

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1. Create time and space for students to read: we use the first fifteen minutes of every class for independent reading. It is an expectation that students come into class, find a seat and open a book. We have begged and borrowed sofas and beanbags from various people in order to create comfortable spaces for reading in every classroom. It is a very calm, focused way to start class, which students (and teachers) really appreciate.

2. Invest in classroom libraries: we use a significant part of our budget on this, with each teacher ordering a selection of books for their own classroom library, often after some discussion of requests and recommendations from their students. If money is tight, then ask students and parents for donations, trawl second hand book sales etc, do whatever it takes to get a good selection of books in your classrooms.

3. Book talk: use the fifteen minutes of independent reading time to conference one-to-one with students about what they are reading, aiming to speak with two or three students each class. Not only does this reinforce the expectation and make students feel like you have an interest in them beyond academics, it will also enable you to get to know your students far better, as readers and as people. Run regular book talks: talk to students about what you are reading, get individuals to talk to the class about books they have read and would recommend. Just making books part of the daily conversation really raises the profile of reading.

4. Give students role models: starting with yourself. Despite the impression they may give, most students do listen to their teachers and if you recommend a book I guarantee at least one fo your students will seek it out. In addition, get older students to talk to younger students. We had Grade 12 readers talk to Grade 10 about their reading lives and how important they felt it was they had maintained these, despite the pressures of the IB. Play them the John Lewis clip above; show them articles such as this interview with Barack Obama about the importance of reading in his life; put quotations about reading up in classrooms or in corridors, for example:
"Books are the way that we communicate with the dead. The way that we learn lessons from those who are no longer with us, that humanity has built on itself, progressed, made knowledge incremental rather than something that has to be relearned, over and over."
5. Appeal to pragmatism and self-interest as well as idealism: as English teachers we can get a bit dewey-eyed about reading which can be counter-productive when it comes to persuading more reluctant and cynical students about why they should read more. Therefore, quotations such as those by Neil Gaiman and John Lewis above should be balanced with some more factual information such as the following:

"Earlier this year the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development revealed that the strongest indicator of the future success of a child was not which school they attended or whether their family was wealthy, but if they read for pleasure at 15."

The Times, November 13th 2013

We also got our University advisors to come and talk to Grade 10 about what universities expect from students in terms of reading, both in terms of seeing evidence of independent reading when looking at applications and interviewing candidates, and in terms of the weekly volume of reading for all university courses, something students need to be prepared for.

6. Communicate with parents: we send a letter every year to parents of students joining High School in Grade 9 as well as those about to start the IB in Grade 11. In the letter we include information such as the above as well as outlining our expectations for all students to have independent reading lives. Most parents are delighted to have this in writing and see this as an important partnership between school and home. We send the letter just before the long summer break, with links to our library's suggested reading lists and also include this quotation from Richard Allington:

"What we know is that children who do not read in the summer lose two to three months of reading development while kids who do read tend to gain a month of reading proficiency...This creates a three to four month gap every year. Every two or three years the kids who don't read in the summer fall a year behind the kids who do."

7. Read Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina and Passion in Adolescent Readers by Penny Kittle and buy copies for your department. Use her passion, anecdotes and ideas as inspiration for improving the reading culture in your school.

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IB English A Literature: "Read, my child. Read."

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Watch the short video below of civil-rights campaigner and congressman John Lewis accepting America's National Book Award for young people's literature last year. He won the award for the third volume of his graphic memoir, March. A short clip like this can have an big impact on students, especially when put in the context...

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Reading Ladders: A Way to Assess and Set Goals

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Reading Ladders: A Way to Assess and Set Goals

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What is a Reading Ladder, and where does this idea originate? A Reading Ladder is simply a piece of explanatory writing where students rank the books they've read according to complexity, reflect on their reading habits, and make plans for future growth. When teachers question how to hold students accountable to choice reading, this piece of writing is probably my favorite response. For one, it is nearly impossible to fake, because it requires a ton of thinking that is unique to each student; furthermore, students practice such incredible critical thinking and literacy skills that it's totally worth spending valuable class time grappling with it.

I originally heard about this idea while attending a workshop with Penny Kittle at Hudsonville Public Schools back in February of 2012. (Thanks, Steve and Karla!) She mentioned how she was inspired to push kids thinking forward by Teri Lesesne's Reading Ladders: Leading Students from Where They Are to Where We'd like Them to Be (2010). At that time, I'll admit hadn't read Lesesne's book, and we all know Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion in Adolescent Readers (2013) wasn't even published, so I had to do what teachers do and improvise. Because Kittle really only mentioned it briefly in the workshop, I didn't even really know what a Reader Ladder actually was, yet I knew it was good stuff if she mentioned it. Thanks to this student example [see right] I found online, my students and I figured it out together. (Now, for the life of me, I cannot figure out where this example came from! I really apologize that I can't give credit to the awesome educator that shared it online. Thank you whoever you are!) <<LATER REVISION: That awesome educator was, in fact, Kittle herself! Thanks again, Penny!>> With this mentor text, my students and I worked backwards, noticing what the writer did in each paragraph and then constructing a rubric that we imagined the student's teacher probably required of her. For a year, this worked just fine, and now, since Book Love has been released, Kittle has provided a really stellar description of how she uses Reading Ladders in her class (see pages 124-132). Today, I basically do what she says, but the reason I'm regurgitating it here is to share my interpretations and variations with you and to show that it works with "real-life" students.

How does a Reading Ladder benefit student thinking? When students construct Reading Ladders, they have to consider the questions "What makes reading difficult for you right now?" and "How will you work to improve?" We all know the benefits of this kind of internal reflecting and planning conversations: they push students to evaluate their current habits and abilities while making goals for the future.

The students in my sophomore class have thankfully come from a highly supportive, book-lovin' environment in ninth grade, but as they transition to tenth grade, we always talk about how important it is to "step up our game." From the first day of Humanities 10, they take on a new reading challenge.

Within in this challenge, we talk about how important is to consider all the evidence that proves they've grown as a reader. They always say, "I just know I've gotten better." Yeah, okay, that's great! I know that feels really good, especially for those developing reading. Of course, I want to celebrate this good feeling, but this feeling isn't always going to push them to the next level. Sometimes, they don't even know what the next level is.

Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, talks about how powerful it is for students to see intelligence as something more than a fixed trait. Sadly, far too many kids think either you're born a good reader or you're not: "Reading was hard for me when I was little, so I'm never going to be a good reader." If they can embrace intelligence as a quality that can be developed and expanded ( through grit and other character strengths), they are likely to show even more growth. Isn't this just crazy-awesome?

One way my students begin to shift their thinking about intelligence is by analyzing their own reading data. Of course, they take the ACT Reading prototype, and yeah, they also do the Scholastic Reading Inventory, and sure, they chart the books they've read, but individually these things don't paint the whole picture of how they've grown as readers. When they really look at all of these pieces of data combined with their own reflections, they are able to appreciate their progress, recognize effective strategies, and set new goals.

What process do my students take to construct their own Reading Ladders? To start off, my students #1 compile a list of all of the books they completed and abandoned so far this school year. Most of them keep track on their genre requirement chart or on Goodreads, but some of them forget to keep up with their record. Often, they're revisiting the shelves to look for titles they missed while I'm printing off their "Student Checkout Detail" under the reports section from Booksource's Classroom Organizer, hoping that they actually remembered to sign out all the books that they read this year. <<Check out these posts where I discuss how I get kids to do more choice reading and how I organize my classroom library using this awesome resource.>>

As they list the titles, I ask that they #2 determine the number of pages that they read in each book. They do this by either physically finding all of the books in our library that they read or by checking the page numbers on Goodreads website.

After they've done a bit of digging around, I ask them to #3 calculate the average number of pages read per week. Thanks to Kittle, all of my students can tell you that colleges expect students to read between 200-600 pages per week; therefore, we must develop our stamina as in order to compete with other students. College is competitive, and if we want to succeed, we've got to practice daily. So everyday, we work on reading for an extended time frame and with greater fluency. I know that in Book Love, Kittle talks about recording students' reading rates on a regular basis. I never seem to have time for this, so instead, we talk about it regularly and try to track it at least once a trimester. Students calculate their reading rate by first adding up the total number of pages they read and dividing it by the number of weeks in that trimester.

Next, they #4 write their first reflection, comparing this reading rate with last trimester. Before they get started, I model my own reading rate reflection. Sharing my # of pages/week with them creates a common ground during reading conferences. I discuss the obstacles that get in the way of my reading and how I try to get around them.

This reading rate calculation primarily helps students pay attention to the reading they've done outside of class, along with identifying areas of needed improvement, and celebrating gains. I also ask students to discuss if/how they are challenging themselves, in preparation for the stamina and grit they'll need in college. Most are very honest if they are only reading in class, a little here and there at home, or devoted to "stealing minutes to read" wherever they go. Whatever their habits are, sharing this reflection highlights that the choices they make have a significant difference in their later success.

As a class, we next #5 discuss what makes a book difficult. Over the years, I've done this a few different ways, but now I'm taking Kittle's most recent suggestion by dropping a pile of books in front of a group. The title are mixed based on genre, level, structure, fiction/nonfiction, etc. Students work together to re-stack the pile in order of text complexity. As they're debating over the characteristics that makes one book more difficult than the next, I walk around and write down some of their spoken statements. We share our new book stacks with the other groups, arguing why they're in the order that they are. Because we have created an atmosphere that supports debate, other groups, naturally, counter-argue, providing alternative evidence. Together, we then discuss their spoken statements and all the qualities that come in to play when determining the complexity of a book.

From there, students return to their earlier record of books and spend time #6 organizing the titles on the list from the least challenging to the most difficult and write a corresponding argument. If this is the second or third trimester, students blend new reads in with their older reads, often annotating the new books with asterisks for the sake of clarity. As with a lot of arguments, there may not be a "correct answer," but as long as they clearly explain and support their thinking with quality evidence, I'm satisfied that they adequately reflected.

Following the "Why this Order?" paragraph, students #7 write mini-reviews of their favorite books. We spend time analyzing mentor texts to see what other book reviewers do. This year, my students really enjoyed analyzing the amazing YA Lit book bloggin' work of Brian Wyzlic, of Wyz Reads; Sarah Anderson, of YALoveBlog; Jenn Fountain, of Fountain Reflections; Jillian Heise, of Heise Reads; Aaron Bergh, of Real Men Read YA, and Beth Shaum, of Foodie Bibliophile and Use Your Outside Voice.

As mentioned, the need for students to make plans for improvement is critical to their learning; therefore, each goal should be unique and individual to the student. Often these are derived from our conversations during reading conferences or students' own awareness of their particular challenges. When #8 writing about their goals, they should be specific: "I will read 15 books by June. I will read at least one non-fiction book. I will read one Jane Austen novel. I will develop an at-home reading habit. I will...." This specificity will make it easier for them to measure if they've accomplished what they intended to do when we reflect next time. I also ask them to include a list of To-Read books, which contains at least a few titles that they want to read of increasing difficulty. This is another great opportunity to do a teacher model. Throughout the year, my students start to learn about my reading challenges and goals, and this helps them see that we all have room to grow as readers.

The last step that my students take is a new one for me, as of this winter. Kittle shares in Book Love that she asks students to #9 reflect on their reading in a short essay. Check out the assignment description and list of prompts she uses with her students.

I liked all of these prompts and will probably use them next trimester, but this time I wanted to use this moment as an opportunity to do some of that "Hey! Check it out! All these skills we're learning actually cross over into other facets of writing." So, we blended the reflection in our work with close reading and argumentative writing. I gave them an Article of the Week from The New York Times Room for Debate series (I love this by the way. If you haven't checked it out, it's killer for studying multiple arguments of the same topic) where the authors argued why young adult fiction become such a phenomenon - even with older adults. Students close read it, like any other week, following the AoW direction of Kelly Gallagher. Then, like all of our argumentative writing this year, students practiced using Graff & Birkenstein's "They Say, I Say" model. They argued their opinions, including both text-based evidence from the authors ("They Say") as well as evidence from their own engagement with reading this year ("I Say"). And because this Article of the Week was unique to blend it with the Reading Ladder, I did ask that include more "I Say" evidence than they normally would do in a typical AoW, mostly because I wanted them to do lots of reflecting on their own lives in order to really spur that growth.

