The Reading Zone
16 12 2008Nancie Atwell’s latest book, The Reading Zone, was my read this past weekend. She has confirmed for me a number I things that I have believed but not been able to put words to myself. She states: “students who don’t enter high school as skilled, passionate, critical, habitual readers have an even slimmer chance of experiencing meaningful literacy, there or ever.” (Atwell, 110) Her solution: frequent, voluminous, self-selected reading. This seems like an obvious statement and set of conditions for students to develop into “passionate, habitual, and critical readers”, but in too many classrooms, time to read is treated as a novelty or a privilege, and not as the core of effective reading instruction as it should be.
I began the year this year with a novel study (shame on me, I know). I thought I had sworn off of them last year—I thought. I don’t know what happened. There I was, without really thinking it through, reading a novel aloud while the class read along. What was I doing?
I swear, read it here and hold me to it, that I will never do that again. No one benefits from such a cruel act. I chose a book I love, one that most students love too, and I read it with passion—it was a flop. Novel studies all are.
Students want to read what they want to read. Each of them are different, and each of their tastes are different. There is no way that I could ever choose a novel that twenty-nine 11, 12, and 13 year-olds are all going to engage in and enjoy. Especially when I ask them to talk about it at regular intervals and interrupt the flow of a good story. Could you imagine on the weekend if the theatre put up the houselights every twenty minutes for you to answers some comprehension questions, to see if you’re making enough connections, to see if you are inferring in a meaningful way. No, you couldn’t. Have you ever laid out on the beach with a good worksheet?
That last five chapters of the novel was a race to the end. I closed it firmly and apologized to the class.
Students need time to read. They need a quiet space. They need to choose what interests them. They need to be left alone. The foundation of a student-centered curriculum is student choice. Atwell has given a very succinct and convincing argument about what those conditions should look like in the classroom.
It is not complex.
Since I have shifted my reading instruction to the workshop model, I have seen greatly increased engagement and enjoyment in our reading time. The kids look forward to it everyday. I look forward to it. Nancie Atwell’s approach to teaching reading has verified a hunch for me, and has given me something credible to refer back to when asked by parents or administrators what is happening in my classroom. She’s given me permission and enthusiasm to further venture in the direction I have already started myself and my students in.
Hi Neil,
Congrats on the new blog, looks fabulous. Great title and graphic. And your focus is terrific–it will help ensure the success of your blog and for your kids, I’m sure.
I am a big Atwell fan and read her “In the Middle” when it first came out in the late 80’s. Her advice is such common sence. What Really Matters for Struggling Readers by Richard Allington makes many of the same arguments and shows the folly of past practice. Grade 6 was the year my son became a reader–for him (and many other boys) it just takes the right book. My Side of the Mountain did it for him.
On another note, I hope you and your students will stop by a new blog being developed by Sue Wyatt of Tasmania, Paul Bogush of Connecticut, me, and several others. We are hoping to connect classrooms and young bloggers around the world. It is in its infancy at http://studentfriends.edublogs.org.
Happy New Year to you and yours, Neil!
I don’t know if I would ever rule out novel studies completely. After a dozen years teaching literacy to 6th and 7th graders, I realized novels have their place. To me, it is a way to have a more in-depth conversation. Using the Harkness Method or Socratic Dialogue style of learning, it really draws a lot out of the kids. They learn to pay attention to the details of the work in order to properly discuss it. Sure, there will be slackers. True, not all will like the selection. But, it makes sense to try this at least once with the kids. Have them read outside of class ready to show up and discuss, debate, and defend their positions based on what they read.
One alternative is to have book clubs/groups. The more difficult part to this is facilitating good discussion when they meet in class. It is not hard to find kids who will read the same books. It is hard to find those who are willing to discuss what they are reading and getting out of it in a small group setting.
For the record, Atwell has driven most of my instructional style since I started. Having been trained in both New Jersey Writing Project and the National Writing Project, I found her work to be very pertinent to the work I was doing. It’s good stuff. Don’t give up on her. My wife switched to the workshop style of writing and reading instruction and has fallen in love with teaching all over again.
@ Jan Smith thanks for the support and the advice. I will be sure to check out the new blog in depth. It’s been slow going having my intentions around student blogging come to fruition. I’m in a school where our prep blocks are taught by the tech teacher. I’d prefer to have it another way, but I am the newbie in the school, so it’s slow going. Him and I are beginning to collaborate om this and should be up and running by February.
@woscholar I think that the value in reading a novel together as a class is for the aesthetic experience of it. In my opinion, using a novel to discuss literary elements and elements of craft is too daunting for most of the students. I would prefer to read a great piece of literature and simply enjoy it as such.
On the other hand, I having been using picture books with my students to discuss craft and literary elements—charting similarities and differences between texts, and especially rereading texts that have are of particular interest to most students. What I’ve found is that by using shorter pieces of literature, and ones that are supported by visuals, that the quality of discussion is rapidly becoming more sophisticated. Frank Serafini is a grand advocate for this approach.
I will be using literature discussion groups in the workshop beginning in January to involve students in richer conversations about literature. I plan to only have one or two groups meeting in a given period of time, and I plan to facilitate the discussions myself. I’m going to use Faye Brownlie’s model, which allows students to read at their own pace, and contribute at their own level.
All that said, thank you for your advice. I agree that there is definitely a place for novels in the intermediate classroom. I think that the traditional novel study, though, is of limited value to many of the students.