Let It Go: Using Reading and Writing Workshop To Develop Reading and Writing LOVE

If you want to try Reading/Writing Workshop in a high school, consider this advice...

Two weeks ago my colleagues and I presented at the Illinois Reading Conference. Our focus - how we have started to change the culture of reading in our school by using reading/writing workshop. The highlight of the whole presentation was the advice that my colleagues gave to the attendees.  As teachers we all know that the hardest part of a reading and writing workshop is not reading how others do it, but instead actually implementing it with our own students.    

Here were my favorite "Must Do's" from our presentation:

#1 - Set aside 10-15 minutes everyday for independent reading.  By giving students time, we are acknowledging that we believe reading choice is important and we care about them growing as readers in our classes.  Our students now cherish this time in class.  They are actually reading and many times grumble when the timer goes off and we have to move on to the lesson.

#2 - Book Talk everyday.  The more we share books with students, the better our chances of helping them find one that they will read.  The best recommendation I learned from Penny Kittle is to hold the book, know the book, and share a passage with the students.  Every time I read a page or two of my favorite parts, it increases the likelihood of that book being checked out. We also do Teacher Book Talk Tuesdays where we switch up rooms and book talk in a fellow English teacher's classroom for the first 5-10 minutes.  Kids love hearing what other teachers recommend.  Book trailers are also a hit for hooking students into books.

#3 - Conference with your students.  To motivate our students to read more, we have to get to know them individually - their likes, dislikes, etc.  Our teachers conference with students any free minute that they have (before class, during reading, during writing, homeroom, after school, during sports practice, etc.) These conferences help us know what to book talk in your classes and can help you stretch a student to a more challenging text.

My colleague's electronic log

#4 - Hold your students accountable. Have your students fill out a reading rate log and a to-read list.  Our students set weekly page goals based on their reading rates.  As they become better readers, their reading rates increase and they are expected to read more.   We do give them a "stamina grade" each week.  If they are meeting or exceeding their reading rate goal they receive full points.  

An example of a to-read list

How to find your reading rate

       








#5 - Have your students reflect on their reading growth.  At the end of each term our students write a reflection.  All of our reflection prompts come directly from Penny Kittle, Kelly Gallagher, and Teri Lesesne's books.  This writing gives us an opportunity to help our students set goals and evaluate how they are doing in class.  This is the most powerful writing I have seen from students. When I read these, I always make sure to have a tissue box nearby.

An example reflection prompt from last spring

I can honestly say that we are changing the reading culture of our school one student at a time.  It definitely isn't easy and in the beginning, students will push back.  But, don't give up. You will see a change too.

Let It Go: Using Reading and Writing Workshop To Develop Reading and Writing LOVE

Over a week ago I had the priviledge of presenting at the Illinois Reading Conference with three of my colleagues and my department chair on how in little over a year we have started a massive culture change in our school when it comes to reading. Thinking back to that day, I don't think any of us thought that we would have over fifty people attend our presentation.  There were plenty of other amazing presentations going on at the same time as ours so to see our room packed made me realize even more that what we are doing needs to be shared! Building an English classroom around reading and writing workshop is not a new concept at the elementary and middle school level, but is definitely not as popular among high school classrooms.

As a former elementary teacher and reading specialist, this is all I have known throughout my career. I have read everything by Nancie Atwell, Donalyn Miller, Linda Rief, Donald Graves, etc. When I tried to share these stories with my colleagues, many told me that high school is "different" and we couldn't do that because we are preparing our students for college.  Then Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle showed up in my life.  After reading all of their books AND attending their workshops, I knew that this could be done in a high school English classroom.  I just needed a few teachers willing to take the plunge.

Here is some advice on how to get started:

#1 - Read the research and books by all of the authors above and then get the support of your department chair.  Without her support, there was no way that the teachers I work with would have ever felt comfortable taking this risk.

#2 - Convince your department chair to do a summer reading book club with Readicide by Kelly Gallagher.  It is short enough and will get teachers to start thinking about their practices.  We started there and teachers implemented a few of his ideas throughout the next school year.  The teachers who really believed in Kelly Gallagher's work asked for his other books - Deeper Reading, Write Like This, and In the Best Interest of Students.


#3 - Hand Penny Kittle's book, Book Love, to those jumpers in your department who are tired of their students "fake reading" and "spark noting" everything.  I gave a short presentation about her work at an end of the year department meeting.  That summer I had one teacher buy her book and completely change the format his classroom.  He was the "lone nut" (If you haven't seen the First Follower You Tube video - you must if you are wanting to implement change.) and jumped in head first.  But once he was in, others followed.

The change in his approach

If we can do this at our school, you can too!  In an upcoming post, I will share the best advice our teachers have for making this successful.

Assessment: How Do You Assess Students Using Reading Workshop?

Assessment:  How Do You Assess Students Using Reading Workshop?

Assessment has been on my brain a lot lately.  After I wrote a guest post for the Three Teachers Talk blog about the effects of giving students choice in what they read, one of my mom's friends (a retired teacher), asked my mom, "I love what Melissa is doing with the teachers in her school, but HOW do these teachers assess what their students have read?"  That question is a tough one and I think teachers would have varied answers depending on their philosophy of the purpose of a high school English class.

