I started the year with 9 weeks of choice reading, planning to alternate choice reading with book groups and core texts throughout the year (inspired by Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher’s work). I did what I planned, but added in a month of poetry reading, so I wanted to get back to the books before saying farewell to our junior high readers (and sign off Ethical ELA for the summer).
When it comes to the classroom library, I have some attachment issues that I am working on. I spent a lot of the 2016 summer learning how to better protect the books in my junior high classroom library and maybe save a few books with a better tracking system. By February, I abandoned any attempt at a check-out system and decided I’d get used to losing books, wishing well the ones that got away. But how could I wish them well if I did not know which ones had, well, gotten away? And what about next year’s readers who needed a beauti- FULL library to start their reading year?
With two weeks to go in the school year for the eighth graders and a calendar filled with spring concerts, field trips, MAP testing, and MAP testing make-ups (ugh), I scrapped my plan for one more round of book groups in favor of two weeks of choice reading. The school library was closing for inventory, so we had to work with what I had remaining in my classroom library.
I stand behind what I wrote in “Catch ‘n’ release-ing books (and wishing well the ones that got away),” but I did want to see if I could recover some inventory before my eighth graders went off into the world. Thus, I modified my choice reading protocol and share it here with a combination of pride and shame (don’t they always go together).
Presenting the Semi-Choice Plan
“Now that our 30Poem celebration has come to an end, we are going to use those twenty minutes of class for choice reading time, only I have to add some restrictions to what I mean by choice. As you know, the school library is closing because Mr. R. is doing inventory, which means we have to work with our classroom library, and because I, too, am working on inventory, you have to keep these books in the classroom.”
“So we can’t take them home?” asks one student.
“Correct. This shelf here is where you will put the books after reading time,” I explain walking over to the shelf designated for that class.
“Great. I wasn’t about to read at home anyway. No offense. I just read here, Dr. D.,” chimes in another student.
“Yeah, some offense taken, but I hear you. I am trying to track down some missing books, so check your lockers and your neighbors lockers and bring in any Donovan books, okay? In the mean time, the back two bookcases have some great options. I know you will find something. Let’s get started. I will come around and give some recommendations.” I barely utter my final words when the students race to the bookshelves. I am happy to see the eagerness.
“I’m so glad we don’t have to carry these around,” one student whispers to another. “I always forget my book in my locker anyway; she gets so mad.”
She’s right. The I -left-my-book-in-my-locker drives me insane. If a student is not carrying it around with them all day, then they are not doing what Donalyn Miller calls “reading on the edges,” which is to read whenever there are a few minutes of down time wherever that may be. It’s also irritating because the going-to-one’s-locker interrupts the quiet in the quiet reading — door opening, closing.
The Book Shelves
After a day of browsing and book-talking, this is what the book shelves of the four eighth grade classes look like. If you are looking for summer reading ideas, consider these four shelves your lists!
5 Observations of Semi-Choice
I limited “choice” by limiting reading options to the books in the classroom, and I limited “choice” by restricting the actual reading of these books to H103 — our class, our class time. I know this is wrong. I know that students need to take the book with them, own it, be the book, but I love our books and don’t want these remaining titles to walk away. I will, of course, have another 175 readers next year who need books, too, right? So I am feeling bad about the restrictions, but it turns out that there are some rather nice discoveries I am making about the semi-choice experience:
- I can look at these shelves and know exactly which book belongs to which student. I love that I know most of the students as the reader they are becoming. I also know where they are in the books and, because of #bookaday, can talk about the books specifically with each reader.
- I also love that every student chose something to read within minutes and has stuck with it. In the past, students would be abandoning books in the first five minutes out of boredom, resistance. Now at the end of the year, they seem to know exactly which book they’d like, or, better yet, they can find something to like in almost any book. Joe, who would only read informational basketball books October through March, is now reading Death Coming Up the Hill. Elly chose Parrotfish to help her understand her BFF a little better. Lance, who has been in H103 for two years, picked up Shakespeare Bats Cleanup by Ronald Koertge. When I first met Lance almost two years ago, just the mention of quiet reading time would bring him to tears and fits. The first book he ever finished on his own last year was Words With Wings by Nikki Grimes, and now he is ending his junior high experience with Koertge’s verse novel.
- Many of you already thought of this third one: there is no “I lost the book” or “I left it my locker” or “It’s at home.” Students come into class, grab their book, take a seat, and start reading. With all the books in the classroom, every reader is reading in the first minute of class, and with 41 minutes of class (30 on assembly days), every minute still counts — even if it is a week before graduation rehearsals begin. As they read, I can monitor their progress and offer personalized strategies or emotional support after intense scenes in real time because I’ve read every book in our library. When they read at home (if), I can’t be a guide in the process.
4. Because we all started a book at the same time, which typically only happens at the beginning of the year or with book groups, I can pose community questions for students to elicit a quick, meaningful reading response that allows us to wrap up the year thinking about the literary questions we’ve pondered throughout the year together. This response time allows me an opportunity to get a window into their reading experience as they write and material for conference time the next day. I can either write feedback/questions on their responses or have a quick conversation during reading time.
Here are the first four days of responses from a student who is reading Ask Me How I Got Here by Christine Heppermann:
5. Finally, after students write their responses, they return the books to the shelf. They stretch their now longer legs and chat a bit about their books around their class bookshelf:
A: This book is so good (The Problem With Forever). The two characters met in foster care when they were little, and now they are seeing each other again in high school!
B: I just finished this one (Poisoned Apples). It’s a collection of poetry like Milk and Honey.
C. This book is intense, but I can’t stop reading; it won’t let you because there are no chapters to take a break. The story just keeps coming (Girl in Pieces).
I realize there is not much choice in this routine. In addition to keeping the books in class, I’ve banned technology for those twenty minutes to have tech-free reading. It would be really easy for their reading responses to be in a Google doc or blog, but there is a very kinesthetic experience with pen and paper writing, with paper exchanging. I want to put a smiley face scribbled with my own hand next to their distinct script.
Holding On and Letting Go
By now you’ve noticed a lot of me trying to control the conditions of the reading experience, and I suspect this has as much to do with trying to hold on to these readers as it is about the books. I love watching them read the books that I read and bought for them. I love watching them calm and in the flow of a story –the smile, the furrowed brow, the tear, the gasp. It’s just so satisfying to see, after just four days, most students are well on their way to getting through the first 100 pages of their books and to hear readers chatting about characters on their own. We’ve come so far, and I don’t want it to end, yet they’re ready.
There is a lot of good happening amidst the restrictions, and I get to keep my eye on these great books at the end of the day.
Okay, maybe I am overprotective of my books and readers, but I am not inflexible. I make exceptions:
“So I can’t take this book with me?” Victor asks. The bell to go to second period just rang, and Victor is standing, holding Jason Reynold’s Ghost in one hand and his binder in the other.
“Uh, well, I mean,” I mumble looking at his big brown smiling eyes.
“I really like it! I want to keep reading,” Victor explains waiting for my response.
“Yeah, I thought you might, what with the track season coming to an end and your new-found love of poetry. Jason Reynolds is a poet, you know. I bet you are fast like Ghost, aren’t you?” He nods. I pause. “Of course. Of course, Victor. Take it. Enjoy. See you tomorrow — and Ghost.”
* all names are pseudonyms