In the end, I am always impressed with the thinking my students do as a part of their Reading Ladders.

What does a finished Reading Ladder look like? The example below comes from one my actual students. According to power data, this kid is about six grades below tenth grade proficiency. I'm including it here because, although he struggles, his Reading Ladder shows really deep thinking and awesome grit.

Reading Rate Trimester Two: 1209 pags / 12 weeks = average of 100.75 pages per week

on: Reading is difficult for me right now mostly because of comprehension problems and lack of interest. My reading rate is relatively low comparing to classmates however 1209 pages in 12 weeks is fantastic to me that is probably more than ive read out of books in my life but i do understand i need to continue growing as a reader and open my mind to different types of literature i have found myself checking in new areas for books and really asking friends who know me best what they would recommend this trimester has been much different with reading but the main goal from this point forward is to read at home more.

I have improved a lot more than i ever would have thought in the first week of school i came into this class thinking reading is not my cup of tea it made my eyes hurt looking at the pages my brain would pound after reading a chapter and i wasn't interested in anything but it did not take long and i wouldn't put some books down i've been reading more magazine articles and the newspaper every once in awhile also i started to really dig into deeper thought about what i want to read next and a lot of this growth in reading has given me a mental drive to write more which has always been my favorite topic in school until high school so over all reading is advancing me in more places than reading.

Book Reviews & Text Complexity: No Right Turn was the easiest book i've read this trimester however it was my favorite. i was introduced to this book by Mrs. Beaton and i really enjoyed it i have even considered reading it again. what makes this book difficult for me was the parts when the main character would think back years time and talk about his thoughts but it wasn't very hard to follow.

The second book would be Forever and this book is a great young adult book in my eyes and a great piece of literature at times the drama and "girl talk" could be hard to follow and the pregnancy issues were interesting to read about i really enjoyed this book because it was all high school drama and because i'm a 10th grade adolescent all i am surrounded by durring the day is highschool drama.

Next i dug up the book Othello this book was difficult not only because its a shakespearean tragedy but the form it was written in was a play format and i did not enjoy it in the beginning of the book however Mrs. Beaton had use act it out in class and we were assigned individual parts also when some words didn't make sense, mostly fault of the old english writing, on the other side of the book a modern version was offered of the same play and this in the end really helped me grow as a reader that constant struggle with reading is not a good sign but i overcame that and finally started to understand the tragedy.

After that, the autobiography My Orange Duffel bag was new in this class and despite the elusiveness of me holding a book at this point i was first on the list to read it and i passed it up at first however Mrs. Beaton told the class a little bit more about it and i felt the need to give it a chance and i have to admit i really enjoyed it. The difficulty with this book was the few moments reading about his college football life and the only reason i claim this is because i'm adolescent not really a huge fan of sports "jocks" also have never had a true interest in football but this book is much more than that and i'm glad i got the opportunity to read it.

the next book can be argued the most difficult out of two but i really enjoyed it Jumping off Swings was an excellent book i think many young adults should read however the most complicated part with this book is the fact it is told from four points of view and each chapter is a different person's point of view only changing between the four friends and how they see life drive by. This is a style of writing i am not familiar with however i was interested and would love to try it with a story of my own.

finally the hardest book i've read ever was this trimester The Great Gatsby however i was not a huge fan of this book but i think if i could totally understand it and compare it to the american dream and view any other perks it may have to offer i feel i would appreciate Gatsby a lot more and my respect would build

Personal Goals: I am more than satisfied with my reading rate and really appreciate the opportunity i have here in class to read like i do the past nine years of school i spent fake reading and googling books however i am happy to say i don't really do that anymore i am really enjoying reading in school i still struggle to read at home now and then but as one of my goals i will read 15 books this trimester and i will get there without gimping out on children's books but on top of that i will start reading 30 minutes at home every night to strengthen my reading skills i may have got a late start on the reading and loving books but i'm glad it's now and not never really happy to see how blind i was up until this year when it came to books. Next i would like to read a nonfiction.

I'd love to hear how you're using Reading Ladders in your classroom, so please share your ideas below. I'm always hungry for more student examples and variations of the process.

But wait-there's more!
If you haven't done so already, be sure to join my mailing list to receive posts sent directly to your inbox: Follow Erica Lee Beaton on WordPress.com

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Tips for Holding Students Accountable to Choice Reading: Reading Ladders

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What is a Reading Ladder, and where does this idea originate? A Reading Ladder is simply a piece of explanatory writing where students rank the books they've read according to complexity, reflect on their reading habits, and make plans for future growth.

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Workshop in the AP classroom (even though the focus is on writing, the implications for reading workshop are there.)

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My beat this fall is all about exploring how students can write their way INto texts and use their writing (or others') to learn more about literature. If you're looking for new ways to use writing in a literature study or hoping to blend writing workshop into a course where it doesn't seem like a workshop should fit, then this beat is for you!
When I introduced "Writing Our Way In" a few months ago, reader Mary Lou asked: How do you balance the literature and the writing in workshop?

The short answer to Mary Lou's question is: I don't know. Finding that balance between writing and literature in my IB English classroom has been really tough, and just as I was finding a rhythm with a junior and senior class, I changed schools, so now I feel like I'm back to square one.

In this post, I'll share some of the best strategies I've used to bring writing workshop into a course that's usually designed for literary study.

Tip #1: Turn mock exams into first drafts

If you teach IB, AP, or other classes that end in external state, national, or global assessments, then there is a good chance that your students have completed practice exams to prepare for those assessments. While it's important to assess raw on-demand writing to determine how prepared students are for high-stakes on-demand writing, why not run multiple practices (formative assessment! Track students' progress over time!) and then ask students to select one of their on-demand essays as a flash first draft for a longer, more thorough essay?

To help students refine those on-demand drafts, you could...

Tip #2: Find real-world mentor texts that mirror external assessments

Those end-of-year tests can feel like giant boxes that just need to be checked, essays that matter in that moment and never again, BUT if you can find mentor texts that demonstrate the same thinking or argument patterns, you can tie those seemingly isolated analyses to the real world. I've written before about how "Close Read" mimics the IB literary commentary; in addition, most movie, , or television reviews can be mined for artful analysis in service of an argumentative claim. Often The New York Times or or other sources will review two plays or books in the same column, so those can be models for comparative analyses. And then there are great essays like t his piece from U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith (published yesterday!) that offer beautiful mentor sentences and powerful examples of literature's essential role in society. (Why not use Smith's essay as a model for a final paper? Students could write about what makes the literature of the course relevant (or maybe they'll argue why it isn't!)).

Tip #3: Creative writing and analysis aren't mutually exclusive

When our students have to write traditional analyses for a final exam, it can feel like we don't have time for "creative writing," but sometimes the genre that might seem farthest from the one we want our students to practice is actually the best possible practice. Asking students to write LIKE our author rather than ABOUT the author makes them more attentive to craft and its effects. (It's a bit like the "give someone a fish/ teach someone to fish" proverb. If students are made to analyze something they haven't tried to make, the writing will feel distant. If they dig in and "do," they'll understand how the genre and the poem, story, novel, or play work.) Kudos to Rebekah for first inspiring the pastiches that my students write. For more on her work with write-alikes and my work with other creative writing assessments, check out the first item at this .

Tip #4: Teach students to be writing tutors

In the post that's linked above, I also wrote about teaching my seniors to be writing tutors. Conducting a brief writing tutor training allowed me to create mobile and flexible workshops. I teach many students who are both perfectionists and procrastinators; for many of them, revising means fixing glaring errors rather than looking again at how clearly and authentically their ideas are communicated. Why a paper works or doesn't work still feels like a mysterious teacher secret rather than something they can anticipate or discern. I'm trying to change that. Even the briefest tutor training can shift writers' mindsets and focus their attention on making the connections between writer, reader, and subject.

Tip #5: Whenever possible, make time for writing in class

When an exam date that is out of our control looms, it can feel so, so difficult to give up any class time for writing, but the workshop model depends on it. Writing days are when great conversations happen, when students gain confidence in their ideas and work out the problems that might otherwise keep them up all night, head on the keyboard. I'll confess that this is the most difficult guideline for me to follow, but every time I make time for writing in class, the stress and tension that had me worried about losing time in the first place dissipates. Flip the literary lessons for those days and let students stretch their writing muscles instead.

Tip #6: Conference when you can; use Flipgrid when you can't

One of the external assessments for the junior year of IB English incorporates student-teacher conferences (or, rather, some kind of preliminary planning and discussion) as part of its procedure. I looked at that requirement as my invitation to make IB I a workshop course. I used the first year of the two-year course to build the routines of a workshop so that our workspace really hummed by senior year. Now that I'm at my new school, teaching solely the senior year of IB, I'm realizing how much I took that first year of work for granted! Getting a workshop on its feet during a senior course on a rotational schedule has been tough, but one tool that helped this year was .

Inspired by some work my colleagues have been doing (and Mike Ziegler's contribution to Moving Writers' NCTE 2017 presentation), I asked seniors to record 3-minute videos about their plans for papers about . In the videos-uncut and unedited so that students and I could assess their impromptu speaking skills-students had to talk through their brainstorming for the paper. I watched the videos while I was away at NCTE and responded with praise and points to ponder. The videos helped me to know which students understood the assignment and were ready to write and which would need some additional coaching during our workshop days. The videos also reminded me that, even when the final product was muddy or confusing, students' initial ideas were clever.

Consider Flipgrid when you're trying to make room for writing time, too. Could a period-long discussion move to an online platform to make room for writing?

Tip #7: Remember that students don't need to know this book/poem/play like we know it

When we're teaching literature courses with external exams meant to evaluate students' knowledge and understanding of that literature, we may want to turn our courses into one-way information pipelines, especially when time is limited ("Gather 'round, children, let us tell you what we know, so you can tell the examiner what you heard!), but asking students to simply repeat what they hear is a map to short-lived success rather than long-term critical thinking and appreciation. Writing workshop encourages independent study and discovery. As I was reminded when reading a student's recent revision, each time we return to our writing we dig deeper; we turn over new layers of soil. So let that attitude guide literary study, too! Let students struggle with a tough text; let them hit walls and find new ways through the maze. I have to get out of the way!

Case in point: on Friday, I had laryngitis. I've had sore throats before, but I've never lost my voice to the degree that it was gone that afternoon. I had planned on walking through a Seamus Heaney poem with my seniors, but I wouldn't be able to talk that much, so I wrote out the prompts I would have asked in class and passed them out to students. They worked in small groups to unpack two poems, and, guess what? They were fine. They figured them out and made connections I hadn't! They struggled and they argued and they made their cases with evidence from the poem: in short, they did exactly what they'll need to do in a few months. And they'll own the knowledge they developed for far longer than they'll remember anything I've told them about Heaney's poetry.

What I've offered above is some of my best advice, but sometimes it's hard for me to follow my own suggestions! Mary Lou, I'm really grateful for your question because it has re-centered me. I think I understand my efforts to balance reading and writing this semester, but I'm not sure my students do. I want to make writing a part of my seniors' routine next semester, and I want students to be able to carry out those routines without me. Who knows when laryngitis might strike again!

I'll keep you posted on how those routines develop. Until then, please share your best tips for blending writing workshop with a literature course in the comments below or on Twitter @MsJochman. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year-see you again in 2019! (And if you have a question about blending writing workshop and a literature course, please fill out the survey below!)

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Writing Our Way In: Tips for Balancing Literature Study and Writing Workshop

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My beat this fall is all about exploring how students can write their way INto texts and use their writing (or others') to learn more about literature. If you're looking for new ways to use writing in a literature study or hoping to blend writing workshop into a course where it doesn't seem like a...

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Julie Swinehart, an international teacher, writes a regular blog in which she reflects on reading workshop.

