The SSR Breakdown

So I'm crunching surveys from our tenth graders on reading. I really want to honestly know if they are reading and if their attitudes are changing. I don't want to bust anyone. I just want to know...and boy am I starting to know...

The most interesting insight from these surveys so far is the students who believe that SSR is a good thing. They believe that SSR will improve their vocabulary. They don't read outside of school. SSR is their big chance to spend time with a good book, yet they aren't doing it. They are missing their golden opportunity because their teacher doesn't particpate/believe in SSR. I thought the teenagers were supposed to be the hard ones to win over.

I find it heartbreaking that students see the good in a practice, yet the teachers aren't willing to take the time to invest in it. Students that obviously would not be readers outside of school aren't being given the chance to be readers inside of school. Now that's malpractice.

Gratitude

No one goes into education for the money. Sometimes, they do go into it because they love history or they love English or they love chemistry. Most of the time, though, they love kids. They love learning. And they love to see kids learning. And the bonus at the end of the day is a student's gratitude.

I taught Terrance many, many moons ago. I'm pretty sure I had him in English I my first year at Newberry. Oh good heavens, I had no idea what I was doing. I keep thinking of those poor kids and thinking, if I only knew then what I knew now. If only.

But I did the best I could. And that was more than enough for Terrance. When he was a senior, in the spring semester, he came to visit me. We both had long moved on--he to other teachers and I to other students. But Newberry is a small school. You always see each other. You always speak. So when Terrance got to the spring semester of his senior year without passing the exit exam, he came knocking.

I didn't know a whole lot about the test back then. I didn't know how important authentic reading activities were. But Terrance had a weight-lifting class and I had planning and some workbooks. So we sat down together and practiced. We worked on very basic paragraph structures and multiple choice questions.

Our hard work paid off. On the last day of school for seniors that year, Terrance came to me, with tears in his eyes, to thank me for all my help. He was going to be able to graduate.

I ran into to Terrance at the gas station this weekend. Once again, it's Newberry. These things happen. I look back at our time together and think that I could have done so much more. Terrance was the one who did all the hard work. But when I see him, it's the same refrain. Thank you. Thank you for everything that you did for me. Thank you for being there. Thank you for your help.

It's gratitude. That's what makes us come back every day. That's what makes all the headaches worth while--a lifetime of Terrances.

Tips for a Successful Read Aloud

You’ll need to start by selecting the right text for your class. Always, ALWAYS, read your selection in advance. You need to ensure that what you are reading is appropriate for your students and your lesson. You also need to decide whether or not you are enjoying the text yourself. You can’t fake enthusiasm with a bunch of teenagers. They won’t buy it.

When choosing a text, think carefully about what purpose you want the read-aloud to serve. Is this to introduce a new chapter? Do you want to make sure that they know the current events in your content area? Do you want to provide them with an example of your content area in the real world? Choose your text wisely for the most success.

The best time to read to kids is at the beginning or end of class. Read alouds are perfect transition activities. They don’t need to be longer than about 15 minutes—students get antsy if you go longer than that. If you’re reading a novel or other lengthy piece, you may want to plan to end your session at an intriguing point—leave your audience begging for more! You can follow your read aloud up with discussion, journals, write-arounds, written conversations, etc., but don’t feel that you need to grade them.

Reading aloud to teens can make a profound difference in their lives as learners and as readers.

Something I've Never Considered

What in the world is a graphic novel? Maybe you spent time as a teenager collecting comic books—stories of superheroes and villains where the good guy always wins and gets the super-hot girl. If you did, you may even be a self-proclaimed dork. Your mom may have thrown them out, much to your chagrin. But don’t worry, they are making a comeback in a much larger form.

While comics were typically a series of stories, the term graphic novel refers to a format, rather than a genre. They are often independent stories, instead of a series. And the content is vast, and sometimes mature. Graphic novels have a lot of potential for reengaging marginalized readers and engaging reluctant readers. Their popularity is on the rise in recent years. In 2006, consumers in the United States spent nearly $330 million on graphic novels and comics. Librarians only counted for 10% of those purchases. Graphic novels are a popular format that can pull advanced readers, who often don’t have free time to read, back into the joys of literacy. The format can be very time-friendly to the overworked AP student, but can also be very nonthreatening to a more struggling reader. Studies have shown that graphic novels often attract male readers who are reluctant to read much else.

So what do you look for and where do you start? Some graphic novels have great content connections. Nat Turner by Kyle Baker is very nearly wordless. Some primary documents are included as Baker tells the story of Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion, beginning with the Middle Passage. There is no doubt that the message is conveyed through powerful images that will keep you turning each page. And yes, looking closely at pictures is reading.