My philosophy:  Straight up - I am not an English teacher.  I don't believe that every student must read Lord of the Flies or The Great Gatsby to be a productive member of society or to be able to understand literary terms.  As a child, I loved to read, but I wasn't very good at it.  I was what many English teachers would call a "surface level" reader.  I got the basic plot, but missed all of the symbolism, similes, metaphors, figurative language, etc. that I was supposed to understand to get to a deeper meaning of a text.  My teachers made me feel so stupid that I refused to read the required books, instead I was just like many of the students I work with today.  In order to pass my English assessments, Cliff Notes and I were best friends.  

I vowed that I would never make my students feel the way I did about reading. Instead, when I taught 4th and 5th grade, I embraced Reading Workshop and literature circles with my students.  My ultimate goal as a teacher was to spark my students interest in books and to push them to challenge themselves as readers.  As a classroom teacher, my reading assessments were simple:  I had my students talk about their books with each other and write A LOT.  The students and I wrote letters to teach other every week about what they were reading.  They researched their authors. They researched the time periods or events that occurred.  They created their own group discussion questions based on their analyses of the books they were reading and then reflected in writing on what they learned more deeply about the book from their group members.  When asked, "Have you read all of these books or how do you know if they are truly reading?" I always told the doubters to come into my classroom and talk with my students. Ask them about the books they are reading and why they chose the books they did to read? They will tell you.

Now that I am helping teachers implement Reading Workshop in high school English classes the question of assessment has popped up again.  Many high school teachers struggle with not being able to keep up with all the books their students are reading or are worried that the students are not reading them "beyond the surface level."  I believe high school students can still be assessed through conversation and through writing. There is no need for reading quizzes on the minute details of a text.  The teachers I work with are assessing their students daily:  We touch base with students individually as often as time allows to really delve into what they were reading.  We use shorter texts to teach deeper analysis and ask their students to apply analysis practices to their own books.  We encourage students to create book clubs and record their group conversations to show them how deeply they have connected with the novels.  Our students create book trailers, give book talks, and of course, write.  No matter what method, our students are constantly being asked to reflect on the books they have read and how they have grown as readers. These assessments are exciting to hear, read, and grade!

I am always looking for new and creative ways to assess students.  How do you assess reading workshop?  Please share in the comments below.

My Favorite Resources for Mentor Texts

My Favorite Resources for Mentor Texts

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of posting about my experiences building a culture of readers on one of my favorite blogs that I religiously follow, Three Teachers Talk.  Several of our teachers have transformed their classrooms from a traditional whole class novel English class to a readers/writers workshop approach.  One of the hardest tasks for teachers when making the switch is finding mentor texts to use in place of the whole class novel.  Here are some of my favorite resources that I have found texts for the teachers I work with:

Three Teachers Talk

Amy Rasmussan, Erika Bogdany, Shana Karnes, and Jackie Catcher (@amyrass, @ErikaBogdany,  @litreader,  @JackieCatcher) are four high school teachers who firmly believe in using readers/ writers workshop in their classrooms.  Each morning I wake to find a post that I can use to support the teachers that I work with in our English department.  They share resources like 51 Beautiful Sentences and how they use them to teach author's craft. They share excerpts from books like Brown Girl Dreaming, The Glass Castle, and Impulse and how they use them to teach rhetorical devices and book talk books at the same time. Their ideas and lessons are simple and easy to adapt to any level English class.  I highly recommend following their blog if you are looking for ideas.

Moving Writers and Mentor Text Dropbox
My other favorite teacher blog to follow was created by Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O'Dell (@RebekahOdell1, @allisonmarchett). These two teachers have focused their blog on writing workshop resources and lesson ideas. What I love most about their blog (beyond the posts) is the Mentor Text Dropbox that they have created. You can find articles by genre, technique, topic, etc. in this folder.  When teacher's are looking for something specific, I send them here first.

Twitter
Twitter can be very overwhelming if you don't have it organized.  I tend to use Hootsuite to follow hashtags like #engchat, #elachat, #nerdybookclub, #aplangchat, and #aplitchat.  Teachers are constantly posting ideas and articles to use in the classroom.  Don't feel obligated to check it all the time.  Even when I open it up once a week, I find wonderful resources here that I can share with teachers.

Newsela

If you haven't checked out Newsela for nonfiction articles, you are missing out on current events that can be read at multiple lexile levels.  I tend to turn to Newsela for current events and articles of the week as the topics are very appealing and relevant for students to understand. Newsela also posts Pro/Con articles which helps our students look at a topic from multiple perspectives. All of the articles are free and you can create a class account (our students sign in with Google) where you assign specific articles to the students to read.  What I love most is that I may say to the students that they have to read the article at ____ level to take the quiz, but they can start at any level that they prefer.  Many of the students will start at a simpler level to get a basic understanding and then read it at the assigned level.  

Flipboard

Another place I find unique articles to share with staff and students is on Flipboard.  Flipboard is a tool I use to create multiple "magazines" with various topics.  It used to be only available on the iPad, but now can also be used on the web so our students have access to it 24/7 from their Chromebooks.  The best part of Flipboard for me is that it does the curating of articles for me under the topics I have tagged to search.  I can open up Flipboard and have resources at my fingertips.  I am even working with a teacher right now who is having his freshman AP World students collect reliable resources for their themes using Flipboard.