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But I only have 45 minutes each day.....

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But I only have 45 minutes each day.....

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A blog from Three Teachers Talk

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It's a movement, you know - this instructional practice called Readers and Writers Workshop. More and more educators are catching the vision and clarifying their focus as English educators. (There's also a lot of nay-sayers, which I think means they are afraid. Let's be patient with them.)

I received an email that asked a question that I wish I would have had answered for me years ago when I made the leap into choice reading and the workshop pedagogy. It's important, so I knew it needed to be a post on this blog:

English I teacher asked: I have a question for you about classroom routine. I felt I needed to ask someone who can answer with authority about this because there is significant resistance from teachers on my campus to the whole idea of workshop, especially from my department chair. For various reasons that I won't bore you with, we need to do a "by the book" implementation. We will be under a lot of negative scrutiny no matter what we do, but things will go better if we are following some sort of precedent on certain details.
I've found specific information about block schedule and the frequency of in-class silent sustained reading, but I haven't found anything for non-block schedules. We are non-block with 45 minute periods. I think I read on your blog that you used to use Workshop in a non-block schedule. When you did that, how often did you do the in-class reading?
I am glad you asked about non-block scheduling for workshop instruction. Yes, it is doable! I taught class periods of 50 minutes five times a week prior to moving to my current school. When I was first trying to figure it out, the best advice I got was from Penny Kittle. She told me: "You choose to do this, which means you choose not to do that." Here's how I interpreted that:

If I have 50 minutes with my students each day. Every minute matters, so I must be intentional in the choices I make.

I used to choose whole class novels and read at least part of the novels in class. I used to assign students guided questions to help their understanding of those novels. I used to give lists of vocabulary words and ask students to define, write sentences, create images. I used to give writing prompts and writing homework. I used to expect students to read and write outside of class without ever showing them the messiness, the thinking, the discovering of ideas and emotions and writer's moves on the page. I used to make all the choices, and I expected my students to go along for the ride.

Some did. Many did not. It finally started to dig at me that many was so much greater than some.

I choose not to do any of those things now.

Now, my students and I choose to read books we find interesting, engaging, and important to our lives. We read, discuss, and write about how the ideas inside these books are windows to the world outside our own, and how they are mirrors into the joys, aches, and heartbreaks we see inside ourselves and within our families.

I wrote about 7 Moves in My Workshop Schedule a while ago. These moves are non-negotiable: read, confer, talk, write, revise, share, mini-lesson.

To make these workshop moves work, we must also include these tools as non-negiotables: writer's notebooks, mentor texts, high interest books.

As you begin to plan for your 50 minutes, think about this: How can you ensure that all students read, write, listen, and speak in every class period? (These are best practices for English Language Learner's, which in my experience means they are best practices for all students.)

You specifically asked about the frequency of in-class independent reading in a class period of 45 minutes.

Read every day. Every day. Every day.

If you want students to become voracious readers, time is the greatest gift you can give them. Students need to know that you trust reading as your ally. If you believe that through reading students will grow in fluency, stamina, vocabulary acquisition, comprehension... and empathy, which has been written about here Scientific American and here Psychology Today you must make it a priority. So how might this look in your classroom:

Read at the beginning of every class period - 10 minutes. You do not need a bell ringer or any other focusing task when students know that the expectation is to come in the room and get to reading. The first chapter in Steve Gardiner's book Sustained Silent Reading offers some great information - and quotes Nancie Atwell on the importance of choice. Encourage and challenge students to read outside of school. Help them create goals, and them help them hold themselves accountable to reaching them.

Confer when students are reading. Make this a norm. Conferring moves readers workshop instruction forward. And students want and need us talking to them about their reading, about their thinking, and about their lives. One-on-one instruction happens here, and it is through this teacher move that belonging, identifying, coaching, challenging, and empowering happens.

When you create a classroom culture of reading, discipline begins to care for itself. It's a matter of setting expectations and then being consistent with them. If I have a student who refuses to read, which happens at times, especially early in the year, I make sure she knows that she has that right, but she does not have the right to interfere with anyone else's right to read. Sustained Silent Silence instead of Sustained Silent Reading gets boring after a while.

You've read, and you've conferred. Now, you make other choices about what to include in your instruction. These are ideas that work for my students:

Write about their reading. Now, I'm not advocating for dialectic journals or questions about plot and setting, but it is important that students become reflective about their reading. Find a balance here. We do not want reading to turn to work, and demanding that students write about their reading way too much may turn them off to reading. Think about the books you and I read. How often do we have to write an essay about a novel we read?

Penny Kittle taught me about topic or "big idea" notebooks, and I've had a lot of success with these. (That link is to Penny's Book Love handout, which has other great ideas for students to write about their reading.)

Teach skills in mini-lessons. I decide on mini-lessons based on two things: 1) my standards, 2) student needs based on what I learn in conferences.

Say I need to teach them about using the appeals in an argument, I may teach a mini lesson on logical appeal one day. Then I will ask students to do some flash research and find evidence of this appeal in either their independent reading, a news article, or an online text. We'll share our findings and do a lot of talking - Why'd the writer use that appeal? How does it contribute to the argument? etc. Then, students will know I need to see them use that appeal in their own writing. We write (and confer) for the rest of the class period. Or, we share our writing in our writers' groups.

Or, say I've conferred with half the class about their reading. I've found that half of those students are having trouble finding books with enough higher-level vocabulary to add to their personal dictionaries. I know I need to teach a mini-lesson on text complexity and what it means to challenge ourselves as readers. I may choose a few books with similar topics or themes and show my students a reading ladder:

Tears of a Tiger by Sharon Draper

Dopesick by Walter Dean Meyers

Homeboyz by Alan Sitomer

Tyrell by Coe Booth

The Absolute True Diary of a Part time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Letters to an Incarcerated Brother by Hill Harper

We'll talk about why one book may be more complex than others. I might challenge students to read all of these titles and then tell me if I have the ladder right. (I may not, I haven't read every one of these books, but I think I'm on the right track.) I'll teach students about syntax and how that impacts text complexity as much, or more, than vocabulary. Then, I'll challenge students to keep track of the complexity of the books they choose, not only by keeping their personal dictionaries up to date, but by adding codes to their reading lists. E - easy, C - comfortable, D - difficult. I show them my writer's notebook and how this tracking helps me understand my reading habits.

Allow time to work. The greatest indicator that workshop works in my classroom is student engagement. When I allow students time to complete writing in class with me available to talk to and ask questions, they engage in the writing process more efficiently and effectively. I've let go of wanting a product, and now we enjoy the process of writing. We discover as we write. We revise because we know our writing improves as we revisit it. We share our writing because all voices in our classroom matter. The only way to accomplish these things is to build time to write right into the class schedule.

I wrote Choose to Become a Classroom of Writers a while ago. I still believe focusing on writing creates the smoothest transition to workshop instruction. Why? Because writers are readers first. Check out this post of 40 Inspiring Quotes about Reading from Writers. (Just a little proof.)

But that's probably another post for another day.

Best blessings to you as you take off on this wonderful adventure with your students. Write any time: for support, for clarity, for whatever you might need. You're blessing the lives of children. Our future -our society - needs educators like you.

Press forward (nay-saying department manager and all).

Warmly,

Amy
Dear reader, any advice you can offer our friend?
©Amy Rasmussen, 2011 - 2015

Tagged: Conferring, English Language Learners, pedagogy, Readers Writers Workshop, sustained silent reading in high school

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My Classes are Only 45 Minutes - How Do I Do Workshop?

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When you create a classroom culture of reading, discipline begins to care for itself. It's a matter of setting expectations and then being consistent with them. If I have a student who refuses to read, which happens at times, especially early in the year, I make sure she knows that she has that right, but...

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From Three Teachers Talk

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I'm going to just say this right up front: I hope to challenge some thinking.

I asked some friends for feedback on this post and got opposing advice. I let it rest for half a week. I prayed about it. And then today I read this post by Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure she wrote it in a response to a comment on this post by Amanda Palmer, Secondary Language Arts Coordinator in Katy, TX. I've written about my own students and their experiences as they've grown as readers before at Nerdy Book Club and on this blog; and I've presented on how I advocate for choice in AP English at conferences.

I hope I can be a voice of reason and an inspiration for the good of all students. So, if you'll hang with me here, I've got a case for choice reading in AP English.

"I wish my daughter was in your AP English class," my friend told me. "She has to decorate Kleenex boxes in hers."

We'd had this conversation before: I am an advocate of self-selected reading, and I fully embrace readers and writers workshop in my AP English Language and Composition classroom; Sarah is an advanced reader in an AP English course where the teacher chooses all the texts and assigns "clever" ways for the students to show that they are reading. Anyone who knows Penny Kittle's work, and Donalyn Miller's work, and my work, which is so much about helping students develop as life-long readers, understands that Sarah is not having the kind of experience in her English class that we advocate and hope for all children.
Making the Move to Move Readers
Many teachers and administrators across the country have recognized that students in secondary classrooms are not reading. If students are not readers, they tend to struggle in all academic subjects - not just English. Schools adopt interdisciplinary practices, whole school vocabulary instruction and stop-everything-and-read programs in an attempt to improve reading scores on standardized tests. Many have moved to readers and writers workshop, where choice-independent reading is key, instead of the traditional secondary-English pedagogy where the teacher selects all the texts, usually classics, and all the writing topics a student is expected to write about for class. Those who have made the move will tell you that choice matters, along with time to read and write, when it comes to student engagement and real movement in our teenage readers and writers.

However, from what I've seen and heard, most of this choice is happening in general education classes - not honors and AP English. The teachers in most advanced classes I know of are still making all the choices. It's like we do not trust our high-achieving students to move themselves into complex texts. We focus on the literature instead of the literacy. And we rob children who already have a grasp of language, who already have many of the study skills they need to pass English classes, with the opportunities to grow as much as they are able.

We make changes in our pedagogy that allow our reluctant and struggling learners to grow but not our proficient kids? Where is the sense it that?
Evidence that Readers and Writers Workshop Works
One day last week, I sat and listened to my district's ELA director share our state re-tester data. I usually hate this kind of meeting, but our gains are huge - due in large part because of the redesign of tutorial lessons, many of which teachers have adopted into their mainstream instruction. The ELA director changed the model and worked closely with North Star of TX Writing Project to produce writing workshop lessons (most of which came out of my classroom and pedagogy) that broke the mold of Response to Intervention. The dramatic increase in re-tester scores (an average of 200+ point increase per student) proves the lessons are working to move student readers and writers. Workshop-style writing lessons and a campus-wide, district-wide commitment to independent reading is working.
Making the Move in Advanced English Classes - or Not
The next day I sat in a meeting with the AP English team on my home campus. (Important note: The same day that in second period a young woman asked me to recommend her a book of classic literature because she wanted to read something more complex. She and I stood in front of my "Challenge Yourself" shelf, and in about six minutes while the rest of the class read silently, I taught a mini-lesson on Gothic literature and the Regency Era and book talked the Bronte sisters' books and Jane Austen. Rebecca left class with Pride and Prejudice, a book she chose to read because she wanted a romance that sounded interesting.) In that vertical alignment meeting, the conversation bounced around to what students must know and returned a few times to the books "all students must read." After a while, someone asked me what I thought.

"Is it really about the book, or is it about the reader?" I asked.

"Well, it's both," two teachers answered.

"Then why does the book matter as much as the students' abilities to read the books?"

"Because they will never read these books on their own, and they have to read a storehouse of canonical texts in order to write on the AP Lit exam," they said.

"So you're basing the reading lives of all pre-AP students in 9th and 10th grade on one open-ended question on the AP exam their senior year?"

"Well, they also have to analyze a passage," one teacher added.

"Yes, and that's like studying lists of SAT words hoping students learn the few out of 5,000 that might be on the SAT exam. It's a total crapshoot.

"Shouldn't we be more concerned about students being able to read at complex levels than deciding which books they must read?"