Confessions of a Blabbermouth includes a teenager’s blog as central to the plot. She uses her blog to vent about everything—including her mother’s boyfriend and the secret he allegedly has with his daughter—in the most public manner possible.

As Jane, of The Plain Janes, walks past a sidewalk café in Metro City, a terrorist’s bomb detonates. Her parents are overtaken by their fear and immediately snatch her to the suburbs, where surely they’ll be safe. She befriends three other Janes and they commence to make “art attacks” on the city. All the while, Jane keeps in touch with a mysterious man who she rescued from the explosion, and slowly comes into her own.

Finally, The Professor’s Daughter examines the true spirit of Victorian London through the eyes of a mischievous girl and a mummy who has opened his eyes for the first time in 3,000 years. He, of course, instantly falls in love with her. But how can their love survive their fathers, the London Police, and even the Royal Archeological Society?

Graphic novels have a great deal to offer our students and young readers. It has been suggested that reading graphic novels may require more complex cognitive skills than the reading of text alone. If you aren’t convinced, visit the media center and ask for a copy of manga—Japanese graphic novels that read from right to left. You will quickly see how demanding these can be for our students, but our students will rise to the occasion.

Like Riding a Bike

As a coach, it's not often that I get put back into classrooms to work my own magic. I'm usually there as a support for the teacher and I like to stay in the background and let his/her magic shine through.

Today, though, I had the rare occassion of being pulled to briefly cover a class. A science class. This might normally be scary for me, but today's science lesson dealt with reading an article and determining pros and cons. And that is something I know a little bit about--reading.

Getting in with the kids and pushing my sleeves up is not assimilar to riding a bike (which I can say since I recently started riding a bike again). If you've got the knack, you've got it. It doesn't get real rusty. You don't forget how to do it. It comes right back to you right away. And that was the way it worked for me today. I enjoyed those kids. I didn't even mind that they were freshmen! I was able to help them find word cues that would guide them towards filling in in their T-chart. And I was really proud of my science teacher for using literacy in her classroom.

When Technology Goes Awry

I've found myself with very little to say these days. But today, my temper got the better of me and my printer took a licking for it.

The long and sordid tale began last week. I installed new ink cartridges. They seem to run out so quickly these days! After I put in the new ones, I noticed they were a little more noisy than usual. To really spell it out for you, I felt like a machine gun was shooting right beside me and I found myself cowering in my chair for fear that it would take me out. Once I got used to it, I was then subjected to the embarrassment as people wandered by my office door and wondered what in the world I had gotten into now. One student insisted that it would go away with time. The same thing had apparently happened at her house. Well it didn't just go away.

In fact, it got worse. No, it didn't actually start shooting at me, but it did start to take paper in. Over and over and over again. Let me go in depth here--if I tried to print, it would pull the paper halfway through the printer and then stall. I would press the resume button and it would take off. It would just pull through piece after piece until I either took the paper away or pulled the plug. (At one point I thought it was possessed. I swear it was working without the plug, but no, I had pulled out the computer cable. That would make for a better story, though.)

This went on all day today. Not even the person at HP Tech Support had any idea what would cause this poltergeist to attack my printer. So I did the only think I could do--I went a little Office Space on it. Nothing actually broke, although I'm not beyond that yet. But I did slam it around a few times. Surprisingly enough, this did not make it want to work for me! I know, the mind reels!

Luckily I had a back up and we are up and running. It's tempting, though, to take that ol' printer out to a field with a baseball bat and give it a piece of my mind.

Happy holidays!

The only way to spend New Year's Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears.

~W. H. Auden

For the vampire in you...

I was never a vampire-lover growing up. If truth be told, I don't think I ever saw Interview with a Vampire; I wasn't a Buffy-groupie; and Ann Rice did nothing for me. So when a student insisted that I read Twilight, I broke one of my own rules--I ignored her. I hemmed and hawed and claimed that I would...and I didn't.

Rule #4 to building a reader--Take his/her recommendations to heart and give them a shot.

So I finally got around to reading Twilight last spring--actually I listened to it on tape in my car. I liked it. I wanted to find a copy so that I could read in addition to listen (now wouldn't that have been interesting?). I devoured the other two and of course snapped up Breaking Dawn immediately. I've since reread Twilight and seen the movie twice. Right now, I'm listening to the soundtrack. Hmmm, me a vampire-lover. Who woulda thunk it?

So now that I am intrigued by this world and want nothing more than to be bitten so that I too can possess ethereal beauty and super powers, I find myself looking for other fixes. I've had a hard time reading anything to completion since the end of Breaking Dawn. Maybe I'm making bad choices, but I've really struggled. Until now. My struggles are over. I have met Melissa de la Cruz and Schuyler Van Alen.

