Modeling reading- What I am teaching my kids...

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Note: All quotes and page numbers correlate to Nancie Atwell’s Second Edition of In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading and Learning.

Oh Nancie Atwell! I am learning so much from you! I am continuing my reading of In the Middle and will continue to respond to my readings weekly because Nancie’s writing is inspirational to a teacher of English.

Within the second chapter of Nancie’s book are many quotes that got me thinking about my own practices as a reading teacher this year and what I would like to change for next year. The first thing that stood out to me was the following quote:

 “But we rarely make time in class for students to read or allow them any say in what they read. And Students almost never see their English teacher reading” (28).

I have found myself guilty of not allowing enough times for my students to read. I am supposed to be letting them read 20 minutes a day as it is, but rarely find time for that with the curriculum I have to cover, the many tests my students have to take, and the other initiatives that come my way throughout the year. And very rarely during students’ SSR time, do they see me reading. I have to use that time to work on lesson plans for the following week, and grade student essays, start ups, and quizzes. 

Upon further reading, Nancie points out “Twenty One Lessons Teachers Demonstrate About Reading” from which 3 stood out to me that I am sure I do.

#11. “It’s wrong to become so interested in a text that you read more than the fragment the teacher assigned” (29).

We finished Tangerine by Edward Bloor a month ago. A few of my students loved it! They loved it so much they read ahead! And what did I teach them?... That reading ahead was bad. I tried explaining, I was glad they thought the book was great, but I also said they needed to stop reading so they did not get ahead of the class. Reflecting on this, I now realize I should have let them devour that book up. It was my own lack of abilities and creativity as a teacher that made me not want them to finish before the unit was over. What would I have them do when they finished? What if they spoiled the ending for the rest of the class? What would I do then?

#14. “Rereading a book is cheating, so are skimming, skipping and looking ahead” (29).

Again, with Tangerine, this was our first and my first class novel. And guess what? It was not the first time some of my students had read this book… and what did I teach them? I did not encourage them to thoroughly reread the text. I did not explain the importance of rereading and the enjoyment one can get out of reading a book for the second or third time…

 #20. “There’s another kind of reading, an enjoyable, secret, satisfying kind you can do on your free time or outside of school” (29).

While I let my students pick their own books and they enjoy SSR time and it is not a secret endeavor, I don’t think I always portray the same enthusiasm in reading with the class our class novels and other readings. And so what am I teaching them? The school reading is boring and not fun

            Nancie’s solution to these woes is not only having the writing workshop I talked about a few weeks ago, but also a reading workshop. She creates these worshops by having “frequent book talks about new additions to the library as well as old favorites, and I schedule frequent ‘book shares’: times for readers to go around the circle and describe their books to classmates” (37). She also gives students a readers notebook to write letters to their friends and teacher about what they are reading. This create an authentic adult-like conversation about literature as students and teacher write back and respond about their books (41).

“I also guessed that a written exchange between two readers, a student and an adult, would move kids deeper inside written texts, with the give and take of the dialogue helping them consider and develop their thoughts about the writing they were reading” (41).

"Learning to Teach Writing" Part 2

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Continuing in my reading, I am becoming more inspired to give my students some of the reins to my classroom. Maybe I can call it a “free writing” workshop, where students can choose whatever they would like to write about and whatever format they would like to write in. This will be my own personal workshop test. While Atwell encourages the workshop, she also stresses the importance of still teaching directly the skills students need as writers such as “procedures, conventions, craft, genre, and topic development” (Atwell, 15). She also stresses the importance of giving students time to write in class. I am now convinced that the teacher needs to function as a guide: “a mentor of writing, a mediator of writing strategies, and a model of a writer at work” (Atwell, 21). To me this means that I am not only teaching my students directly, but that I am showing them how I write and I am participating in the workshop with them to demonstrate constructive criticism and revision and to learn from my students also.       

Some ways, Nancie instills structure in her classroom is by always having a mini lesson and by having certain guidelines for student workshop participation. She says, “I expect students to experiment with different genres, attempt professional publication, produce minimum pages of draft each week and finished pieces of writing each trimester, attend to conventions as they draft, take notes on mini lessons, be quiet, and work as hard in writing workshop as I do” (Atwell, 25). By the end of this chapter I have not been thoroughly convinced that I can do this workshop class with all of my current students. I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around how this will work for my most needy students and my students who consistently demonstrate disruptive behavior. As I continue through this book and venture into setting up a workshop classroom I hope to have these questions answered and worries resolved.

"Learning to Teach Writing"

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While I hope to read and reflect on multiple writings for my own professional development, I am intrigued by my beginning readings of In the Middle: New Understanding About Writing, Reading, and Learning by Nancie Atwell. I began the first chapter of this book today: Learning How to Teach Writing. At first, I felt her stories a little wordy and I just wanted to get to the answer: how do I better teach my students to write? Like Nancie did, I fear that using the workshop format for LA will cause utter chaos and severe classroom management problems with my 7^th graders. However, I know the ones who could handle less structure would excel greatly and love the chance to write what they want and explore the Art of Language. Her writing challenges me to trust my students and learn from them as a teacher, to let them write about things they care about, things they know and things they can share with others (Atwell, 14). While I am still a little leery with trying this with all students, I am intrigued that Atwell argues, “Freedom of choice does not undercut structure. Instead, students become accountable for learning about and using the structures available to writers to serve their purposes” (15). I have yet to finish the chapter, but am becoming convinced to at least try this workshop approach with at least one of my classes this year.  

A new way to teach Writing and Reading

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As a requirement for one of my Graduate courses at FGCU and as a profession development activity, I am going to read a book about teaching Language Arts to middle schoolers. The book I have chosen is In the Middle: New Understanding About Writing, Reading, and Learning by Nancie Atwell who oddly enough is a resident of my home state, Maine. I chose this book primarily because I would like to restructure my classroom to be the best “type” of classroom where my students participate in collaborative and real life writing and reading: a place where they can truly discover a love for reading and writing. So much of the instruction I currently do as a first year teacher is direct instruction on how to write a 5 paragraph essay for a prompt and how to use textual evidence when responding to a text. Many times I feel like I, as a teacher am beating my head against a wall; some of my students are excelling in this but others are not finding any inspiration or enjoyment out of class, let alone producing good writing. If I am feeling this way, I wonder how they are feeling. I am hoping to get some ideas from this book to re-inspire my teaching techniques and reach my students in a new and exciting way when it comes to writing and reading. Just from the table of contents, I believe I have found a book to help me accomplish this.