Another teacher joined in "I want my students to be prepared for the kinds of reading they will be expected to know when they go into college classrooms. That is providing equity. If they know The Iliad, Beowulf, Dante, they will be on equal footing as those classmates who read those things at the affluent schools across town."

"Shouldn't the equity be in the skills our students possess? Can they read and understand complex texts like the students across town?"
How Do We Know If Students Are Reading
I know that many, if not most, of those students at other schools are not reading those books. Few high school students read the assigned texts in English classes. Ask them. I have student writing from the past five years that tells me in their own words about their reading habits in high school. And there are plenty of well-researched articles like this one from the English Journal that concur. It is true: few high school students read the assigned texts in English classes. Why doesn't this matter to their teachers?

"How do you know they are reading the independent reading books you let them choose?" a teacher asked me.

"Because I talk to them about what they are reading," I answered.

"I do that, too, about the books I assign," she said, but I am pretty sure that her idea of talking about books with students and mine are very different. I call it conferences. She calls it lectures.

I felt disheartened and sad for the honor student at the outcome of that vertical alignment meeting: AP teachers deciding what four books teachers in preAP 9th and 10th grade must teach in order to prepare students for Advanced Placement in 11th and 12th grade.*

I fear that students will be just as prepared as they have been, which in my one-semester at this campus is not much. At the most, they will read four books a year, and the only students who will read the assigned texts are the ones who are readers anyway, who are studious enough, or care about their grades enough, to do what the teacher says. Everyone else will read a little and Sparknotes a lot, listening in to class discussions, and learning enough to pass exams that cover the conflict, plot, symbolism, and theme of the assigned text. Few, if any, will grow as readers who fall in love with words and characters and the beauty and the texture of carefully crafted stories. It happens over and over and over again.

We deprive the students who take advantage of the College Board's open enrollment policy, the students who voluntarily agree to more rigor, and we allow them to make it through high school English without growing as readers. I would argue that in many cases, there is high probability that they regress as readers.

How does that make any sense?
Looks Like the College Board Advocates for Readers Writers Workshop
The College Board provides course descriptions for each of the 34 AP courses and exams it offers. The descriptions reflect the course material that might be taught in a comparable college course. This makes designing a curriculum relatively easy for many of the courses taught. Biology and World History, for example, have definite knowledge-based skills that must be covered throughout the course. AP English courses are another story. Since first-year college composition courses are so diverse and vary from college to college, the structure of these classes on high school campuses can be diverse as well. AP programs, and even individual teachers, may design their courses based on their own interests and desires. Of course, the AP classes must reflect and assess college-level expectations, but that's pretty much the only requirement. There are no prescribed essays that students must write, although there are suggestions of form. There are no required novels to read, although there is a suggested list of authors. Suggested being a key word. Teachers have a great deal of freedom in how they design their courses and what they put on their syllabi. See
AP English Language and Composition Course Overview AP English Literature and Composition Course Overview
We can still read texts spanning from the 1600's to the 21 century. We can still read literature that we deem important to our literary canon. But do we have to make all the choices in our Advanced Classes?

We can foster literate lives if we will take the same approach to literacy that is working in thousands of classrooms across the country: Readers and Writers Workshop where choice matters and time to read and write mean deep and lasting learning.
So What's the Real Deal
After talking this over with several of my peers, I've decided on a few reasons why honors and AP English teachers refuse to "drink the Kool Aid" (Isn't that a nice derogatory way of describing readers/writers workshop? I hear it often):

Some teachers loved the experience they had with literature in their high school English classes. This is the reason they chose to be English teachers. (I am one of these teachers.) They want to duplicate those positive experiences for their students. A worthy ambition. However, I wonder if they have considered how many of their classmates experienced the same excitement at reading (or not) the literature that the teacher mandated.

Some teachers are not readers themselves. They love the books they've chosen to use in their classes, but rarely do they read anything from a best-seller list, or an awards list. They want to stay with what is known and comfortable. Many times these teachers mistake their duty: to teach the child and not the book.

Some teachers believe that certain pieces of literature must be read by every student on the planet. "If I don't teach this book, then these students will never read it" is a statement I've heard many times. My answer is always "Yes, but many are still not reading it when you teach it." We ruin the the taste of great literature for many students when we force books on them that they are not ready for. I've asked all of my students this year about their reading in 10th grade. Not one of them has said they love To Kill a Mockingbird, one of two books they had to read last year. Why would we want to turn students off of a much beloved book like TKMB?

Some teachers believe that 10 to 15 minutes of sustained silent reading at the beginning of class is the same as instruction with choice reading. Sure, this reading time, especially if students are reading books that they choose, is important. It is a step. But it is not the same as structuring instruction around readers workshop where students not only read books that they choose, they think about them, talk about them, learn within them. They confer with a teacher intent on moving the reader in the best differentiated instruction possible.

Some teachers are afraid of giving up control. They fear that if students are all reading different texts they won't know how to manage the class or guide the learning. This is a valid concern, but it is also something they can learn how to do. Many of us are doing it. We are happy to share how.

I am sure there are other reasons, and really, I mean no disrespect. I know my colleagues are hardworking and loving educators. I like them a lot. I respect them for the work they do, and I am sure that their students are learning in their classes. I know this is true for many other teachers and classrooms across America, too. I just really want to challenge some thinking.

What if we can do more?
Let's Allow all Students the Advantages of Choice
More than anything, I want all students to have opportunities to rise above the norm, and maybe, just

maybe, we will see many more students, not just our struggling ones, immersed in books they love, and thinking about their reading in ways we've never imagined. Their engagement will improve. Their growth will astound us. They will develop as critical thinkers, accomplished writers, and as empathetic individuals ready to take on the challenges of college and their world.

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that I shared a draft of it with my writing partners. This response from Shana is important:

"I was an AP Lit kid, and an Honors English kid. I SparkNoted The Scarlet Letter, Beowulf, Iliad, Catcher in the Rye, and the rest. I never read a bit of it. In fact, I didn't read ANYTHING that was assigned to me simply because of the fact that it had been ASSIGNED. I was stubborn like that. And I got A's all the way through. And a 5 on the AP test. All the while tearing through John Grisham, Elizabeth Peters, and the entire Bestsellers section of my public library outside of class.

"Then, my freshman year of college, when I took a workshop class in which I was allowed to self-select what I read, I chose the Scarlet Letter and thought it was the most beautiful love story I'd ever read. I finished it and read it again. Since that day, when I realized that because I was one of those AP kids and I COULD read those works, I've discovered that I LOVE them. But I never read a single one of them until after high school. My well-known love for Jane Austen didn't emerge until I wrote a paper on Pride and Prejudice and A Midsummer Night's Dream for my Shakespeare capstone. I just read Mockingbird last summer for the first time ever. [Note: I read it when I was 40.]

"I was never allowed to choose for myself in AP or Honors English, but had I been allowed to...I would have read all of those books, and arrived at a deeper level of love and reverence for literature, much earlier in my reading life.

"One thing I might add - I totally disagree with that AP Lit teacher saying that students needed to draw from classic lit for the test. Many of my AP kids who got 5s wrote about modern classics... Oscar Wao, Life of Pi, whatever. You don't have to know CLASSICS to ace the Lit exam...you just have to know how to write authentically about complex texts, and that's what we do in workshop, and what kids should be doing in AP classes."

I know there are others who have made the shift. I got this in an email message just today from Jeannine in CA. We had a nice chat at NCTE: "Thank you for our November communication. I have altered much of my instruction to incorporate choice reading. The students are soaring!!!"

Another AP English teacher trusting herself and her students enough to make a change and see where it takes them.
Why, Yes, There's Research to Support This Pedagogy
I mentioned Donalyn's post at the beginning of this long one. It is all about the research, the theory that outlines and supports what it takes to grow readers. Allington, Atwell, Krashen, Moss, Fisher, Ivey, and Kittle, and Gallagher and more.

I add another: Last summer at the University of New Hampshire Literacy Institute Penny Kittle had us read Making Meaning with Texts, Selected Essays by Louise Rosenblatt. Rosenblatt's research spans decades and is just as applicable today as when she wrote it years ago. I challenge every English educator to read the whole of Rosenblatt's essay "The Acid Test for Literature Teaching, published in 1956. Or, at least to respond honestly to Rosenblatt's conclusion. Odds are you will make the shift to choice, if you haven't already:
"As we review our current high school programs in literature, we need to hold on to the essentials, or take the opportunity as re-adjustments come about, to create the practice that will meet the acid test: Does this practice or approach hinder or foster a sense that literature exists as a form of personally meaningful experiences? Is the pupil's interaction with the literary work itself the center from which all else radiates? Is the student being helped to grow into a relationship of integrity to language and literature? Is he building a lifetime habit of significant reading?"
*In an email after I'd written this post, I received the notes from that meeting, and I am happy to say that there were no specific book titles listed, just the admonition that students in 9 and 10 grade preAP classes read 3-5 whole class texts of a complex nature. And students need to read 15-20 books a year to grow as readers. (Yes, I did throw in that bit of research while in that meeting.)

©Amy Rasmussen, 2011 - 2015

Tagged: AP English, choice reading, Readers Writers Workshop, Reading research

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Aim Higher: A Case for Choice Reading and a Whole Lot More in AP English

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It's like we do not trust our high-achieving students to move themselves into complex texts. We focus on the literature instead of the literacy. And we rob children who already have a grasp of language, who already have many of the study skills they need to pass English classes, with the opportunities to grow.

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Reading Workshop in High School? Really????

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Reading Workshop in High School? Really????

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At this point in the school year, teachers do a lot of counting. Counting days, counting essays left to grade, counting books missing from a classroom library ( Seriously people, it's not cool to steal from teachers. Your growing passion for reading is the bee's knees, but my own kid may have to pay her way through college at the rate I spend on books for you. Might you return them? Please? Thank you) . At graduation this past weekend, I found myself counting seniors I had taught and I began imagining all the opportunities in front of them. Interestingly enough, this year, I looked at those seniors and saw...books.

Zak raved about will change your life. Ready Player One early this year. It was one of my first workshop successes.
Zoey emailed me over the weekend a few months back about Jenna plowed through Brain on Fire recently, after Zoey's recommendation Larissa swears that Ellen blushed when she told me she absolutely loved The Sociopath Next Door.
I counted at least eleven kids that read and sobbed over A Monster Calls.

Birds singing and happy little clouds everywhere.

And now...for a moment of full disclosure in the opposite direction. As my department makes the transition to workshop, sometimes the numbers are overwhelming and scary. We are one of only a handful of high schools moving to this model in the entire country. The path before us is paved by K-8 workshop instruction, but the number of secondary schools already doing workshop is relatively limited. This makes the sheer volume of curriculum we're creating staggering and models hard to find.

On top of those numbers we have extremely limited common prep time, surface level understanding of the best way to break up our 86 minute class periods most effectively, and hundreds of new classroom texts we are working to keep track of (not to mention read). All with three preps for most of my colleagues and a grand total of one hour of collaborative PLC time per week.

In short, this transition isn't easy and it's already had some pretty sobering/ugly/weep-worthy moments.

We're wrestling with very real questions about how to hold students accountable for their skill progression, how to keep track of meeting student need most effectively, how to appropriately conference with all of our students in large classes throughout the school year, and how to balance a need for college/career readiness with our desire to afford students the choice that will fuel their passions for both reading and writing.

At the end of the day, and the end of school year in which we have all been working to

incorporate more and more workshop practice into our daily instruction (knowing we will be expected to operate in the workshop model to fidelity next year), we are tired. Tired, overwhelmed, and nervous.

However, the visual of an Escher-like hellscape I've just created for you, thankfully, isn't the whole story. As I reflect back on this move to workshop, the overwhelming nature of the preparation involved ultimately pales in comparison to the positive feedback I've received from students.

I was sitting on the patio a few nights ago with my husband discussing the class-feedback forms my students had just emailed to me ( What did you learn from this class? What did you enjoy? What should I work on for next year?) with the completion of our regular class work and impending exam week. I expressed to him how proud I was of the number of students who commented on reading more, enjoying writing more, and basically being more invested in English class than any other year I can remember.

