Subjects Matter Ch. 8,9 Independent Reading Workshop in Content Area and Content-Area Bookclubs

Both of these chapters resonated really deeply with me. I think even in ELA classes, we can sometimes overlook the power of student choice and using book clubs or literature circles as part of our lessons. When I was in ninth grade, my teacher modeled a really great example of this in our class. She had us do two rounds of "book clubs." For one book, she chose the book we would all read as a class and she also asked parents and any other adults we wanted to invite to join us. They read the book with us then after certain sections, we would come together during class time and have the adults come to the school to have discussions based on the book. This reminded me of and article I read about literature circles in my middle school class. One of the things that stood out the most for one of the students in that article was having adults involved. That's something that stood out in my experience as well. It makes the students feel respected, brings different aspects to the conversation, and feels more like a real-life setting. The second time we had a book club she let us bring in some choices of books we really loved and then as a class we chose amongst a few. Again, it was a more real-life setting when we were able to choose the book we enjoyed and had adults read the same books with us, even ones that wouldn't be considered "great literature" in adults' eyes. One of the books we chose was: 







 

But having our choices respected and being able to read any selection we chose for one lesson then being able to have discussions in school about these book brought more validity to our literacy in and English classroom and connected learning to what we were already involved in outside of school.

One thing these chapters and my own experience has left me thinking about is the questions of a balanced reading diet in both independent reading and group reading activities. Why not do a literature circle using an article from National Geographic? Or each literature circle could have an article from a different content area which all relate to the same larger topic. Also, why not have students bring in their own idea daily or weekly of articles they've seen online, books they've read, magazines, graphic novels etc. Teaching is a career built on connection, why not use the materials our students are accessing to tap into their journey towards life-long reading?

Subjects Matter Ch. 7 Building a Community of Learners

In this chapter, there were 5 specific strategies in order to create a good environment for learning. They are:

1.       Make the classroom a place where students trust the teacher and believe it’s safe to take risks.

2.       Organize learning so that students work together and help one another.

3.       Provide students choices and opportunities to take responsibility in the classroom.

4.       Connect learning with students’ lives and the larger issues around them.

5.       Read aloud from engaging and powerful writing in their fields so kids can fall in love with ideas.

        

 

What the whole chapter really seemed to be saying however was that we need to foster good citizens. That even beyond the content we may relay, it’s the attitudes we engender that will ensure our students success no matter what diverse course they embark on after our class. We need to model, expect and explicitly teach qualities like respect, empathy, passion confidence. If they learn nothing else in our class, but our students walk away with qualities like these then we’ve still given them a chance to be successful. No matter what they choose, technical careers, college graduates, stay-at home moms, musicians, artists, etc., in order to go the farthest and get the most out of life it’s these qualities that you need in yourself and towards others to gain the most accomplishments. For me, this is the reason I became a teacher, to help students be their best self and help their peers in doing the same. In helping each child succeed based on their own ambition and journey through life, the content was just an added bonus. 

Subject Matters Ch. 6 How to Use a Textbook

 I really enjoyed this chapter, specifically I enjoyed three points from it. I enjoyed that they said textbooks should not be the only text you use, the emphasis on the teacher’s selection and the activity Star Search Guide-O-Rama. One of the points I addressed in my textbook analysis, was this warning to not use the entire textbook and only that to teach students. I think textbook usually have a great way of organizing themes and information, they give you access to quick, easy texts and information and can be beneficial to use. However, I also think relying too heavily on textbooks can make the learning passive for both teachers and students. This is a dangerous pattern to fall into and can lean to coverage versus deep learning. Another concept that was important is related to this one, that of what to cover and what to leave out. This just emphasized to me the reality of what it means to be the filters for our students.

 

We cannot possibly cover everything they could ever learn in a school year, but are we giving them access to enough of a variety that they’re aware what else is out there? Additionally, are we assigning independent readings and projects which lead students down individual roads of learning that we wouldn’t necessarily have time to cover? And also, when we are providing the material, do we have solid evidence backing our choice for that assignment? Even if that solid evidence is students need to learn through play and so we assign an exploratory assignment. Whatever it may be, we need to know why we chose that to cover. The last point I really loved from this chapter was the Star Search Guide-O-Rama as a during reading strategy. The idea of having stopping point for the students, and putting your thoughts, connections and questions seems fun. Almost like a scavenger hunt of good-reading skills. You could even incorporate a portion where students have to respond with their own questions, understandings and connections therefore creating a dialogue even when doing independent work.

Subjects Matter Ch. 5: Tools for Thinking: Reading Strategies Across the Curriculum

In this chapter, I really liked how they started my reiterating the idea of the Gradual Release Model because if the strategies mentioned don’t lead to independent readers, than they’re not actually all that helpful.

For the rest of the chapter, I then focused on making connections to where I’ve seen the activities used, what other classes have supported this idea or my own history as a student.  Here are the top 7 activities that stuck out to me.

The first was the front loading with images activity. In my SED 445 class, we discussed an activity similar to this. In the D&Z activity, they suggested giving students images which help add background knowledge and discuss it. In an ELA class, something we could do further with our students came from SED 445 we can give students an image and let them write about it. This could be a writer’s notebook piece which does not get handed in but they will share later with the class or in small groups.  You could even give images of characters that have performed in plays you will be reading and have them write from that character’s perspective based solely on their outer appearance and costume. This would help the students form their own opinions and mindset necessary for the text you will be reading.  This strengthens students writing skills and allows them to do more writing while also helping them become better readers.

