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Home Events Conference Leadership Programs Membership Why Join? Become a Member Chapter School Divisions Membership Refund Policy Newsletter Archive Virginia Readers' Choice Program Got IT? Grants and Awards Board of Directors Chapter Leaders Committees Nominations 52nd Annual Conference Agenda Accommodations Rates Speakers Exhibitors & Sponsors

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readicide: how schools are killing reading and what you can do about it

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Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It

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Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It [Gallagher, Mr. Kelly] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It

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Notice & Note: Strategies for Close Reading, Beer & Probst

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Notice & Note: Strategies for Close Reading, Beer & Probst

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notice & note: strategies for close reading

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teaching methods & materials - reading & phonics

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english language - study and teaching (secondary) - united states

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english literature - history and criticism - theory

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literature - study and teaching - united states

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education / teaching methods & materials / reading & phonics

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Notice & Note: Strategies for Close Reading

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For all things Notice & Note, visit Heinemann.com/NoticeAndNote. You'll find blog posts, videos of Kylene and Bob, community features, and more. Also available: Notice & Note/Reading Nonfiction Signpost Student Bookmarks Watch Kylene and Bob's webinar on Notice & Note (approx. 30 minutes) "Just a...

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Kate Givens - kgivens@bcps.k12.va.us
Kendel Lively - klively@bcps.k12.va.us

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Students take the total number of pages in their book and divide it by 20. I have them fill in the dates they'll reach their reading goals by. Sometimes we add dates to the back.

If they meet their goal, they just write a "Y" in the last column. If not they write an "N." It's an easy spot check--and it's easy to catch and see if we need to change their goals.

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This is an example of a choice response square I might give students. These prompts are standards-based and also great jumping off points for conferences

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I use google forms to input my conference information so I can track a semester's worth of conferences.

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Our Summer Reading program!

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This blog post is part of Build Your Stack,® a new initiative focused exclusively on helping teachers build their book knowledge and ...

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Epic Reads | Young Adult (YA) Books & Books for Teens

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Young Adult books from A to Z. Including videos, new releases, interviews, top lists and much more!

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A list of books that have been successful with our students--particularly reluctant high school readers.

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Disrupting Thinking, Kylene Beers & Robert Probst

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Disrupting Thinking, Kylene Beers & Robert Probst

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Students can log their independent reading books, generates reading questions, and even coaches students to give better reading responses. A good jumping off point for discussions!

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I've used Whooo's Reading with my middle school students for just over a year now and absolutely love it! My students keep track of their independent reading and answer questions/take quizzes during class time. I can adjust the question level to differentiate for my lower readers, can set goals for students, and reward students who go beyond the requirements.

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A resource for teachers on the fence.

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A blog post by a middle school teacher about incorporating the ideas from Disrupting Thinking into the classroom.

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The Year of Disrupted Thinking | Scholastic

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Using what I've learned from Kylene Beers and Robert Probst's Book, Disrupting Thinking, Why How We Read Matters, here are steps I plan to take to bring the joy back to r

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Incorporating Independent Reading into the AP Curriculum

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Incorporating Independent Reading into the AP Curriculum

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We believe that even our students in the most rigorous English classes need to be doing choice reading!

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The weather is getting colder; as I look outside at the dreary skies and raindrops trickling down my windowpane, I can almost feel the sharp, biting wind that blows outside my window. This scene in no way upsets me; rather, I am thrilled that I have a great excuse to stay inside - warm cup of coffee in hand, cuddled up under a blanket - and make a dent in my reading list. I'm currently reading That's Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger and am eager to dive into Barbara Kingsolver's new novel Unsheltered; I also literally have stacks of books in my living room, office, and bedroom just in case I decide I'm in the mood to read something different. These are not books I'm reading in order to annotate until I've parsed out the deepest meaning possible; I'm not comparing the syntax and diction in chapter one to that in the final chapter. I'm simply enjoying them; it's a hobby I crave; I'm basking in the beauty of the imagery and syntax; I'm fascinated by the characterization and voice of different teenage narrators.

Reading for pleasure merits an entirely different relationship with books and leads to a different type of analysis - one I hardly notice now as I greedily devour the story and connect with the characters.

Yet, especially in the AP classroom where students are often balancing multiple challenging courses, the reading for pleasure often falls by the wayside. Not only are students not making time for reading for pleasure on their own, we as teachers are often just as guilty of not encouraging this.

