Readers ARE becoming leaders ... before our very eyes!

In my last post, I described the project that my Reading Specialist and myself have been working on this year. We have been so excited about how this idea has grown.

As we began the new semester, once again we asked students to set a goal for themselves. Even more importantly though, we asked students how they would like to share what they learned from this experience. Our sixth-grade group immediately stepped up. They decided to make a presentation to the third graders about just how important reading is and why it should “be a habit, not homework.” 

They had students fill out exit slips about one goal related to reading that they wanted to achieve before the end of the year. most of the students mentioned something they heard in the 6th-grade presentation. Score!

The next step, then, was for the 6th graders to walk the talk. We got some names from the third grade teachers of students in their classes who might benefit from a “reading mentor” and we matched them up with our sixth graders. Now, the sixth graders are leading the third graders through the process that we started with them this fall. And so far, the results have been inspiring. We told the third graders that any time they finished a book, they could come find their reading buddy and tell them about it. The third grade and sixth-grade teachers are all on board with potential interruptions so that the kids can celebrate together. 


My heart melted when one of the third-grade students said “I never get picked for anything. I’m so glad I get to do this.” Stay tuned for more developments!

Supporting Readers by Disrupting their Thinking

Last year, Stephanie, the reading specialist, and I started a pilot program in which I met with some of her students, once a week, to talk about what they were reading. Here's the post. We were very encouraged by the results and comments that we received from both students and parents. So we decided to "take it up a notch" this year.

We had two major goals:

1. Encourage students to connect to their books through BHH moments (see this post)

2. Have students actually FINISH books. So many of her students start a book and quit, start another book and quit, etc.

Step 1: At the beginning of the year, we talked with students about how to find a book that they will enjoy. We had them make lists of things they were interested in reading about, books they had read in the past that they enjoyed or books that they had heard someone else talk about. We encouraged them to read the first page and make sure they were comfortable reading the book.

Step 2: After they chose their first book for the year, we had them set a goal. How many books do you think you can finish before Winter Break? Remember: this isn't a goal to impress anyone, it's just a realistic target for you to try to achieve.

Step 3: Stephanie set up the schedule. Every Friday, I meet with half of the group and Stephanie meets with the other half. The following week we flip groups so that I see the other students. We have a little book club. Kids tell us how it's going with their current book. If they have finished a book, we celebrate in a way chosen by the students. Students talk about their "Head and Heart" moments and ask each other questions. Before they leave, they set a page number goal for the following week. 

And we are loving what we are seeing. Students who didn't finish a book all last year have finished more than one this year already! And they are actually getting title recommendations from each other for what to read next. And they can really talk about their books ... what they like about the characters or the events. And most of the kids, with a month still to go, are about to reach the goals that they set at the beginning of the year. We are definitely on the right track!

I played my Wild Card today!

I was trying to find a more engaging way for students to start learning the different sections of the library, so I came up with the scavenger hunt activity that you see in the pictures above. It was a great success with my first group of third graders. But what really made it awesome is what happened in the next class.

The day the next class of third graders was coming to the library to do this activity, I was going to be out of the building at a meeting. I wasn't sure who my substitute was going to be and whether or not he/she would feel comfortable with the technology. 

So, I asked my 5th-grade digital leaders to step in and help and boy did they ever! The day before I was going to be gone, I brought them into the library and showed them the activity. We talked about some potential troubleshooting they might have to do based on how the other class did. 

In a word, they were fabulous! (I wish I would have asked someone to take pictures.) Talk about an authentic experience for them. They told me later that it was so fun to be helping younger students. They reported that a few tech problems came up, but they were able to troubleshoot effectively ... and "Can we do it again soon?" Stay tuned!

Speaking of Disrupting our Thinking ...

I mentioned in my last post that our 5th grade teachers are reading aloud Ban this Book by Alan Gratz. And that the students are really finding moments that they are connecting to the book with their head and heart. And if you feel deeply enough with your heart, the next step is taking action, right? 

Well, yesterday, one of the teachers noticed the kids buzzing around a locker, so she peaked inside and got this wonderful surprise. One student has connected so much that she did, indeed, take action. (Sssh! The kids don't know we know!)  How can you not love it?

Is there a way we can get every student to connect this deeply with a book this year? The challenge is on!

Disruption in the hallway!

It has begun and it is awesome. My 4th and 5th grade colleagues and I read Disrupting Thinking by Kylene Beers & Robert E. Probst this summer and are determined to disrupt the thinking of our students this year! So, the first time I went into the classroom to do book talks, I announced that "I am here to disrupt your thinking!" Puzzled looks ... tilted heads ... crickets.