Another important technique which I included in my hypothetical image activity is turn and talk. In Subjects Matter, they mention three different form of this tool: turn and talk, tweet the text and written conversation. Turn and talk is more conventional and always a helpful skill, talking about a topic immediately after you’ve read it helps you make sense and solidify it more quickly helping keep it in long term memory. I especially love the idea of tweet and text and written conversations. When I was in school, I talked a lot! The only times I was ever in trouble was for talking to my friends or writing notes. What if we could let students use these methods which they already use in their daily life to bring their thinking to the next level? Writing notes in groups allows everyone to share with less pressure of hgaing to share in front of the whole class. It also allows you to explore ideas and learn from others. I think this would work especially well if the groups had mixed reading levels or academic levels that way stronger students are modeling for weaker students and weaker students have a safe place to work on reading skills. Text and tweet also brings a whole new meaning to learning. Having to summarize the most important point is always a valuable tool for smart readers, being able to post it on social media is an also a valuable tool for smart citizens. It allows our students to practice bringing in their knowledge to all areas of their life not just in school setting bridging gaps of where and how they learn. It opens up conversations with students about what, how, when and where to post safely and intelligently.

The next tools I liked were post-it notes and annotating the text. In my MLED class we are asked to hand in our “book notes” every so often with the actual book and markings we make as we read. I’m wondering if we could give students copied of our own texts with our book notes, have this be an explicit lesson and then hold students responsible for their own book notes.  If students can see how to visually be an active reader, hopefully these thought processes will become automatic.

Exit/admit slips are another feature I really enjoy. I don’t recall using these in any classes before college. But since I’ve used them in my college courses I’ve noticed that when I fill out my exit slips I often have to refer back to the notes from that class. I’m thinking that in much the same way having pointed questions and thoughts referring to the text will force students to take a few moments to go back and review what they have just read therefore solidifying the information further in their memory.

Subjects Matter Ch. 4: Toward a Balanced Diet of Reading

 

In chapter 4 Of Subjects Matter, one main thing stuck out to me. Examples of ELA classrooms and their applications were cited much less than the other subject areas. Here’s what this made me think while reading it, balancing reading content is much more important in an ELA classroom then they explicitly say, and secondly that a large part of the ELA teacher’s task may be reading that supports the other content areas.

I think the reason they don’t give many specific examples of ELA scenarios is because generally our content has an easier time seeing the importance of reading outside of a textbook. However, even though that is true I think most importantly we need to be careful of assigning just novels, and of the diversity of the authors and stories we share. In my own experience in ELA classes I remember reading novel after novel or literature except from textbooks but I don’t remember doing much non-fiction reading at all- which probably led to my future misery when asked to read non-fiction. I think the text makes a strong point that our other sources need to be closer to real-life reading materials. Why aren’t we sharing newspaper articles, reviews in magazines, letters and government documents even in our ELA classrooms. This is where we can spend our time focusing on how to read these different texts as well.

 

 

With this in mind, as ELA teachers we can be huge assets for the other teachers and our students. If we can use materials that supplement what they are learning in other classrooms, we are increasing connections and repetition of materials, presenting in different ways and strengthen our students’ reading and writing skills. It’s a win-win-win for everyone involved.

The next idea that stood out to me for my classroom in particular is choice in addition to variety. The first step is building a large classroom library which shelves a variety of different genres, fiction, and non-fiction, poetry, written from multiple perspectives.  But what about allowing more student choice in “assigned” classroom readings? I was thinking of the idea of jigsaws what if you took a theme which the students were studying in their science or history; class chose a few different books written in many different styles which related to that theme in some way, had students read different texts that they chose from your selections and did literature circles? This activity would support different reading levels, interests, other content areas, and variation within the ELA classroom without taking up an entire unit on one single text.

 

 

 

Chapter 6- Strong: Effective Writing Assignments

Chapter six by Strong was again jam-packed with useful information and also a lot of pertinent information I’ve seen reiterated in many of my classes. An overall theme that stood out to me is the importance of students writing more often, many different length texts and writing for the sake of the process of writing. With that overall theme however, the most useful tool to be in this article seemed to be the CRAFT acronym. In order for students to be engaged, they need to have a context or scenario for which their writing fits. This is in accord with what I recently learned in my MLED class. Experts in a field of study always write within a context and for a specific audience, they also are writing as “experts in the field.” Our students should be practicing the same writing if we hope to help them become experts someday as well. They do no exists in a bubble and neither should their writing.

                This reminds me of an assignment I recently read by Kelly Gallagher. It’s stayed with me since the reading and applies to the CRAFT method, it’s called the four-perspective essay. When discussing a certain event in history or social movement or even current event, the assignment asks the students to choose different people involved and write a persuasive essay about the event from that person’s point of view. This assignment gives students a reason for writing, and a fun way to play with roles and how point of view changes writing. It opens up many different discussions just from this one writing assignment.

                The last two letters of CRAFT stand for format and topic. The key ideas here are to have varied, specific topics and allow for choice. Again, our students don’t live or write in a bubble. Therefore, they should have the opportunity to explore their writing using a variety of real-life writing methods. Fashioned after the real-world, it could be a magazine article, a college- style analytical paper where they enter into a dialogue already started in the field, a letter to government authority or a business, a flyer, and even mentioned in this article, newer digital compositions. The format of course will depend on the topic and as much and whenever possible, we should give students options for them to choose their topic. This is common sense, but also backed by research, anyone, our students included, are more invested in their work when they have personal value in it. If we want our students to value their work and put more effort into struggling with the ideas, they have to have some authority over the ideas.
 
  I think even handing students something like these graphics would be helpful in starting new assignments and having students become more independent and responsible for their own work.

                As and ELA teacher, this chapter on writing assignments was extremely helpful but I also really liked how clear it was to see application in any classroom. Math and Science especially it can seem challenging our counter intuitive to include lengthy, varied writing pieces but this article made it very clear how to apply the research. What do you think? Can you see yourself giving more meaningful writing assignments more often in your content areas?