For the Love of Books

Teacher & Librarian Collaboration

Eldorado High SchoolPLC-Reading Matters

Heather Dahl, Dorene Kahl, Randee Ensor, Adrienne Royce

http://eldoradoreadingmatters.edublogs.org

Professional Learning CommunitiesAt Eldorado, PLC Groups are

arranged by department

Language Arts sub-group at EHS, for some time, embraced FVR (or IR)- so this became a study group in the Language Arts department

• We meet one day each week for 50-90 minutes

• We share recent readings of new YA fiction and nonfiction

• We share professional research about IR.

• Discuss popular reading• Share student work related

to IR• Create assessment rubrics

(text to self, text to text, text to world)

PLC- Common Assessment

The Reading Matters PLC group endeavors to create life-long learners and critical thinkers through free and voluntary reading, offered in classes a minimum of two times each week, throughout the school year. Assessment includes reading logs and writing activities, a minimum of once each six weeks, to guide students to approach reading with critical thinking strategies of text to self (September through December 2009), text to text (January and February 2010), and text to world (March, April, May 2010).

Sample Common Assessment Rubric

Text to Text Rubric 4 3 2 1

Effectively Summarizes Text

Notices connections to another book, story, song, painting, etc.

Discusses if connections are intentional by author or just personal thoughts.

Notices similarities and differences to other books/ texts.

Overall Writing Quality for Independent Reading Response

Independent Reading

Dorene Kahl, Language Arts TeacherReasons for Independent Reading

How EHS became an IR/ FVR School!!

And the research says….Independent Reading in the Classroom

Atwell, Nancie. The Reading Zone. NY: Scholastic, 2007.Atwell, Nancie. “Myths of Independent Reading.” In Teachers College Record. Dec 2009.Cullinan, Bernice E. “Independent Reading and School Achievement.” In "Assessment of the Role of School

and Public Libraries in Support of Educational Reform." Westat Inc., 1998-2000.Gallagher, Kelly. Readicide. Portland, Me: Stenhouse Publishers, 2009.Gallagher, Kelly. “Reversing Readicide.” In Educational Leadership. Vol 67, No 6, March 2010.Gatto, John. A Different Kind of Teacher. Berkeley Hills Publishing, 2000. (79-82).Holt, John. “How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading.” In The Under-Achieving School, 1967Krashen, Stephen. “81 Generalizations about Free Voluntary Reading.” In Children and Adolescents Special

Interest Group of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language, Jan 2009.Krashen, Stephen. “Free Voluntary Reading: New Research, Applications, and Controversies.” Presented at

Pan-Asian Conference, Vladivostok, Russia, June 24, 2004.McQuillan, Jeff. The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998.Miller, Donalyn. “Becoming a Classroom of Readers.” In Educational Leadership. Vol 67, No 6, March 2010.Newkirk, Thomas. “The Case for Slow Reading.” In Educational Leadership. Vol 67, No 6, March 2010.Newkirk, Thomas. Holding On To Good Ideas In A Time Of Bad Ones: Six Literacy Principles Worth Fighting

For. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann, 2009.Wolk, Stephen. “Is Your Reading List a Little Outdated?” In The Phi Delta Kappan. April 2010.

Creating Interest in Books

Randee Ensor

Powerful Passage

Classroom Application

“After a few weeks of IR and answering questions in the IR Log (text to text, text to self, or text to world), it is time to share and discuss what you feel is a powerful passage to the class!”

Teacher Models by Reading an Extended Passage from Their Own

Selection

• Applicable to all ages, various settings

• Example: Dante’s Inferno--- generates interest!

Power Passages

Defined as: those excerpts which you as an individual find particularly compelling and WANT TO TALK ABOUT

Adaptation of Socratic Seminar

• World Connection Question• Close Ended Question• Open Ended Question• Universal Themes• Literary Analysis

Teacher Selections (examples)

• Jemez Springs by Rudolpho Anaya• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane

Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith• Spanking Shakespeare by Jake Wizner• Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong• Fool by Christopher Moore• Ines of My Soul

Student Selections

• Look at My Ugly Face by Sara Halprin• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller• How to Rebuild GM LS-Series Engines • Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie• When the Wind Blows by James Patterson• And the Twilight addicts (move away from the

Twilight )

Helping all kids become book lovers

Adrienne RoyceLanguage Arts TeacherEldorado High School

Identifying Poor Readers

• Rist (1970) points out that “ A young readers journey through school is essentially preordained by day eight of kindergarten”

• Allington and Cunningham list four basic factors of student risk: family poverty, parental educational attainment, gender, and perceived immaturity.

Breaking the Cycle

Frustrations stem from:• “Assigned Choice” • Too Much Decoding• Too Little Comprehension• Ineffectual Student-Teacher Connections • Boredom• Limited Prior Knowledge• Letting Students Choose What to Read

Activating Prior Knowledge

Connecting the Known to the New

• Text-to-self connection

• Text-to-text connection

• Text-to-world connection

Wilhelm (1997) Ten “Dimensions of Response

• Students use these responses as they create, experience, and respond to literary worlds

• Three categories– Evocative– Connective– Reflective

Evocative Dimensions

• Entering the Story World• Showing Interest in the Story• Relating to Characters• Seeing the Story World

Connective Dimensions

• Elaborating on the Story World• Connecting Literature to Life

Reflective Dimensions

• Considering Significance• Recognizing Literary Conventions• Recognizing Reading as a Transaction• Evaluating an Author, and the Self as Reader

Role of Librarian

• Keep meeting minutes and be a record keeper• Collect common assessments and assist with grading• Facilitate Book Reading Choices– Preview books for

teachers, new book display for students• Maintain communication and organization- BLOG

http://eldoradoreadingmatters.edublogs.org/• Be on top of new YA and books:

as publishing becomes more immediate and widespread in different formats, the librarian must be appraised to make good recommendations.

Supporting a Reading Community (easy if blessed with willing teachers)

• 91 Preview books added to library- with 187 total circulations

• Teacher Recommendations/ Conversations Matter! Enjoy talking about books and ideas.

• Circulated 4,500 fiction books this year (27% of all circulations)

Our top circulated PLC books:The Otherworldlies Kogler- 13The Forest of Hands & Teeth Ryan-

10-Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the

Dark Side Fantaskey- 10Catching Fire Collins- 10Highway to Hell Clement-Moore- 10Bog Child Dowd-8The Anatomy of Wings Foxlee- 7Absolutely Maybe Yee-6Alive in the Killing Fields Keat- 4

Questions? Comments?(before book talks)

Book Talks!!

Annotated List on BlogEnjoy as We Share our Favorites

Come touch the books!