So I proceeded to tell them that a good book should disrupt your thinking ... it should make you stop and ask "What?" or "Did I really just read that?" or "This character is just so awesome!" As I finished each book talk, I asked the students what part of the book talk "disrupted their thinking" and why? Students began talking about this and even using the word "disrupt" while they were talking. We were feeling pretty excited. In addition, teachers have been reading Ban this Book by Alan Gratz and they are continually asking students to disrupt their thinking about the events of the book. The kids are totally into it.

But the real excitement came the next day when we heard a student say, in the hallway and totally unsolicited by a teacher, that the poem they read "really disrupted my thinking." And she was right on the money because it was a poem that had you believing one thing and by the end of the poem, it twisted to a different idea. Score!

And then, on Friday, I was doing some work with a small group. This is a group that gets reading support from our Reading Specialist. She and I are working together this year to ensure that these students find books that they can read and enjoy and, most importantly, finish and be able to talk about beyond the obligatory summary. Once we had gotten books in the students' hands, they sat down to read for the final 10 minutes of our group. Suddenly, I heard "Wait! Where's Mom?" from a student. Then with a look of total surprise on his face he said, "Wow! I just disrupted my thinking. I was wondering how come Mom wasn't in the car with Brock and his dad." Man, I wish I had that on film.

Will you be the Wild Card?

And off we go! Another year has started and I am determined to be the Wild Card! Last spring, Megan Halverson (my instructional coach) and I did a book study on this incredible book by Hope and Wade King. And all summer, I've been thinking about how to change things up in the library. And now the time is finally here! And I'm not going to lie ... I'm scared. I'm out of my comfort zone. That joker in the back of my head is saying "Just do things the way you've always done them. It won't be as risky. It won't be hard because you already know the routine."

First up: each 1st and 2nd grade library class is going to establish a team identity, because team members respect each other, listen to each other and help each other (the rules of the library.) Once they have determined their identity, that's going to help with our theme for the year. We're also working on getting better at listening to each other "with care." So, we are practicing our "Call and Response"

Edgar LibraryFrog is our library mascot, so the Call and Response cues are all about him. So, when one of our classmates is talking, the call is "Rachel is on the Lilypad!" and all eyes should be on Rachel. Students respond with "Yes." When the class needs to come back together, the call is "Catch a Fly!" Their response "Got it!"

So far, these are working well. Next up: Team identity. All the classes are voting this week. Stay tuned.

A love of reading ... one student at a time

Early in the year, I had a discussion with our Reading Specialist, Stephanie Peterson, about some of her students. It seemed several of her students were having trouble finding books in the library that they wanted to read. She wanted to know if I could work with them one on one to help them with their selection. It seemed like a very small idea, but what it grew into was really pretty cool.

Stephanie gave me a list of names and we set up times with their homeroom teachers when I could pull them from class for a 7 - 10 minute conversation. The idea was to get them to pick out a book that they could read for self selected time and stick with it. Our weekly meetings started out first as being conversations about how's it going? Do you like the book? Do you feel it's a good fit for you?

Immediately, the students wanted to throw a summary of the book at me and I wanted to duck! Some of the summaries were genuine attempts while others were, shall we say, inventive. I noticed almost right away that the kids hadn't made any kind of emotional connection to the book. It was all facts ... this happened, that happened. They said nothing about how they felt about the characters, the action, or the book in general.

This was around the same time I had started reading Disrupting Thinking by Kylene Beers (see prior post)

It made sense that I should be having students identify something from their reading that they connected to (made them laugh, made them cry, made them excited, etc.) I told them I didn't care how many pages they read, but the next time we met, they needed to be able to tell me about one moment from their reading that they connected to and why. I gave them a sticky note so they could write on it and mark the page. 

The next time we met, the conversations were so much better. There were smiles as the student described something funny that a character said or did. It was like a mini book club. If they couldn't find something to connect to, we had a conversation as to whether the book they were reading was really one they wanted to read.

When Stephanie and I met at the end of the year to review how things went, we were very encouraged by the results and we plan to continue and expand this concept next fall. Two things that were very clear from the experience:

• If we can inspire kids to connect to what they are reading, they are far more likely to continue reading. 
• The students love one on one time with an adult ... even if it's only for 10 minutes. And if we use that connection to talk about reading, students are more likely to continue reading.

Seems simple, doesn't it? How powerful would it be if every student had someone who would sit down with them everyday and share the joy of connecting to a book? I know this isn't anything new and I'm preaching to the choir here, but how do we give this opportunity to all our students? When does that conversation become a priority? Especially for those students who don't get that conversation at home.