When students are given the opportunity and the space to read a book they have selected, a different type of magic can happen. When students are enthusiastic about what they are reading, they create a new layer of depth and unique, personal meaning.

I am one of the loudest advocates that students need to be "encouraged" to read challenging texts - ones that are outside of their comfort zone, ones that they likely would not pick up on their own, ones that necessitate focused energy and rereading - alongside their peers and with the guidance of teachers; but I advocate just as loudly for letting our highest level of students read "easy" books - the ones they eagerly bought this summer because their friends recommended it, the ones they can read in a day, the ones that include dialogue in the form of social media and mirror the lives they are living - that they can get lost in and remember that reading can be a relaxing and pleasurable experience.

There is an unparalleled beauty when students foster their own reading lives with no need for assessment or accountability; yet, the reality is that if we are going to assign our students to read a book completely of their own choosing, we do need ways for them to show their learning. Below, I've included some ways I've incorporated independent reading into my AP Lit and Comp curriculum. Especially as we head into the midway point of the class, the holiday season, looming exams, and pending college decisions these activities provide a change of pace to keep students engaged and to keep their minds moving without adding in "just another assignment."

Give students time to read in-class. We all know that it can take time to get into a new book before you just can't put it down. Students need this too, and we have the unique opportunity to provide them time that is not interrupted by phones/social media. Yes, the AP Lit and Comp is rigorous and it seems like there is never enough time to cover everything, but even just 15 minutes one day a week can transform how students view reading.

Have Students BookTalk. Short 2-4 minute booktalks provides students a way to practice rhetorical analysis (effectively convincing someone else to read their book) and public speaking skills in a low-stakes environment. Booktalks also encourage students to carefully select what specific details from a book might compel someone else to read the book without giving away any major plot points or spoilers.

Spotlight Reading. Roy Smith wrote an awesome post on using Spotlight Reading in the classroom, a technique that has proven quite successful in my classroom. As students are reading, I have them pull their own quotes from their books to use as a "Spotlight Sentence" in class. This encourages students to read at a deeper level and also allows them to be the expert when we use their sentence for practice in class.

Create Your Own Q2. This has quickly become one of my favorite assignments for students to do after they complete an independent read. You can give students a topic (such as conflict developing characterization, inclusion/exclusion of details, dialogue that reveals character) or give the complete free reign to choose a powerful passage from their text. This activity forces thoughtful selection and analysis of key passages as well as careful choice of where to begin and end the chosen excerpt; furthermore, students most deeply understand how the Q2 essays prompt is devised and structured in order to write their own. Students can write their own response to their prompt or the entire class can swap prompts and passages (which might even excited students to pick up a new book!)

Hold One-on-One Conferences. Instead of assessing student's reading via writing, meet with each student one-on-one to confer about their reading. While the time element here can seem incredibly daunting, the pay-off is tremendous. Conferences do not need to be lengthy and can even be conducted while the rest of the class is doing group work (or reading independently!). Individual reading conferences allow you to meet the needs of each student and gain unique insights into student's strengths, struggles, passions, and reading goals. Penny Kittle provides some excellent resources on how to begin conferences in your class and questions you might ask students during your conferences.

Complexity of Substance and Style. Jennifer Buehler's Teaching Reading with YA Lit: Complex Texts, Complex Lives has been transformative for me as I think about how to move beyond silent, sustained reading in my classroom into building meaningful, thoughtful independent reading experiences for my students. In this book, Buehler lays out the ways in which YA novels present a complexity of style and of substance. Complexity of style includes author's choices with regards to language and structure while complexity of substance includes the author's choices with regards to characterization, topics, themes, and/or setting. After reading an independent reading text, I have students create their own complexity analysis that explicates 2-3 complex choices the author made with respects to substance and another 2-3 complex choices the author made with respects to style. (Buehler's text provides examples of this and is absolutely worth buying and reading!) This activity encourages students to read deeply particularly when a text seems "easy" - a skill which proves quite useful as we study modern poetry! - and gives students choice to elaborate on the elements they found most powerful in the text.

Independent reading has the power to transform our students reading lives far beyond the four walls of our classroom. I have found these activities empowering for students as they choose their own books and further create their own meaning and analysis. What other ways do you encourage your students' independent reading lives?