Melissa de la Cruz is the author of lots of teenage chic lit. But her Blue Bloods series is what has gotten me back in the saddle again. So far, there are three novels in the series and she promises to write at least 6. In the first, the reader is introduced to Schuyler Van Alen, a thrift-store shopping outcast at a ritzy, ultra-exclusive private school in Manhattan. She and her sidekick, Oliver, stick to themselves and try not be trampled on by the elite. However, she soon learns that her fate is intertwined with those that she tries to avoid. Schuyler is one of the 400 Blue Bloods, a vampire who recycles in and out of the Red Blooded world for all of eternity. As they reach their mid-teens, Blue Bloods begin their Transformation and begin to come into their memories--all of them.

The books are fast-paced and easy reads. There is some vocabulary that seems a little extraneous (isn't that ironic?), but for the most part, the reader can skim right over them. I did. The characters are both likeable and detestable. Schuyler makes a great protagonist, even though her fashion sense apparently leaves a little to be desired. Her direct antagonist, Mimi, hates her for not fitting in, but then learns to hate her for many more reasons. The book has the typical teenage drama--puppy love, school dances, and clubbing--but also deals with heavier vampire issues--immortal bonds, the Sacred Kiss, and age-old battles of good and evil. The books mix in a great deal of history--more so than the Twilight saga. Whereas the Cullens were turned, there are only 400 Blue Bloods. And that's it. So if something happens, they decrease in number. Period. No do overs.

I've really enjoyed to books. The only downfall? The 4th one doesn't come out until next fall. Maybe. :(

Re-Engage Adolescent Readers

No all secondary students who fail to read do so because they can’t read. Granted, there is a certain percentage who lack the basic skills needed to decode. And there is a larger group who do not read because, while they can “sound words out”, they can’t make sense, comprehend, what they read. But the largest majority choose not to read. In fact, their interest in reading lessens with the passing of each school year.

Yet the necessity of reading does not pass with the handing out of diplomas. High school graduates have to be able to read a wide variety of texts. It’s not just about literature and poetry—it’s about charts, ballots, internet information, maps, graphs, applications, warranties...the list goes on and on. Yet many of our students lack the sheer motivation to pick up a book and become a stronger reader.

Motivation can be described as a student’s willingness to read when he/she is not compelled to do so by academic assignments. High school students are not typically readers of habit. There are plenty of programs at the lower-levels that are designed to motivate them to read, but the results rarely last past the end of the program. In order to truly change reading habits, the reader must be intrinsically motivated. Therefore, the opportunities for choice and self-selection play a vital role in in developing a desire to read outside of academic assignments.

In order to generate intrinsic motivation to read, we must offer two things to our high school students: time to read and interesting texts. Providing opportunities each day to read texts of their own choosing can energize readers. This is where SSR fits into the scheme of things and how it can promote healthy reading habits. Students are more likely to finish reading a book that they started at school. Many times, without that chance to read at school, the book won’t get cracked open at all.

Student interest is another factor in creating intrinsic motivation. When it comes to voluntary reading, the subject of the text is critical. A book or article that matches a student’s interest is more likely to be read. In addition to giving the book a chance, a reader is apt to comprehend more when he/she is interested in the text. The interest level causes the reader to attend to the text more closely. A book or article of interest is more like to be read, and more likely to be understood.

Ultimately, the re-engagement of adolescent readers requires that they discover how meaningful reading can be in their own lives. This is only a few books, songs, audiobooks, or graphic novels away.

Rights vs. Responsibilities

A public university recently banned a website, juicycampus.com, from its campus servers. This is similar to what public schools try to do with social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace. There are groups of people who want to cry "Free Speech" at the university and insist that it violates their Constitutional rights.

But where do our rights begin and end? What are our responsibilities as public institutions? The website in question is quite controversial. Students can basically write whatever they want, and they don't have to put their name on it. In fact, when you visit the site, here is the banner at the top of the page:

This is the place to spill the juice about all the crazy stuff going on at your campus. It's totally anonymous - no registration, login, or email verification required.

The posts range from the mild to the XXX. Some posts even have students' names as the subject line. Now I love a good story. I've been known to engage in a little tell-all. But, with verbal gossip, there's accountability there. When it comes out of your mouth, people can see your face. They can repeat it with your name attached. But when you log online, anonymously, it's out there for everyone and there is no accountability.

I think I applaud the Texas school for banning it from their servers. I think that young people need someone to lay down control once and a while for them--they often make decisions that aren't in the best interests for anyone. I'm all about free speech, but students and adults alike have to remember that with that right comes heavy responsibilities. And using this site to shirk those responsibilities is not good.