It sort of dumbfounded me as I recalled the emails over the course of the year. The casual

conversations with kids that showed their deep thinking about topics they cared about. Countless peer to peer discussions with overheard snippets such as "Oh, I that book. You need to read it" and "Yeah, I just couldn't put it down" and "This topic sentence is really good, but if you combine it with this idea, the paragraph will make more sense." The longer I talked with my husband, and the more I recounted the year in student snapshots, the more surprised I was to realize that my stories of the year had little to do with content I "taught" and everything to do with the students themselves - what they were doing with the content. The difference of 2015-2016 was choice and encouragement to be readers and writers. In short...workshop.

So with my recent numerical obsession (did you know it's only two more sleeps until the last day of school?!), I compiled the following rundown of my first year of exploring the workshop model:

Workshop by the Numbers
1 - Teacher playing around with workshop. Discovering its benefits, its challenges, and its similarity to and differences from her current instruction. Exhausting in the way teachers love. Some call it masochistic. I call it professional development.
3 - Teachers (Talk) who journeyed to the wild North during February to instruct the Franklin High School English department on the day to day of workshop instruction. Exhilarating. 11 - Colleagues opening their lesson plan books and starting almost from scratch to first play with and then make a full transition next year to the workshop model. Collaborative. 117 - Students who read for 10 minutes of every class period we shared, wrote and reflected during every period of second semester, and changed as readers and writers in ways I've not seen before in my 13 years of teaching. Thrilling. 180 - Days in the school year to remind students that they will grow as readers and writers with practice, passion, and a commitment to question, explore, and expand their views of the world. Daunting. 2088 - Hours of summer to read the 16,983 books on my "To Read" list (No time for love, Doctor Jones...or sleep for that matter). Delicious.
So many opportunities.

But now, I am going to be brutally honest once again. As previously stated, the move to workshop can be scary. It's new. New to us, our students, and in a formal sense, it's relatively new to secondary education altogether.

However, here's the part that sort of sounds like cheating:

Though teachers, myself included, are very rarely afforded the opportunity to take it easy, there are few things easier than throwing open the doors on choice and seeing what happens. Of course, there are many systems that need developing in my classroom and so much of workshop requires routine and consistency, but the heart and soul of workshop is really

choice - choice, talk, and lots of writing - all of which mainly require simply being honest with, invested in, and responsive to student need. No, it's not totally easy. It can't be a free for all. It can't be totally haphazard. But it can be trial and error. It can be learn as you go. It can be beautifully impactful.

To provide proof, here is a sampling of student reaction from my class-feedback form this year. I tried a lot of different things. I messed up a lot. We backtracked often. I sometimes forgot to book talk. I sometimes didn't provide enough modeling or take the time to write every time they did, but we worked with choice, we wrote more, and we talked more than ever before.

Here are just a few reactions from my AP Language and Composition class:

This year I really learned to be literate. Thank you also for always being a nice person and a smiling face to see in the morning. AP Lang actually taught me that I can read books that I want to read and no matter what they are I can discuss them in a scholarly way because even if the book is something like poetry or a comic it is still a book. I've learned that all books have something to teach and that's why they were written in the first place. I've read some amazing books this year and I've learned how to discuss my opinions on things using a higher vocabulary and assertions that are beyond the obvious. I've learned that you can look at anything in life a little deeper and you might just learn something. My tendencies to look deeper into things was fostered and practiced through books and reading so thank you Mrs. Dennis for helping me become a scholar. The first time you called us scholars I didn't really think you were serious, but now I feel it. I feel like I want to spend my entire summer reading and I plan on trying to finish a large chunk of my I want to read page because reading truly and utterly makes one a better person. Reading makes you a better thinker, citizen and friend. Language is truly a beautiful thing. Also, you should know that coming into this class I was intimidated and almost dropped. English is not my strongest suit as I want to go into premed, but now I can be a poetic Doctor am I right??
Nimmi

I loved this class, a lot. I've never really felt like I've learned much from English classes, but in AP Lang this year, I wouldn't change a thing, and I think that I'll probably look back on this class as one of the most valuable I've taken in high school. I'll miss having you as a teacher next year!Thanks for everything, I've grown so much as a writer and a reader and a thinker. Part of that is the class itself, part of that is the practice work we've done throughout the year that forced us to think for ourselves (I actually like doing one pagers now), and a big part of that is you as a teacher. You made us want to be smart.
Maddie

I always thought becoming a man would require some sort of coming of age. Some sort of 'killing the beast and dragging it home' type situation...Throughout the year I became increasingly disillusioned with being a dependent, in ideology and in living situation. I read books about Manliness, articles about what it "means" to be a man and looked far and wide for what the distinction was.Instead of having some book tell me that I should be principled and have virtue (which is simple enough for me, and not only a manly thing) AP Lang and you made me feel like I had a SAY in my own life and thoughts. AP Lang made me no longer dependent on others for what I believe and why, giving me the ability to evaluate, challenge, qualify AND support things.AP Language and Composition MADE A MAN OUT OF ME.I am eternally grateful,
I began this year as a boy and ended it as a man.
There is no amount of *physical contact*, "macho" rites of passage, or waking up one day transformed that made me into a man. Oddly enough, it was sharing my feelings that made me a man. The turning point was the day you told us "Feel free to share more feelings in your one pagers".
"Sharing my feelings" translated to me having to figure out WHAT I felt and believed and WHY.

Bennett

Encourage everyone to read Walden, strongly encourage. It's life-changing.
Continue teaching everyone to question ideas or anything at all; I think that was really fundamental in my growth as a student as well.
Larissa

And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the secret formula...
It's no secret at all.
These are the simple changes I made to my daily practice. And though I have a lot of work to do in regards to running a true workshop classroom each and every day, the results this year have felt amazing. Give it a try!

Provide 10-15 minutes per class period for students to read books of their choosing. It's time well spent. Best spent, actually.

Conference with students during that reading time to better understand what, how, and why they read. This will assist you in recommending further reading and in determining mini lessons your students need to make them better readers and writers.

Have students write each and every day. Encourage them to write without stopping (building fluency), revise something every time they write (building capacity to internalize the writing process), share that writing (to build community), and take pride in that writing by choosing and developing ideas.

Use additional class time for more conferences with students around what they are reading and writing. Students can work individually, in pairs, or in small groups during this time, depending on the mini lesson for the day.

Of course, readers and writers workshop involves so much more, but this is where I started this year. This is what resulted in the student response above.

If my calculations are correct, I have roughly 25 years left in the classroom (holy, holy, holy). That's 3000 students (conservatively) over 4500 days. Talk about an opportunity. Or rather, 4500 opportunities.
What books will they love? What great stories will they tell? Whose life will change by becoming a reader and a writer?
I can't wait to find out. Because the secret to workshop success is no secret...it's the students.
What moves have you made to workshop that have made a difference in your practice? Please feel free to leave your comments and questions below!
Tagged: Readers Writers Workshop

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Try It Tuesday - The 'Secret' to Workshop Success

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At this point in the school year, teachers do a lot of counting. Counting days, counting essays left to grade, counting books missing from a classroom library (Seriously people, it's not cool to steal from teachers. Your growing passion for reading is the bee's knees, but my own kid may have to pay her way...

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Reader's workshop in the high school classroom.

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Reader's workshop and independent reading in middle and high school: tips and tricks for managing it all.

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Does workshop have a place in an AP or IB class?

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Last Friday, I dismissed my fourth period IB English class early. We simply couldn't go on.

They filed out, sniffling, wiping away tears, heads down. Some were silent and left alone; most found a friend or two and whispered as they left, arms around shoulders.

They had just finished sharing their first piece of workshop writing.

You see, a few weeks ago, I simultaneously hit a wall and had an epiphany - one that I suspect had been brewing underneath the surface for quite some time. My IB seniors were all competent writers, I already knew that they will perform well on the IB exam, but I was bored teaching them (unlike my ninth grader workshoppers) and they were just going through the motions, totally turned off of writing (unlike my ninth grade workshoppers).

For years I have tossed around ideas about how full-fledged writing workshop could work in an IB or AP class. (Amy Rasmussen (@amyrass) at threeteacherstalk.com has done a lot to cause these thoughts to ferment and bubble over.) But, I had never acted on them. Not until a few weeks ago when, frustrated with not being the very best teacher I knew to be, I decided to leap. All in. All the way.

After all, I reasoned, if I truly believe that writing workshop is the best way to develop, deepen, and inspire passionate lifelong writers, how could it be wrong?

In broad terms, my IB students, now fully immersed in workshop life, do two kinds of writing studies - literature-based writing studies and technique-based writing studies. All of which require critical thinking and literary analysis. All of which will help them score well on their IB exam and wow their professors next year in college. But, far more importantly, all of which challenge them and push them and engage them in the process of great writing craft. All of which drive them to create pieces of writing that matter to them.

That's why we had to end class early last week - because my students' writing mattered so much to them that reading it aloud brought them to tears. And seeing so much emotion poured into and out of and through the writing of their peers, other students cried with them.

In the next few days and weeks, I'll share the process nitty-gritty with you. I'll tell you about the writing studies we've done so far, I'll share the mentor texts I used and how I used them, I'll show you how this instructional approach and the writing it yields more than meets the requirements of AP and IB programs, and I'll show you the results of the students' labor.

For now, I'd like you to hear from my students. These quotes come from their author's notes for a recent workshop paper that asked them to write about two texts side-by-side.

I have seen the power of writing workshop to transform struggling and disengaged writers. Recently, I have seen that it is just as powerful for students who can already check the right writing boxes but thirst for something more.

Dear Mrs. O'Dell,

I thoroughly enjoyed writing this paper much much more than all of the boring papers in the past. I felt as though I was actually a writer working for the New York Times. I felt passionate about what I was writing because I could actually speak to the reader and express my opinions in a way that was actually enjoyable. I think that next year you should tell your students to write all of their papers this way...Thank you for giving us this opportunity Mrs. O'Dell, it has made me enjoy writing much more! - Harrison

"This is one of my favorite papers I have ever written, which is definitely not something I expected to feel at the end of my senior year. I'm glad you forced me to push my writing to something different." - Seth

"I really really enjoyed writing this paper! Seriously, this might be one of the first times I've ever had fun writing a paper" - Fletcher

"I had a blast and a half writing this paper. I don't think it was necessarily easier to write this paper than other English papers, but I do think it was a more enjoyable experience...Thank you for widening my knowledge as a writer and pushing me to write to the best of my ability." - Alex

In conclusion, I have a confession: writing is an incredibly difficult task for me. I enjoy doing it, but words don't flow out of my mouth and brain the way some people's do. I struggle with word choice as well as run on sentences; it seems like my sentences can last forever at times. But I honestly did enjoy this paper. Last night I was about to go to bed after finishing my paper that afternoon, then decided to go back one more time to make sure that I loved what I was saying and that you would be happy with what I wrote. I can't say that I have done that on many English papers. (I'm just being honest.) Don't get me wrong, I enjoy English. I just struggle with analyzing pieces of writing, and specifically, comparing two pieces. But I was satisfied with what I wrote. I feel that I took risks in many aspects of my paper, specifically with tone and structure, but also with the general format of what I chose to say. I'm happy with my paper, and I hope you enjoy it as well. - Kathryn

Connect with us in the comments below & on Twitter @rebekahodell1 and @allisonmarchett.

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Writing Workshop Transforms Literary Analysis, Too

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Last Friday, I dismissed my fourth period IB English class early. We simply couldn't go on. They filed out, sniffling, wiping away tears, heads down. Some were silent and left alone; most found a friend or two and whispered as they left, arms around shoulders. They had just finished sharing their first piece of workshop...

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A major underpinning of workshop is gradual release of responsibilityy. This video takes you into a high school English classroom to see it in actio

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. What happens when Ms. Baines has her students act as teachers?