Lindsay Schneider teaches AP Lit and Comp and ENG IV in North Carolina. She is an avid reader and re-aspiring writer who is passionate about all things YA Lit, building life-long readers beyond the walls of the classroom, integrating the arts into the English classroom, good coffee, baking, and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

Feature Image Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

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Incorporating Independent Reading into Curriculum - AP LIT HELP

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The weather is getting colder; as I look outside at the dreary skies and raindrops trickling down my windowpane, I can almost feel the sharp, biting wind that blows outside my window.

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Why Becoming a Nation of Readers is Important Now

We've all seen students move from reading for pure enjoyment to reading to reach a certain Lexile or to pass a test. All those issues seemed to crowd out any personal reasons for reading.

Our youngest students begin school eager to become friends with Baby Mouse, George and Martha, and Dory Fantasamagory, and far too many of our graduating seniors leave having mastered the art of fake reading. Then, when they arrive at college, the amount of reading can be overwhelming.

We've been thinking about this issue - this turn away from reading - for much of our professional lives. We have studied and written about students, texts, and teachers. We've written about helping underachieving readers and reluctant readers. We've wondered if the problem of aliteracy could be solved by giving kids books they wanted to read and making sure they had more time to read. And for decades many teachers have tried doing just that.

We know that during a student's experiences in kindergarten through high school, perhaps more so in those elementary years, many teachers encourage a love of reading; yet the overwhelming majority of our high school students do not identify themselves as readers and do not turn to reading for enjoyment.

Too often, the right book created a compliant one-book-at-a-time reader, that kid who will willingly read the book we promise him he will enjoy. And yet, he doesn't become the committed reader who searches on his own for the next great book.

And then we wondered if we were trying to solve the wrong problem. Many teachers have given them the right books to read, and many have given them time to read. Perhaps what was missing was helping students have the right mindset while reading. Once we reframed the problem we began to understand why how kids read matters so very much.

Disrupting Thinking is, at its heart, an exploration of how we help students become the reader who does so much more than decode, recall, or choose the correct answer from a multiple-choice list. This is a responsive reader who is aware of her feelings and thoughts as the text brings them forth.

Disruptions start with the thought that something needs to be better. And with two questions:

1. What needs to change?

2. What assumptions make that change hard?

And while answering those questions, we need to be willing to:

Be brave. You aren't thinking outside the box. You are hunting for a new one.

Accept failure. Whatever you're going to do probably won't work the first time or the fifteenth.

Be open. Disruptions can't proceed in secret. Tell folks what you're trying. Document. Put it up online. Be transparent.

Be connected. Look around and see who else is trying something similar. Reach out. Talk. Share.

Get uncomfortable. Disruptions ought to shake us up as we head into uncharted territory. That's okay.

To learn more about Disrupting Thinking, Why How We Read Matters, you can purchase the book .

About the authors of this post:
Kylene Beers
Kylene Beers is an award-winning educator and co-author, with Robert E. Probst, of Disrupting Thinking (Scholastic). She is a past President of the National Council of Teachers of English, received an NCTE Leadership Award, held a reading research position in the Comer School Development Program at Yale University School of Medicine, and has most recently served as the Senior Reading Advisor to the Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Robert E. Probst
Robert E. Probst, Ed.D., is an author and consultant to schools nationally and internationally. He speaks to administrators and teachers on literacy improvement, particularly issues surrounding struggling readers and meeting standards. Bob is Professor Emeritus of English Education at Georgia State University and has served as a research fellow for Florida International University. He is co-author with Kylene Beers of Disrupting Thinking (Scholastic).

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Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters | Scholastic

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We've all seen students move from reading for pure enjoyment to reading to reach a certain Lexile or to pass a test. All those issues seemed to crowd out any personal reasons for reading.

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Making Room for Independent Reading: Why

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Making Room for Independent Reading: Why

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Making Room for Independent Reading: Why (I Teach. What's Your Superpower?)

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I recently had the opportunity to attend the Scholastic Reading Summit in San Antonio. It was amazing. If one is ever even remotely near where you live, I would absolutely recommend making the trek. I had read positive reviews of it, but did not realize there was such a heavy focus on independent reading.

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Great for book talks and discussion

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I’ve Got Research. Yes, I Do. I’ve Got Research. How About You?

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In 1847, Hungarian doctor, Ignaz Semmelweis made a remarkable discovery. When doctors washed their hands in a solution of chlorine and water, childbirth fever rates at Vienna General Hospital dropp…

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From Penny Kittle's website. LOTS of ideas and resources for independent reading.