Literacy — The Lamppost

Bone: A great resource for encouraging reading

September 26, 2008 By Brad W Leave a Comment

Two years ago our school librarian added to our collection Volume 1 of the nine-part Bone series by Jeff Smith. I was hooked, promptly getting the remainder of the series from the public library for my own reading pleasure. The more I read, the more I knew that this graphic novel was great material for those “reluctant readers” we’re trying to support.

I suggested, even begged, our librarian to add the whole series to school library. When I realized that he wasn’t about to give in to my pleas, I moved onto another person who has purchasing power in our school: the Modified Education Coordinator. Wonderful woman, she purchased two copies of Volumes 1-5.

(Incidentally, our librarian has since had another person with far better credentials than my own outline the value of Bone, and a full set is now on its way to our library.)

This year I have a Grade 9 / 10 Essential level class. When teaching split level classes, I sometimes give students different texts to use as the basis for similar learning activities. That’s how I started out this unit: Grade 9s were using Bone, and Grade 10s Tuck Everlasting.

Almost immediately the Gr. 10s were asking to read Bone as well. I used that to my advantage, explaining that if they finished their daily reading and exercise with their own text, then they could read Bone quietly for the remainder of the period. Initially they worked hard for that privilege.

However, halfway through reading Tuck Everlasting with the Gr. 10s, I had a revolt on my hands. They wanted to read Bone. Period. So I shelved Tuck and the whole class read and worked with Bone.

Students happily created plot summaries, maps that tracked character movements, news articles, and (my favourite) turned dialogue into scripts with stage directions.

And everyone was happy. Including me.
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Image courtesy of Scholastic Bone Freebies

Filed Under: Books, Lessons, Literacy Tagged With: Bone, english lesson, graphic novels, Jeff Smith, reluctant readers

Reading Reflections: The Curious Incident …

May 12, 2008 By Brad W Leave a Comment

Assigned the task of instructing a split class of Grade 11 and 12 Workplace English (ENG 3E/4E), I wanted to take a different approach this semester to really focus on improving our reading skills. From quiet, independent reading, through a variety of reading together activities, we have spent a lot of time with our noses in books. The students are tired of it. Of course, with the temperature climbing beyond 18 degrees Celsius, and with the tulips, daffodils, and hyacinth in bloom, and with the orioles, purple martins, and yellow warblers returned to our local skies, the students are simply tired of being stuck in a dark classroom. Nevertheless, our latest reading activities revolved around Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. With this novel I demonstrated snags and the students worked with words, connections, investigating, storytelling, and questioning. For these activities, taken from my usual literature-circle roles, this novel worked very well. It is an intriguing story that offers numerous connections for the students to make with their own lives. It also offers the opportunity for interesting mystery-parallels. I will read it with a Workplace English class again in the future, but much earlier in the semester.

Filed Under: Books, Lessons, Literacy Tagged With: Mark Haddon, reading strategies

Introducing Shakespeare with graphic novels

March 5, 2008 By Brad W Leave a Comment

Last semester I happened to land upon a great tool for introducing Shakespeare to Gr. 9 students, thanks in part to inspiration from a colleague in a course I was taking at the time. Graphic novels help students to understand how dialogue works and provide a basis for reading a script.

I chose to use this approach in a unit that incorporated A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We began by reading excerpts from Bone (by Jeff Smith) as a class, discussing what elements made it fit our definition of fantasy literature. Next, I gave students copies of some pages in Bone with the dialogue erased. Working alone or in pairs, students created the dialogue that they imagined could work for those characters. From there, students translated their dialogue into script form and presented it.

The fantastical Bone was a perfect lead-in to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Our conversations often included some comparison of the setting of the two texts.

This semester, I’m hoping to use Julius Caesar as the primary Shakespearean text for this class. It’s challenging, though, to find a graphic novel that works really well with this play. I’ve considered Beowulf, another text based in an ancient world, but there’s very little dialogue in Beowulf to work with. Characters proclaim their thoughts, which are then interpreted by the narration.

An old-world graphic novel? I must do some hunting.

Filed Under: Lessons, Literacy Tagged With: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Beowulf, Bone, Graphic novel, Jeff Smith, Shakespeare

Student independent reading in high school: What is it worth?