2. How could backwards planning inform the gradual release of responsibility?

3. What can you learn from Ms. Baines about scaffolding?

School Details

Alief Early College High School
2811 Hayes Road
Houston TX 77082

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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High school ELA teacher Monica Baines explains how she facilitates understanding using the gradual release of responsibility model. Monica explains how she breaks content into small chunks to make it manageable for her students, then gradually shifts the load to them.

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This summer, we'd like to Please return to this topic and talk with us in the comments-does choice reading belong in AP? How do you put student autonomy at the center of your AP classes return and talk about some of our most useful, engaging, or popular posts. Today's post, written by Amy in 2015 , makes the case for choice reading in AP English . Making the Move to Move Readers
I'm going to just say this right up front: I hope to challenge some thinking.

I asked some friends for feedback on this post and got opposing advice. I let it rest for half a week. I prayed about it. And then today I read this post by Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure she wrote it in a response to a comment on this post by Amanda Palmer, Secondary Language Arts Coordinator in Katy, TX. I've written about my own students and their experiences as they've grown as readers before at Nerdy Book Club and on this blog; and I've presented on how I advocate for choice in AP English at conferences.

I hope I can be a voice of reason and an inspiration for the good of all students. So, if you'll hang with me here, I've got a case for choice reading in AP English.
Evidence that Readers and Writers Workshop Works
"I wish my daughter was in your AP English class," my friend told me. "She has to decorate Kleenex boxes in hers."
Making the Move in Advanced English Classes - or Not
We'd had this conversation before: I am an advocate of self-selected reading, and I fully embrace readers and writers workshop in my AP English Language and Composition classroom; Sarah is an advanced reader in an AP English course where the teacher chooses all the texts and assigns "clever" ways for the students to show that they are reading. Anyone who knows Penny Kittle's work, and Donalyn Miller's work, and my work, which is so much about helping students develop as life-long readers, understands that Sarah is not having the kind of experience in her English class that we advocate and hope for all children.

Many teachers and administrators across the country have recognized that students in secondary classrooms are not reading. If students are not readers, they tend to struggle in all academic subjects - not just English. Schools adopt interdisciplinary practices, whole school vocabulary instruction and stop-everything-and-read programs in an attempt to improve reading scores on standardized tests. Many have moved to readers and writers workshop, where choice-independent reading is key, instead of the traditional secondary-English pedagogy where the teacher selects all the texts, usually classics, and all the writing topics a student is expected to write about for class. Those who have made the move will tell you that choice matters, along with time to read and write, when it comes to student engagement and real movement in our teenage readers and writers.

However, from what I've seen and heard, most of this choice is happening in general education classes - not honors and AP English. The teachers in most advanced classes I know of are still making all the choices. It's like we do not trust our high-achieving students to move themselves into complex texts. We focus on the literature instead of the literacy. And we rob children who already have a grasp of language, who already have many of the study skills they need to pass English classes, with the opportunities to grow as much as they are able.

We make changes in our pedagogy that allow our reluctant and struggling learners to grow but not our proficient kids? Where is the sense it that?

One day last week, I sat and listened to my district's ELA director share our state re-tester data. I usually hate this kind of meeting, but our gains are huge - due in large part because of the redesign of tutorial lessons, many of which teachers have adopted into their mainstream instruction. The ELA director changed the model and worked closely with North Star of TX Writing Project to produce writing workshop lessons (most of which came out of my classroom and pedagogy) that broke the mold of Response to Intervention. The dramatic increase in re-tester scores (an average of 200+ point increase per student) proves the lessons are working to move student readers and writers. Workshop-style writing lessons and a campus-wide, district-wide commitment to independent reading is working.

The next day I sat in a meeting with the AP English team on my home campus. (Important note: The same day that in second period a young woman asked me to recommend her a book of classic literature because she wanted to read something more complex. She and I stood in front of my "Challenge Yourself" shelf, and in about six minutes while the rest of the class read silently, I taught a mini-lesson on Gothic literature and the Regency Era and book talked the Bronte sisters' books and Jane Austen. Rebecca left class with Pride and Prejudice, a book she chose to read because she wanted a romance that sounded interesting.) In that vertical alignment meeting, the conversation bounced around to what students must know and returned a few times to the books "all students must read." After a while, someone asked me what I thought.

"Is it really about the book, or is it about the reader?" I asked.

"Well, it's both," two teachers answered.

"Then why does the book matter as much as the students' abilities to read the books?"

"Because they will never read these books on their own, and they have to read a storehouse of canonical texts in order to write on the AP Lit exam," they said.

"So you're basing the reading lives of all pre-AP students in 9th and 10th grade on one open-ended question on the AP exam their senior year?"
How Do We Know If Students Are Reading
"Well, they also have to analyze a passage," one teacher added.

"Yes, and that's like studying lists of SAT words hoping students learn the few out of 5,000 that might be on the SAT exam. It's a total crapshoot.

"Shouldn't we be more concerned about students being able to read at complex levels than deciding which books they must read?"

Another teacher joined in "I want my students to be prepared for the kinds of reading they will be expected to know when they go into college classrooms. That is providing equity. If they know The Iliad, Beowulf, Dante, they will be on equal footing as those classmates who read those things at the affluent schools across town."

"Shouldn't the equity be in the skills our students possess? Can they read and understand complex texts like the students across town?"

I know that many, if not most, of those students at other schools are not reading those books. Few high school students read the assigned texts in English classes. Ask them. I have student writing from the past five years that tells me in their own words about their reading habits in high school. And there are plenty of well-researched articles like this one from the English Journal that concur. It is true: few high school students read the assigned texts in English classes. Why doesn't this matter to their teachers?

"How do you know they are reading the independent reading books you let them choose?" a teacher asked me.

"Because I talk to them about what they are reading," I answered.
Looks Like the College Board Advocates for Readers Writers Workshop
"I do that, too, about the books I assign," she said, but I am pretty sure that her idea of talking about books with students and mine are very different. I call it conferences. She calls it lectures.
AP English Language and Composition Course Overview AP English Literature and Composition Course Overview
I felt disheartened and sad for the honor student at the outcome of that vertical alignment meeting: AP teachers deciding what four books teachers in preAP 9th and 10th grade must teach in order to prepare students for Advanced Placement in 11th and 12th grade.*

I fear that students will be just as prepared as they have been, which in my one-semester at this campus is not much. At the most, they will read four books a year, and the only students who will read the assigned texts are the ones who are readers anyway, who are studious enough, or care about their grades enough, to do what the teacher says. Everyone else will read a little and Sparknotes a lot, listening in to class discussions, and learning enough to pass exams that cover the conflict, plot, symbolism, and theme of the assigned text. Few, if any, will grow as readers who fall in love with words and characters and the beauty and the texture of carefully crafted stories. It happens over and over and over again.
So What's the Real Deal
We deprive the students who take advantage of the College Board's open enrollment policy, the students who voluntarily agree to more rigor, and we allow them to make it through high school English without growing as readers. I would argue that in many cases, there is high probability that they regress as readers.

How does that make any sense?

The College Board provides course descriptions for each of the 34 AP courses and exams it offers. The descriptions reflect the course material that might be taught in a comparable college course. This makes designing a curriculum relatively easy for many of the courses taught. Biology and World History, for example, have definite knowledge-based skills that must be covered throughout the course. AP English courses are another story. Since first-year college composition courses are so diverse and vary from college to college, the structure of these classes on high school campuses can be diverse as well. AP programs, and even individual teachers, may design their courses based on their own interests and desires. Of course, the AP classes must reflect and assess college-level expectations, but that's pretty much the only requirement. There are no prescribed essays that students must write, although there are suggestions of form. There are no required novels to read, although there is a suggested list of authors. Suggested being a key word. Teachers have a great deal of freedom in how they design their courses and what they put on their syllabi. See

We can still read texts spanning from the 1600's to the 21 century. We can still read literature that we deem important to our literary canon. But do we have to make all the choices in our Advanced Classes?
Let's Allow all Students the Advantages of Choice
We can foster literate lives if we will take the same approach to literacy that is working in thousands of classrooms across the country: Readers and Writers Workshop where choice matters and time to read and write mean deep and lasting learning.

After talking this over with several of my peers, I've decided on a few reasons why honors and AP English teachers refuse to "drink the Kool Aid" (Isn't that a nice derogatory way of describing readers/writers workshop? I hear it often):

Some teachers loved the experience they had with literature in their high school English classes. This is the reason they chose to be English teachers. (I am one of these teachers.) They want to duplicate those positive experiences for their students. A worthy ambition. However, I wonder if they have considered how many of their classmates experienced the same excitement at reading (or not) the literature that the teacher mandated.

Some teachers are not readers themselves. They love the books they've chosen to use in their classes, but rarely do they read anything from a best-seller list, or an awards list. They want to stay with what is known and comfortable. Many times these teachers mistake their duty: to teach the child and not the book.

Some teachers believe that certain pieces of literature must be read by every student on the planet. "If I don't teach this book, then these students will never read it" is a statement I've heard many times. My answer is always "Yes, but many are still not reading it when you teach it." We ruin the the taste of great literature for many students when we force books on them that they are not ready for. I've asked all of my students this year about their reading in 10th grade. Not one of them has said they love To Kill a Mockingbird, one of two books they had to read last year. Why would we want to turn students off of a much beloved book like TKMB?

Some teachers believe that 10 to 15 minutes of sustained silent reading at the beginning of class is the same as instruction with choice reading. Sure, this reading time, especially if students are reading books that they choose, is important. It is a step. But it is not the same as structuring instruction around readers workshop where students not only read books that they choose, they think about them, talk about them, learn within them. They confer with a teacher intent on moving the reader in the best differentiated instruction possible.

Some teachers are afraid of giving up control. They fear that if students are all reading different texts they won't know how to manage the class or guide the learning. This is a valid concern, but it is also something they can learn how to do. Many of us are doing it. We are happy to share how.

I am sure there are other reasons, and really, I mean no disrespect. I know my colleagues are hardworking and loving educators. I like them a lot. I respect them for the work they do, and I am sure that their students are learning in their classes. I know this is true for many other teachers and classrooms across America, too. I just really want to challenge some thinking.

What if we can do more?

More than anything, I want all students to have opportunities to rise above the norm, and maybe, just

maybe, we will see many more students, not just our struggling ones, immersed in books they love, and thinking about their reading in ways we've never imagined. Their engagement will improve. Their growth will astound us. They will develop as critical thinkers, accomplished writers, and as empathetic individuals ready to take on the challenges of college and their world.

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that I shared a draft of it with my writing partners. This response from Shana is important:

"I was an AP Lit kid, and an Honors English kid. I SparkNoted The Scarlet Letter, Beowulf, Iliad, Catcher in the Rye, and the rest. I never read a bit of it. In fact, I didn't read ANYTHING that was assigned to me simply because of the fact that it had been ASSIGNED. I was stubborn like that. And I got A's all the way through. And a 5 on the AP test. All the while tearing through John Grisham, Elizabeth Peters, and the entire Bestsellers section of my public library outside of class.
Why, Yes, There's Research to Support This Pedagogy
"Then, my freshman year of college, when I took a workshop class in which I was allowed to self-select what I read, I chose the Scarlet Letter and thought it was the most beautiful love story I'd ever read. I finished it and read it again. Since that day, when I realized that because I was one of those AP kids and I COULD read those works, I've discovered that I LOVE them. But I never read a single one of them until after high school. My well-known love for Jane Austen didn't emerge until I wrote a paper on Pride and Prejudice and A Midsummer Night's Dream for my Shakespeare capstone. I just read Mockingbird last summer for the first time ever. [Note: I read it when I was 40.]

