Chapter 3 Discussion: Are Teachers Ruining Great Books?

[Kelly Gallagher]

Greetings from Indianapolis. I am posting this Sunday evening because tomorrow I will be giving a workshop and and I won't arrive home until late evening. Once this is posted, I probably will not respond until Tuesday. Based on our first week’s discussion, I have no doubt the conversation will start just fine without me. Thank you to all who joined in. I was floored by the depth of the conversation.

It is now time to begin part two of our three-part conversation—Chapter 3 of Readicide. In this chapter I focus specifically on academic reading, and I wonder if the over-teaching of books is a factor in killing the love of reading.

Don’t get me wrong— students need support from their teachers if they are going to make deep meaning from difficult texts. This is why the district pays me—and you—to be in the room. If my students could meaningfully read Julius Caesar on their own, I would hand them the text and meet them when test day rolled around. We, their teachers, play an essential part in developing their ability to tackle classic books. There is a difference between assigning reading and teaching reading. We are that difference (or should be).

That said, has the pendulum swung too far in the opposite direction? Are books being sliced and diced so much that the books themselves are being ruined?(see the graphic on page 62). I wrote this chapter because I know that if I were a student asked to do all the things we ask our students to do while reading a great book, I would hate the reading as well.

So what are your thoughts? Do you agree? Disagree? How do we address the delicate balance between giving them enough support to handle the reading, but avoid chopping it up so much as to ruin the book?


Kelly

[Kelle]

Have you ever notice that if you give your students one thing to look for when reading a classic -- such as a passage that is meaningful to them -- and ask the students to explain why they found the passage meaningful, they will nearly always pick passages that we would have wanted them to notice? When students bring their self-selected passages to the discussion, the focus of the learning is more on what the students notice than on everything we want them to notice.

So, I agree we do slice and dice too much -- I've done that before with good intention, but then the reading became too burdensome for the students to enjoy and learn.

[Gary Anderson]

Kelle -- Yes! Starting with their reactions is a great idea.

My favorite discussion starter is "What did you understand about this story/chapter/poem?" Eventually we'll get around to what they did not understand, but beginning on solid ground is a little safer.

(My favorite discussion-ender question: "So, what are the life lessons here?")

[TJ Pogue]

I loved your analogy of the "sweet spot"! How true! I guess we spend a lifetime looking for that sweet spot, and it can be different with different groups.

[Jim Burke]

My great disappointment is that Kelly and I, who both are speaking at the same conference Mon and Tues in Indianapolis, will miss each other! I was excited about taking him out to dinner or something to talk about the book, the book group. Oh well, it's how these things work.

Anyway, my first response to Kelly's framing questions and the opening of chapter 3 is to offer a report from the National Adolescent Literacy Coalition (NALC), which I was privileged to be part of back in 2007, thanks to Kylene Beers. Here is a link to the report, titled "Foundational and Emergent Questions: Smart People Talk About Adolescent Literacy." This report grew out of several days of intense discussions, some of the richest I have ever participated in, about literacy with heads of all the major content area and educational organizations, including NCTE and IRA. Instead of coming out with yet another report that says much of what other excellent reports such as Reading Next say, NALC released a brief report identifying what we identified as the three themes that ran through that discussion and the implications of those in the 21st century. I think these themes have only become more evident in the time since that report first appeared. These themes, summed up as questions---"Educational triage or comprehensive care?" "One big literacy or many little literacies?" and "Hurry up and wait"---capture some of the tensions and concerns Kelly raises in chapter 3. More later....

[Keith Schoch]

I once was surprised to learn from one of my third graders, a talented piano player and singer, that she hated music class. When I asked why, she remarked, "The teacher never lets us sing a song all the way through without stopping. Even when we do it well, she'll stop and tell us what we did so well. I just want to sing the songs all the way through."

I'll admit that sometimes in my own classroom I need to just clam up and let the kids "sing the song, all the way through."

[Jim Burke]

I heard Grant Wiggins speak years ago. One thing I remember most vividly is his story about having laryngitis when a teacher and being unable to speak at all for a week. He was left with the profound realization that the less me spoke the more they seemed to speak and subsequently learn. Not always true, but often is. Sometimes we need to get out of the way, though realizing when, how, and why to do this is a developed sensibility it seems.

[Alan Sitomer]

I know my students wouldn't mind it if I caught a case of laryngitis every now and then.

But over-talking in class is something that I started working on a few years ago and I was amazed by how much more my students would take the intellectual reigns once I backed out of the "lead dog" position. Less certainly proved to be more.

[Jim Burke]

thus the old saying: School is where the young go to watch the adults work. Who does most of the lifting in your class?

[Ann]

Jim,
Just recently, I gave my eleventh graders a list of four books and did a little book talk about each. I then gave them some customer reviews from each book. I used an online survey and had them rate their choices. I was using the survey to determine which book the class would read next. After the survey, they were all in a rage because they didn't want to read the winning book. Since it was close to the end of the year, I decided to let them choose individually. We had silent reading time for several days. Then they broke into lit circles to discuss their books. I spent my time listening to them talk to one another and was amazed at what they were saying. They worked on PPT presentations as a final product about all aspects of the book. They were engaged all the way through, and I did no talking. Often as teachers, I think we feel we are not doing our jobs if we are not talking heads.

[Kelly Gallagher]

Back from Indy and I find 44 responses. Yikes!

As I stated earlier, I still have ten days of school left. I will re-join the conversation after school today.

Jim, hope you made it to Indy.

[Teresa]

Great connection, Keith!

[Phil Dignan]

Me too...