February 26, 2008 By Brad W Leave a Comment

START is one of my favourite times every day. (START = Students and Teachers All Reading Together.) You may know it as DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) or simply SSR (Sustained Silent Reading). Whatever the name, the essence is the same: everyone reads something of their own choice for the alloted time period.

This program is based on research that suggests that students become better readers by reading more, and that they will read more if they choose what they read. While some of the conclusions of this research are questioned, according to the Northwest Education there does seem to be a consensus around the key elements of successful SSR programs. Of these elements, two stand out to me: staff training, and regular, distributed reading time.

Finding Room for START

In our school, the 15-minute START time rotates through the different periods of the day: on Monday, the first 15 minutes of Period 1 are reserved for START; on Tuesday, Period 2; and so on. That is, when we teachers are encouraged to make space for it.

One of the comments that my colleagues make about START is that there isn’t enough time to include it. With new and more demanding curriculum expectations, those 15 minutes are precious teaching time. And for those of us who have the good fortune to teach English, some wonder why bother with START since we’re doing so much reading anyway?

Whatever the reason, the fact is that many feel compelled to eliminate START from the class.

Half-hearted is worse than not at all

As one of my colleagues pointed out, what she likes about START is that it shows students that reading is a valuable use of time. I agree, and I wonder what the message is when we cancel this reading period, even for very good reasons?

I value silent, independent reading enough that I schedule it regularly into my classes, on top of the time set aside for START. I would continue to do so in my English classes even if the START program were dropped entirely.

And I think I would rather we did drop it than run it half-heartedly, where we seem to be saying to students that reading is important only if there’s nothing pressing to do.

Filed Under: Literacy

Reaching (only) reluctant readers

February 21, 2008 By Brad W Leave a Comment

Reluctant readers- the euphemistic phrase is embedded into our shop talk these days. In our courses, remedial programs, and library selections, we’re all trying to figure out how we can help reluctant readers to read. There seem to be a few common strategies used across classes and even across schools. I haven’t done enough research to compare the actual effectiveness of these, but I’ll jot them down here for now.

1. Use unconventional texts in the classroom

Comic books and graphic novels are increasingly being used in high school classrooms as serious texts. “Superman Finds New Fans Among Reading Instructors” summarizes some of this shift and the debate around it. Personally, I am starting to integrate graphic novels into units and am finding that at the very least student interest is increased by this.

2. Use more nonfiction in the classroom

Jen Robinson reminds us that fiction is not all there is. As someone who loves literature and great stories, this point is one that I have to work to remember. I try to keep on hand a stack of Wired magazines in the classroom, as these seem to be unfailingly popular with most students.

3. Set aside time for independent reading

This is hard to do in an already-packed course, but it only makes sense: if we want students to read, then we should give them time to read. Our school has established a START (students and teachers all reading together) program that mandates 15 minutes of silent reading each day. I’m experimenting with setting aside entire periods for independent reading on a bi-weekly basis.

4. Support students in reading what they want

Within reason, students should be given the opportunity to read what they like. Librarian Philip Charles Crawford explains,

This often means putting into their hands books that many librarians, teachers, and children’s literature experts snub: YA problem novels, slim books about sports figures and celebrities, graphic novels, lurid biographies of serial killers, series fiction, comic strips, and how-to books. While many librarians may scoff at series like Gossip Girl, Nancy Drew, Cirque Du Freak, and Goosebumps, these books have the power to engage and excite teens who would otherwise read nothing.

The latter is probably the strategy that I struggle with most. It’s partly snobbery, I suppose — the rows of skinny serial fiction make me shudder. But I question filling our library shelves so heavily with these texts. After all, it’s a library, and thus is probably not the primary hangout of the reluctant reader crowd. I wonder what the library experience is becoming for those who do like to read, and hence are probably showing up once in a while to look for books. What are they finding to encourage them in their habit?

Like everything else, I suppose, it’s all about balance. But I’m sad when a student is actually looking for a copy of Homer’s The Odyssey, or Mordecai Richler’s Joshua Then and Now, and the high school library offers mostly slim reluctant reader fiction.

Filed Under: Literacy Tagged With: graphic novels, Reading, reluctant readers

The Pleasure of Reading Aloud

February 19, 2008 By Brad W 1 Comment

I love reading books aloud. My wife and I usually have on the go a book that we read aloud to one another in those rare moments of peace. We enjoy putting the kids in the backseat of the car and heading off on a long-ish drive, knowing that we’ll probably make significant progress in whatever novel we happen to be working on at the time.