"I was never allowed to choose for myself in AP or Honors English, but had I been allowed to...I would have read all of those books, and arrived at a deeper level of love and reverence for literature, much earlier in my reading life.
"As we review our current high school programs in literature, we need to hold on to the essentials, or take the opportunity as re-adjustments come about, to create the practice that will meet the acid test: Does this practice or approach hinder or foster a sense that literature exists as a form of personally meaningful experiences? Is the pupil's interaction with the literary work itself the center from which all else radiates? Is the student being helped to grow into a relationship of integrity to language and literature? Is he building a lifetime habit of significant reading?"
"One thing I might add - I totally disagree with that AP Lit teacher saying that students needed to draw from classic lit for the test. Many of my AP kids who got 5s wrote about modern classics... Oscar Wao, Life of Pi, whatever. You don't have to know CLASSICS to ace the Lit exam...you just have to know how to write authentically about complex texts, and that's what we do in workshop, and what kids should be doing in AP classes."

I know there are others who have made the shift. I got this in an email message just today from Jeannine in CA. We had a nice chat at NCTE: "Thank you for our November communication. I have altered much of my instruction to incorporate choice reading. The students are soaring!!!"

Another AP English teacher trusting herself and her students enough to make a change and see where it takes them.

I mentioned Donalyn's post at the beginning of this long one. It is all about the research, the theory that outlines and supports what it takes to grow readers. Allington, Atwell, Krashen, Moss, Fisher, Ivey, and Kittle, and Gallagher and more.

I add another: Last summer at the University of New Hampshire Literacy Institute Penny Kittle had us read Making Meaning with Texts, Selected Essays by Louise Rosenblatt. Rosenblatt's research spans decades and is just as applicable today as when she wrote it years ago. I challenge every English educator to read the whole of Rosenblatt's essay "The Acid Test for Literature Teaching, published in 1956. Or, at least to respond honestly to Rosenblatt's conclusion. Odds are you will make the shift to choice, if you haven't already:

*In an email after I'd written this post, I received the notes from that meeting, and I am happy to say that there were no specific book titles listed, just the admonition that students in 9 and 10 grade preAP classes read 3-5 whole class texts of a complex nature. And students need to read 15-20 books a year to grow as readers. (Yes, I did throw in that bit of research while in that meeting.)

©Amy Rasmussen, 2011 - 2015

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Aim Higher: A Case for Choice Reading and a Whole Lot More in AP English

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This summer, we'd like to return and talk about some of our most useful, engaging, or popular posts. Today's post, written by Amy in 2015, makes the case for choice reading in AP English. Please return to this topic and talk with us in the comments--does choice reading belong in AP?

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​I recently broke new ground in my career as a mouthpiece for workshop teaching on the secondary level. I went to Elizabethton City High School in Tennessee to deliver a full day of professional development to the English teachers there.

I over-planned for my six hours of PD, and was full of anxiety about the teachers I would be meeting. What would they be like? Could I have anything useful to give them?

They turned out to be a group of enlightened educators who valued the EXACT same ideals as me and my colleagues on Long Island. They felt hemmed in by the "standards" and knew that, as English teachers, they could do more for their students than give them the tools to write an essay and force-feed them through the testing machine. They knew the Common Core had more to offer than just text analysis and source-based argument. And, of course, they knew that a full day of PD just before school opening would most likely suck eggs.

They prepared for the worst and hoped I would have something interesting, valuable, and energizing to show them.

​I think I succeeded.

I had a good feeling about this crew when, as they filed into the room, two of them were excitedly discussing Notice and Note, by Kylene Beers and Bob Probst. This is an awesome book (two, actually, one each for fiction and non-fiction) full of great student-centered ideas about teaching literature.
​In fact, they had a photocopy of Beers-and-Probst's signposts between them as they discussed integrating the ideas into their upcoming year.

My people! I thought.

I excitedly told them how I had written a blog entry about Notice and Note that the authors showcase in their workshops. "It's actually a part of today's conversation," I said. "I'm going to show you exactly how I use the signposts in my class." They were as thrilled I was: It was 7:55 am and we were already bonding over a shared love of pedagogy.

Ha! How wonderful!

To prepare for this presentation, I created this rundown (click on it to enlarge). This was my lesson plan, and it guided the entire PD session.

Naturally, I opened up exactly as I begin with my students: packs of colorful magic markers and an explanation of portfolios.

​I explained the importance of setting that long term goal -- to create a book of your own original writing & language art. This is PBL (project-based learning) at its finest, and this goal supersedes even our CCR goals, namely the state exam tasks of reading comps and essay skills.

The portfolio gives everything else meaning. It emphasizes that student-created art is at the heart of the class. Everything we read, every lesson we learn, makes sense because students know it will feed THEIR art. Setting the long term portfolio goal helps kids invest themselves into the whole course.

​Click here for my blog on portfolios: Ending Where We Started.

​Then I went through how I establish all the goals of my class: state tests, essay skills, whole class reading, independent reading, and the creative portfolio. I do it through one handout that I give my kids: Goals of The Class. "It is vital that you use the first few days of school to establish the goals of the class," I said. "Then you set yourself up to be their coach who helps them achieve these goals."

Teachers always want to know how I incorporate the creativity into a standard class or an AP class. I explained that I make certain sacrifices to get it in: namely, fewer whole class books. Then I showed them this overview of my past year. It demonstrates how I approach planning out a marking period: I begin by devoting 2 or 3 weeks in each to Creativity Workshop. Do that and by the end of theater, you've given 8-12 weeks of class time to their creative work, their authentic writing, their portfolios.

One thing I've gotten better at during the past 25 years in this career is seeing the arc of a whole year and knowing how to scaffold and build to my year-end goals. This sheet demonstrates how to mix in everything -- writing lessons, reading instruction, standardized test prep, etc. -- to build to the "summative evaluations' that end a course.

Now it was time to teach the teachers what exactly they should do with workshop time. Of course, it begins with the teaching mind mapping. I handed out the markers and took them through my signature lesson. Then I showed them examples on the website and had them create ID cards. I put 15 minutes on the timer and they went to work. A whip followed.

The whip was great. I love to teach this technique! (God bless you Jack Conklin for teaching me the whip!) I explained how the ID card and the whip help to establish the classroom culture as open, trusting, warm, and inviting.

We learned that we had lots of baseball fans in the room -- one each for the Cubs, Red Sox, Dodgers (and, of course, the Mets!). We had a roomful of passionate readers and heard a bunch of great quotes from great books. We had a snake owner in the group! There was a cat lover among us. Plenty of parents were in attendance, and the love for their children was inspiring.

The atmosphere ("classroom culture") was established, and they seemed so happy to be learning techniques that can be applied in their classrooms!

Next up: How exactly do you set up a workshop?

To break into this topic, I had them read, annotate, and mind map a piece that was recently published in : "Remodeling the Workshop: Lucy Calkins on Writing Instruction Today." EdWeek

This piece was perfect!!

a) It is entirely about using the workshop model, even in secondary schools.
b) It addresses concerns about the CCR and workshop teaching intertwined.
c) I could use it to show how I teach reading: through note-taking. First, they had to "chunk, annotate, and summarize" as they were reading -- and with colorful markers! Then, they had to turn their notes into mind maps.

"I don't believe in 'discussion,'" I told the teachers. "I believe in students taking notes. They should be taking notes on the piece, turning those notes into mind maps, and then adding to those mind maps as you do the whip around the room."

These photos are examples of what it looks like when "discussion" is turned into "note-taking."

Throughout the process we learned so much about Calkins' thoughts on the workshop model and how to implement it into our classrooms.

Setting up a workshop boils down to a philosophy of structures and freedoms. "A workshop can't just be this nebulous time you give them and then hope they are working on what you think they are," I said. "It is actually a highly structured block of time with concrete goals to accomplish."

The structures come from two key handouts: the workshop expectations and the quarterly goals and deadlines. These handouts provide all the motivation and structure needed to turn your class into a true artists workshop.

I don't publish it on my blog, but I took the teachers through my entire opening day handout. This explains EVERYTHING students need to know about the expectations in my workshop. "It is vital that you establish these expectations and set goals for students in the workshop," I said.

Click here to read more on " goals & deadlines".

"Once your procedures are in place, and the goals are set, you can move into workshop time," I explained. "This is basically a two part division: mini-lesson followed by workshop time."

I explained that I have created over 50 mini-lessons, and I took them through three of the most critical ones: Bleed on Paper, The Therapeutic Value of Writing, and Other Language Arts.

The Bleed lesson teaches pupils the most essential fact about authentic writing: it has to come from the heart. Teachers can't tell students what to write about; in fact, it's just the opposite. Students must tell teachers what they want to write about.

The Therapeutic Value lesson teaches students the benefits of real writing: You can process your problems, contemplate important matters, and reach important conclusions through writing. Common Core essays will NEVER attain these elevated and important outcomes.

My lesson on Other Language Arts is covered in this blog entry. This is also the theme of my upcoming poster presentation at NCTE 2016 in Atlanta. It is the lesson that gets students thinking far outside the box and creating cartoons, pie charts, photo-writing combos, stream-of-consciousness works, and a host of other styles.

At this point in the day, I was done with all the fundamentals of the workshop. Toss in some "sharing" sessions and voila! you are on the road to becoming a workshop teacher.

Now I hit the second half of the day's work: Incorporating the workshop techniques in other aspects of the English classroom.

I began by talking about teaching literature. The focus here is well-known to devoted readers of my blog:
a) Inspire a love of reading through an Independent Reading program.
b) Use mind maps -- and Notice & Note -- for the few whole-class selections you choose to study.

Click on those links to read more about these ideas, but the basic premise begins with students mind-mapping their Reading Goals -- so, that's exactly what these teachers did.

Side note: Most people will write the names of books they hope to read during this exercise. But, I showed them this one student example where the goals are completely different: Read a book my mom suggested; Read a book on Mr. Weinstein's shelf; Read a book from the librarian's presentation ....

You can see from these two examples how inspiring this one sample was.

One technique I discussed here is incorporating the "Jigsaw" -- which I learned in a class on "Kagan Cooperative Learning". The concept is simple: divide the work into smaller parts and have everybody in a group share their part with the whole.

Recently I have had success with this technique when teaching whole-class novels. It helps me address this issue: How do you teach a book to a whole class if nobody is doing the reading?

My model looks like this: "Today we are going to discuss chapter 3 of Gatsby. Everybody will get ONE PAGE to read, mind map, and then tell the class something from it," I say. Then I assign each person one page, or if it's a short chapter two kids to one page. I give them fifteen minutes to read and mind map their pages before doing the whip around the room.

I am in love with this technique, and I shared it with these teachers. I had hoped to get them to experience the strategy, but I was running out of time and had plenty more to cover. Trust me: Experiment with this idea.

Next on the agenda: Formal Writing Lessons and Essays.
teaching essays through revision. I wanted to take them through some of the exact steps I do with my students. Namely:

1) Using rubrics and connecting those rubrics to my breakdown lessons. For example: if the rubric mentions "sentence variety" or "transitions into and out of quotes" I make sure to do mini-lessons on those ideas.

2) My exact lessons on punctuation and sentence variety. There's more to life than just commas and periods; the short sentence; some rhetorical tricks; and a few other items of interest are covered in these handouts. Basically, they teach students exactly how to score more points on the rubrics AND actually improve their writing!

3) Read and grade an actual student essay. I love to do this with my classes and with the teachers I'm teaching. You have to show them exactly what is "outstanding, adequate, or inadequate" about an essay. Not familiar with those terms? I learned how they connect to rubrics at an AP Conference. So easy -- they give you and your students a common vocabulary for discussing writing. "Do you see any outstanding writing here?" is one of my favorite phrases.

4) Demonstrate how students can combine our creative goals with the formal essay lessons. I showed them the three pieces below and a few others that demonstrate how easily students can "cross-over" between the class lessons and the portfolio requirements.​
​Most of this material is covered in this blog entry on

To conclude, I ran them through the handouts I use to wrap up my year and prepare the students for their summative evaluations.

1) The research paper. I always wait until 3/4 of the year is over to do the research paper because I want the most time possible to have taught them some writing lessons. For me, it's all about student-choice and standards.

The assignment addresses the CCR: Make an argument while citing high-level texts. Students may design any argument they like, but I encourage them to find something in the New York Times or something they've learned in school.

