Your kids read *HOW* many books a year?

[Stacey Kerr]

I was just reading an article on Tampa Bay online (linked out of NCTE's Inbox) where Carol Jago was quoted as saying that her students read 20 books per year-- 10 in class, and 10 independent, high-interest.

Wow.

No really. Wow. I'm speechless. And feeling more than a little inadequate and professionally sheepish.

So, Carol, and the rest of you who have students reading such great amounts of lit every year, I have a few questions: first, how is your class structured? How do you assign and assess? Are these books done as whole class book units, or are things more freeform? Also (and sorry to be distrustful here), how do you know that they're really reading? I had an honors 10th grader confess to me that she "spark-noted" The Lord of the Flies and other tell me that the current Jodi Picoult novel she's reading independently is the first book she's actually read in high school. This is also an honors student.

Seriously, folks. What the heck am I doing wrong?

[Cathy Peterson]

My regular 10th graders read 7 books in class and 6 books outside of class. My honors 10th graders read 10 books in class, 5 more in the summer before the class, and 6 books outside of class during the year. Certainly there are students who don't read all of these, but the majority do the majority of the reading.

[Sarah Pardo]

May I ask, what exactly you do with the books? Do you include other standards or simply read them to read them? I am just stupefied by the amount of books! : ) I am in my second year of teaching and both years, I've only managed to teach one novel each year plus one book report.... I have them do projects with them. I spend a good amount of time on the books and so maybe that is the problem... I am spending too much time on just the one book...

[Cathy Peterson]

The amount of time varies per book. On something of depth like TKAM, we spend 4-5 weeks. On other books, like Speak, probalby 2 weeks. There is an expectation of one Shakespeare and 4-5 novels per year. Additionally, each student must read 5-6 books per year outside of class. Most do it all, some do some but very few do none. I guess I am amazed that anyone can maintain interest, theirs and the class's, when only reading one novel per year. Don't you, and they, get bored after a while? I am curious about the projects you do, as I often have projects as my assessments for my books.

[Sarah Pardo]

Well, currently we are reading Nothing But the Truth by Avi. It is a documentary novel, so we first take a look and discuss the documents involved (memos, letters, journal entries, transcripts, etc). As we read the book I may have them create their own document as a "what if" prompt. Other assignments include a character analysis poster where they are assigned a character from the book and they have to include on the poster: a picture of what they might look like, a description, show the relationship with other characters (sister, teacher, etc), their name really big (with nicknames), and finally four quotes (with page #s) from any character, that shows what kind of person their character is.
I am also having them complete a book ball (a ball consisting of 12 sides). Each side has various requirements that must be met. I have attached the requirements for my book ball. Hopefully that gives you some ideas... if you need the other info for the book ball, just let me know! : )
Some times I do feel as though my students are bored with a particular book, but I guess I have a hard time scheduling the reading for a class novel plus teaching other things. I think I simply need to combined them. Use vocab. from the novel. Point out various grammar lessons within the book itself.

[Ron Shapiro]

What do you have the kids do with the independent reading? With my research on preparing kids for AP English courses, the word seems to be "less is more," meaning it's better to go deeper into a text than read and move on. With your 10 books, that averages out to one book every three weeks! Do you still have time for poetry, non-fiction, vocabulary and so forth?

[Katheryn Hans]

Good lord!

[Clix]

That's what I'm wondering. Is this in addition to short stories, poems, drama, public speaking, and research? (Those are the other forms we study.)

Also? How do you AFFORD that many class sets? Although I guess if you coordinate REALLY carefully, you just have different teachers on different novels at the same time. So you might only need one class set of each novel.

[Cathy Peterson]

All teachers don't teach the same novels - some of the same, some not. Also, we purchase class sets every year. We have about 5000 available for purchasing books each year. We are a very poor rural district, and I know this money will dry up soon, so I take advantage of it. There is only one honors class, so we only need one set of books for them. The out of class books they borrow from me (I have a classroom library of about 1500 books) or the school library.

[James Miscavish]

Jago teaches (maybe taught...) at samohi (Santa Monica High School). Google it. There are 3500 students and several buildings. Different set of circumstances.

[Becky Peterson]

A fantastic website for getting teaching materials is www.donorschoose.org. I was able to get a class set of YA books this past year for FREE! Good luck!

[Heather Mason]

I second this. Got a audio center and library from this site. Easy to use.

[Joseph Scotese]

You aren't doing anything wrong - we all teach differently. For me, I would rather take my time with a book than to rush through it - we are reading Song of Solomon in my senior lit class - and besides Stuart Little - it will be the last book of the year. I had a colleague who used to teach a novel a week in her AP Literature class - I asked her how the kids could possibly keep up with that pace. She told me that they were highly motivated. Then I asked her if she quizzed her students to see if they were really doing the reading. She then told me that the discussions and essays were enough to show that they were doing the reading. I finally convinced her to give a pop quiz. When she did - she discovered that not one student in her entire class had actually done the reading. Do what you feel comfortable teaching.

Joe Scotese
www.awaytoteach.net