Right now we’re reading the controversial The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. We had to see what all the fuss was about. Halfway through the book our verdict is that it’s a well-told story.

I like the fact that part of my job is to read aloud with students. Next week I’m starting a unit with my Grade 12 English class that will involve reading both The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and The Catcher in the Rye. I’m really looking forward to the pleasure of re-reading both of those books and listening to students’ reactions.

I’m trying a lot of new things in this unit, and I wonder how they are going to work. Some of these include:

Giving students the choice of which novel to read by using literature circles. Scheduling is difficult with this, since I still want to read the novels aloud with students. It’s making for a very complex calendar.
Working with student-led discussion rather than teacher-led. Students will meet in small groups and discuss their reactions to what they’re reading.
Using a wiki to broaden the discussion to another Grade 12 class. My colleague and I are referring to these as “virtual literature circles” for now.
Having students create a book trailer as a culminating activity.

I’m trying to incorporate conventional literacy and 21st-century literacy in this unit. It remains to be seen how successful this will be.

Still, whatever the outcome, it will all be worth it just to hear the voices of Mordecai Richler and J.D. Salinger again.

Filed Under: 21st Century Skills, Literacy Tagged With: book trailer, J.D. Salinger, literature circle, Mordecai Richler, reading aloud

Handwriting on the wall

February 17, 2008 By Brad W 3 Comments

Last year, in a meeting with teachers from feeder schools, someone asked whether or not elementary school teachers should continue to teach cursive writing to their students.

At the time, I told them that I am just happy with something legible, whether written, printed, block-letter, or a mix. All good copies are typed anyway, was my rationale. The Grade 8 teachers breathed a sigh of relief, wiping a lot of future battles from their schedule. A colleague from my own department, who continues to request cursive writing from her students, breathed a sigh of despair. “Where will we be when the lights go out?” was her question.

Since that day, however, I’ve come to question my earlier position. Is it really okay if students don’t use cursive writing anymore?

When we look into the future, it’s highly possible that handwriting will be replaced by some form of keying. It’s part of my job to prepare students for that future, where they will need to be able to publish written works electronically and online.

But the reality is that today, right now, students aren’t working entirely electronically. They don’t have access to computers in every class for note-taking (at least not at my school, and I suspect this is the norm rather than the exception). Tests and in-class assignments are completed using a pen and paper.

My wife alerted me to the article “Writing a Wrong” by Helaine Becker in the January 2008 issue of Today’s Parent. Although the article is a bit shy of references, there are some ideas in there that make sense, among them being:

Students who cannot write legibly and quickly perform poorly on tests.
Poor penmanship is unconsciously penalized by teachers, even when they are trying to mark only the content. This means that students who cannot write legibly receive lower grades.
Students who cannot write legibly may not be able to read their own notes or homework assignments.
Students who cannot write fluently – with automacity, according to Becker – have to focus on forming their letters rather than on sorting out and communicating their ideas. They can’t really process what they are writing.

These are some alarming consequences of poor penmanship in a world where receiving a high school diploma depends on hand writing a pen-and-paper literacy test. So until the format of that test changes, I think I’m going to include some handwriting practice in my Gr. 9 and literacy help classes.

Filed Under: 21st Century Skills, Literacy, Writing Tagged With: handwriting, OSSLT

Literacy program success (sort of)

February 14, 2008 By Brad W Leave a Comment

A couple of days ago I decided to use computers in my after-school literacy program just to liven things up a bit. After reading about an extreme case of using gizmos for their glam factor with disastrous results, I felt a bit uneasy about my new decision. Was I going to compound the challenges surrounding this program?

Nope. It worked. Like a charm. Today’s literacy program was about as successful as any two hours of class after a full day of lessons can be. I was directed to a great OSSLT preparation site for the students, and most of them more-or-less happily spent two hours there. The novelty of using computers for something like literacy preparation worked.

I know that this novelty is going to wear off quickly, so I will resist the temptation to design every activity from here on in around online practices. But after the relative success of today’s program, I’m certainly going to integrate many more online activities into the program.

Filed Under: 21st Century Skills, Assessment, Literacy Tagged With: Literacy, On My Mind