Giving them this leeway creates excited, passionate students who are making inquiries into fields that hold their interest. Some arguments I read this year include:

a) Penn Station's restructuring plans need an overhaul.
b) You should never use a tanning bed, and they should be illegal for minors.
c) The most recent Supreme Court cases on the matter should strike down affirmative action in college acceptances.
d) To win the war against ISIS, the US needs to strike at its financial pipeline.

2) The Portfolio handout. The whole year has led to this moment, so what exactly do the students have to do? It's all explained here -- along with a bunch of suggestions for how they can tackle 8 pages of reflection.

​Yes, 8 pages. As detailed in this blog entry, I get my students to write a lot of reflection throughout the year. I believe in reflective writing because of its unique ability to get students to introspect, to think about their lives, and to contemplate the nature of their schooling. I'm not sure I ask student to do anything more important all year long as these 8 pages.

3) The Regents Review. These documents tie everything together: the essays, the grammar, the sentence variety, the reading, the research ... and makes sure kids are prepared for the State Exams.

Final thoughts: I had the most wonderful time during this PD session, and I think the teachers found it refreshingly different than other types of Professional Development they have experienced. Full of magic markers, mind maps, and whips, this was a day of hands-on activities that are both educational and enjoyable.

The teachers were given a ton of tools, techniques, strategies, and handouts that they can use in their classrooms immediately. I know most educators appreciate concrete benefits from a day of PD.

I hope to do more of these in the future!
​That's Kylene Beers, co-author of Notice & Note. This picture was taken of us at the 2016 NYCWP annual conference at Lehman College.

I encouraged all the teachers at Elizabethton to do a National Writing Project Summer Institute.

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​I recently broke new ground in my career as a mouthpiece for workshop teaching on the secondary level. I went to Elizabethton City High School in Tennessee to deliver a full day of professional development to the English teachers there. I over-planned for my six hours of PD, and was full of anxiety about the teachers I would be meeting.

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I love, love Three Teachers Talk!

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A blog: Sarah Zerwin, a high school teacher, is figuring out workshop 

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A blog: Sarah Zerwin, a high school teacher, is figuring out workshop 

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Teachers thinking about teaching, education, technology and anything else that bugs us.

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Creating a community of writers in your classroom

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Creating a community of writers in your classroom

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There are so many things I try to instill in my students in the short time I have them, but perhaps none is more important than helping them develop as effective writers. In my 16 years as a high school English/language arts teacher, having taught everything from remedial to Advanced Placement English courses, I've learned a few things along the way. When it comes to creating a community of writers, there is no perfect formula. Trial and error, as well as a few specific steps, may help you begin the process in your classroom, no matter what subject matter or age you teach.

Write Now

When asked if writing is easy, columnist Red Smith said, "You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed." Though a horrifying image, it is true on many levels. Writing requires work. It requires risk. It requires leaving a bit of yourself on paper (or computer screen). Like every other worthy endeavor, writing requires practice. That's why from day one, students should see writing as an integral part of your class. You might even consider incorporating writing into your ice-breaker. Have your students mimic a poem, do a random autobiography, or draft scavenger hunt questions.

Let students experience variety and choice. They shouldn't craft only formal, academic papers in your class. They should see that writing fits a variety of purposes and patterns. Online blogs, creative writing, written instructions, and other forms of written expression should be part of your curriculum.

Mimic the Masters

I don't think I've ever seen a five-paragraph essay in a text, novel, magazine, newspaper, or online-discussion thread. Structure is important, and it is helpful for students to understand some skeletal patterns like the five-paragraph essay, but as soon as possible and as often as possible, teachers should try to break away from this structure because it often gives students' writing a stilted and awkward feel. I propose to my students that the length of all writing for my class should subscribe to "the skirt theory." It should be long enough to cover but short enough to still be interesting. If that means five paragraphs, fine. But it could also mean four paragraphs or six. I want students to take control of their own writing and make conscious choices about it.

Expose students to a variety of writers. Let them see how others manipulate the language. Good writing has the ability to move readers to emotions and actions like little else. Use this to your advantage.

Have students keep a writer's notebook to record ideas, interesting phrases, and responses to the writing of others.

Find interesting writing to model, and ask students to write something similar. I like Garrett Hongo's "What For," theTED Talk "Point B," and"Raised by Women" by Kelly Norman Ellis. Or have your students parody their favorite song or mimic a letter to the editor.

Take the first line of a novel, short story, or essay and have students continue the story.

Steal a character from a story you've finished and have them put that character in the setting of another story.

Take a person from history and have students write a diary from that perspective.

Have students write a press release for a math technique or results of a scientific experiment.

Join the Fun

I realized a few years ago that I was generally assigning writing rather than teaching it. If I did show students something I had written, it was after it had been refined and polished. I now know this robbed my students of seeing the process, of watching me wrestle with finding the right word, of seeing that sometimes the words flew to the page but other days, it was drudgery. For some students, the idea of instant perfection can be crippling. Students should realize that no one writes like F. Scott Fitzgerald in draft one. By letting go of my own insecurity and honestly sharing my own struggles as a writer, I helped my students grow in their own confidence. By having them help me with my revisions, I empowered them to look critically at their own writing.

Consider rearranging your classroom to avoid the focus being entirely on you. I've tried a couple of different configurations (pods of four desks last year, this year the room divided down the middle so students face each other). The point is that students can and should learn from each other.

Put Me in, Coach

You may think you are pushed to the limit already and cannot fathom adding any more grading to your curriculum. But think of yourself as a writing coach. Though your school's football team practices four days a week during the season, the only score that really matters is at the game on Friday. Though your students will practice writing in some format every day, perhaps you only score some of the writing. After a number of entries in their writers' notebooks, I have students choose their favorite and polish only that one for a grade. They write much more than I ever grade.

Grade in chunks. For a formal essay, I will have students draft one body paragraph for me to use as a formative assessment. I can quickly read through full classes of body paragraphs in order to find three examples to use in instruction the next day (an exemplar, one to do a whole-class revision on, one to do group/partner revision on). From this instruction, students can fix their own body paragraphs. Once students master body paragraphs, use the same format with introductions and conclusions. Yes, this takes time, but it creates a much better product.

Have "Author Corner" days where students bring in their writing to share with a few of their classmates for commentary before it is collected. Writing shouldn't be a "gotcha", and this process will help them feel more confident about their writing and look to their peers to help.

Have older or more accomplished students read and comment on writing.

Have students reflect on their own writing.

Create a "Writing Clinic" where students function as "experts" on one aspect of writing and others visit those specialists for specific feedback on their writing. Do this often enough so that all students serve as "experts" and all serve as "patients".

No Time Like the Present

A quick perusal of comments on many message boards will make it clear that effective writing can be elusive. We owe it to our students to help them develop this essential skill that is imperative in college and integral in almost every career. Who knows? You may wake up your inner Fitzgerald and discover that you enjoy writing too.

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Creating a Community of Writers in the Classroom

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There are so many things I try to instill in my students in the short time I have them, but perhaps none is more important than helping them develop as effective writers. In my 16 years as a high school English/language arts teacher, having taught everything from remedial to Advanced Placement English courses, I've learned a few things along the way.

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Notice how her beliefs and actions reflect each other

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Teaching channel video on the workshop model in a unit of study

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Teaching channel video on the workshop model in a unit of study

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. How would you describe the teacher's role in this classroom?

2. In what ways does this lesson illustrate differentiated instruction?

3. How does the Workshop Model help the teacher address his students' various learning needs?

School Details

Shaw Middle School
4106 North Cook St
Spokane WA 99207

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Students in Mr. Allen's 7th grade English Language Arts classroom work on a persuasive writing unit using the Workshop Model. Some students work on completing an editorial while others develop an advertising campaign. In this highly differentiated classroom, the teacher works with individual students and small groups to meet them where they are at in the assignment.

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Be sure to read the earlier posting first.

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Patricia Preston's high school workshop website

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Patricia Preston's high school workshop website

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Check out this padlet of links to best practices -- all research based.

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Want to see examples of conferences with students?

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Reading & Writing Workshop: Conferring

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What does a reading or writing conference look and sound like? What do I need to know to confer well?

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Teaching Channel: Rick's Reading Workshop

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Teaching Channel: Rick's Reading Workshop

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In this 10 minute video, you'll see Rick's 5th grade reading workshop. Each element of the workshop -- mini-lesson, reading time, conferring, building stamina-- works with older students.

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. How does Rick structure his guided reading system?

2. What questioning strategies does Rick use to facilitate peer discussion and increase engagement?

3. How does the structure of the lesson allow Rick to differentiate learning and instruction for students?

School Details

Jefferson Elementary School
1400 Ada Street
Berkeley CA 94702

Data Provided By:

Teachers

English Language Arts Math / 5 / Teacher

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Rick Kleine structures his class with mini lessons, reading aloud, peer discussions and silent reading. He also speaks individually with his students, giving each a focused task for improvement to increase their comprehension and enjoyment, while making them better readers.

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How much do students REALLY read? Penny Kittle checks in with her students and the results are shocking. So here's my challenge to you: do similar research and post your findings on this padlet.

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Penny Kittle: Why Students Don't Read What is Assigned in Class

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One of my favorite writers (and people!) writes about choice at the high school. Penny's insights are applicable to all levels!

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Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer, speaks up

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Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer, speaks up

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She doesn't name workshop, but it's there!

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Teachers College's guide to reading workshop -- Even though this is about grades 3 -5, with adjustment you can figure out what can happen with the older kids.

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Cris Tovani talks about reading workshop at the high school 

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Cris Tovani talks about reading workshop at the high school 

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You've found Choice Literacy, the home on the web for teachers who lead.

We are literacy coaches, teachers, and school leaders with experience in dozens of diverse classrooms. This site presents the best of the tools, guides, literacy lessons, and sage advice we've gathered and tucked away as we've worked together over the years, as well as our latest thinking on topics like standards and digital tools.

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You've found Choice Literacy, the home on the web for teachers who lead. We are literacy coaches, teachers, and school leaders with experience in dozens of diverse classrooms. This site presents the best of the tools, guides, literacy lessons, and sage advice we've gathered and tucked away as we've worked together over the years, as well as our latest thinking on topics like standards and digital tools.

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One teacher's search for reading workshop at the high school

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One teacher's search for reading workshop at the high school

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One of the most successful pieces of my classroom came from reading guru, Cris Tovani. She introduced me to the concept of FAKE READING. According to Cris's definition, fake reading occurs when students read the words, but don't do any thinking. They may read an entire page, chapter or novel and not remember a single thing that they read.

When I told my students about FAKE READING in the first few days of class, they got it. They identified themselves as fake readers almost immediately. Some even seemed relieved to finally have someone call them out on what they are doing. I told my students that fake reading was strictly forbidden. I want them to think about what they read and be able to tell me what it is that they read.

For some students, this has been a struggle. They had to start with very small passages, read more slowly or tell me what they thought, rather than be able to articulate it through writing. The students who resisted the most were the ones who had the most to gain by slowing down and trying to think as they read.

Some students were already pretty good thinkers as they read. For these kids, the concept of sharing what they think was a bit insulting. Yet, even these students learned that by sharing their thinking after they read, they were able to clear up some confusion, learn more as they read or have interesting conversations with their peers.

I have several posters around my room that have fake reading in the middle of a big circle with a slash through it (kinda like the no smoking posters you see everywhere). Even now, several months into the school year, I refer to the poster and ask students if they are fake reading or if they thought about what they read.

Sometimes they give me a guilty smile and admit to fake reading. It's OK, I tell them. Let's try again. And, 9 times out of 10, they do.

Having this phrase and concept to refer to has been powerful for me as a teacher. It is a concept that my students understand. It was easy to explain and it has had leverage throughout my instruction. Next year, I plan to hammer fake reading even more. I hope to help my students transfer this concept beyond my class to the reading they do in English, social studies, math and other content areas.
Finding the Right Books for Reluctant Readers

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I teach reading at a pretty run-of-the-mill high school. I am in my tenth year as a teacher, but this is my first go at teaching reading to high school students. Students in my classes are usually two or more grade levels below their peers. This...