Reading in the Wild: Developing Reading Preferences (#cyberPD)

When Twitter connections selected Reading in the Wild (Donalyn Miller) as this year's #cyberPD book study, I found myself grateful for the chance to go back to the treasure trove and reread parts of the book alongside so many others. For more on the #cyberPD project, visit Literacy Learning Zone for this week's installment.

Also, join us next Wednesday, July 30, 7 p.m. CST when we chat live on Twitter with Donalyn Miller (hashtag #cyberPD).

"Determining readers' expressed preferences in what they like to read helps teachers connect with students and value their individual reading tastes...Wild readers develop authentic preferences through wide reading and heightened awareness of the variety of texts available. Encouraging students to read what they want while exposing them to high-interest, engaging, quality texts of all kinds fosters their engagement and provides the diverse experiences they need to find texts that will meet their reading interests and needs both today and tomorrow." 

-Donalyn Miller (Reading in the Wild, 2014, p. 192)

In my current job in a summer program, I'm delivering math tutoring. But my reader-heart is happy because I get to engage in a lot of talk about the students as learners with my literacy colleagues. The population of students served by the summer program attend a different elementary school than the one in which I work, and this has made for an interesting learning experience. This temporary change in communities has provided me with distance in my perspective since I have no previous experience with the kids. I've noticed the way this impacts my reflection.

When we started the program a few weeks ago, we had to get to know the students we'd be seeing. They came with essentially no data (the previous year's standardized test score was of little help in designing short-term goals). On one side of the room, I surveyed students about their math attitudes and played games to observe their number sense and computation strategies. I could overhear my counterpart on the other side of the partition, questioning students about their interests in reading: books they've enjoyed, authors they like, genres they prefer. There was a lot of wait time between questions and responses. When the students did answer, it was mainly the same responses: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Goosebumps, Captain Underpants, animal books.

Whether fair or not, I found myself processing these conversations and reminded of one of Donalyn's prominent points: We must build relationships with our students. Students will reveal information about what they need as readers if you listen to them. These students seem to have exposure to series. They also seem to be reading in the same circle of books.

Immediately, I wondered: What do conversations with MY former students, those I consider to be "wild reading ready," say about my reading instruction and the opportunities I facilitated?

Nurturing students as wild readers depends on balancing and advancing several factors. Giving students choice in independent materials is crucial to their buy-in and engagement. Safeguarding time for students to read is a priority for acceleration and growth. Yet, neither can operate smoothly without the students' awareness of their reading identity--part of which is recognizing and attending to their preferences. Until they do, do students really have autonomy over selecting independent reading materials?

And, they don't--as a rule--come with that awareness.

So then, how do kids develop preferences?

Kids develop preferences in music, clothing, food, hobbies, favorite idols, largely in part to outside influences. They observe the world around them, making note of the preferences of others in their sphere of influence: adults, older kids (siblings or otherwise), and peers. Sometimes they experiment and learn by trial. Sometimes they assume someone else's preference as their own. And still, at other times, they have to be forced into trying something  and finding out if it fits their preference by a trusted other. (How did you first try calamari?)

And then, in typical reflective fashion, I went a step further: what does this mean for me as a teacher? How do teachers help students develop preferences?

As a teacher, I should challenge my own preferences a little more. I want to be explicit with students about how I choose what I'll be reading, and I want to demonstrate how I weigh one book against another-especially when it challenges my preferences. I'd like to encourage colleagues to help share their reading preferences with students also, to show students more of ourselves and communicate that not all readers are shaped in the same mold.

I recognize I need to be more aware of the reading diet I feed my students. I need to expose students to a wider variety of texts and facilitate experiences with these books that enable my readers to make more informed judgments about their preferences. When I first moved to grade 4 three years ago, my grade-level partner and I modified the 40-book Challenge. I looped the following year and discontinued the challenge, determining my group didn't need the same level of scaffolding in 5th grade. However, I think I am going to recommit to a modified genre challenge. My incoming 4th graders need the structured support to engage in self-discovery of their preferences.

However, simply instituting the challenge and providing the students with a genre graph won't do the metacognitive work of developing students' reading identities. That will come in the ways I guide students to be reflective. I will need to be intentional with coaching students to analyze patterns in their behaviors and choices to arrive at conclusions about their preferences. We'll need to, together, make use of logs, surveys, and notes from conferences and observations. I'll need to listen, and reflect back to readers what I hear, gradually lessening my input to encourage their independence.

And eventually, my readers will be better equipped for release into the wild.

How do you help your students develop their reading identities and uncover their reading preferences?

Reading in the Wild: Reading as Connectedness (#cyberPD)

When Twitter connections selected Reading in the Wild (Donalyn Miller) as this year's #cyberPD book study, I found myself grateful for the chance to go back to the treasure trove and reread parts of the book alongside so many others. For more on the #cyberPD project, visit Ruminate and Invigorate for this week's installment.

"Reading seems like something we do alone, 
but it isn't." 

-Donalyn Miller (Reading in the Wild, 2014, p. 128)

This week this was the line that resonated with me in a way I knew I needed to explore further through writing. Just this very morning at work in the summer program, I listened to a colleague's concerns that many teachers have a vision of reading as a controlled, solitary activity. The image of a student "reading" tends to be of the student alone with a book, no? Unfortunately our conversation went unfinished as the day began. But then, this quote was there for me to consider again this afternoon. How do we portray reading in the classroom? What image of reading do we paint for students? If we pause to really consider our own reading behaviors, can we honestly say our actions are solitary?

Before we read, we talk about what to read. We elicit recommendations and opinions that lead us to our selection. We probably talk about related books-other books by the same author, other books like this one, even other books that are NOT like this one. When we anticipate a book's release, we count down the days with other readers, we speculate and predict, share reviews and behind the scenes notes as we learn of them. These behaviors are as much a part of reading as the act of turning pages and diving into a story.

When reading the book-the part that probably most often looks like being alone-we react and respond to the message the author has crafted for us. The characters become friends, sometimes foe. The characters' feelings, conflicts, and choices remind us of other people...and we might tell them. We remember our own experiences or lessons learned, and sometimes we are saved us from having to learn all of life's lessons ourselves. We find ourselves asking our own tough questions, and we talk about hard situations and tough choices with others. We are hardly alone.

After we turn the last page, we share. We talk. We tell someone else-to get it, to skip it, to give it to so-and-so. We recount our thinking, our relationship with the text. We post to Twitter, to Facebook, to Goodreads, to blogs. We add it to visual displays and record keeping lists. But we usually don't keep our reading to ourselves.

Reflecting on this quote in Reading in the Wild reminded me of the reading experiences I had when I read Brown Girl Dreaming last month.

At first, the social aspect of reading was indirect and subtle, like an overheard conversation. Known readers on Twitter began to buzz about Jacqueline Woodson's new book, Brown Girl Dreaming (available August 26). A frequent sufferer of f.o.m.o. (fear of missing out), I was sufficiently curious. Then, my friend Justin returned from the IRA conference with an ARC. He did what readers do-he read it, told me about it, and let me borrow it. I had only just started when Justin and I met Donalyn for dinner. She had just finished reading Colby's copy. Guess what we did? (Really, this is a gimme: Donalyn, book, dinner?) We talked. We talked feelings, opinions, related works, memories. We talked about who we would recommend the book to next and how we would share it.

I had a little disruption to my reading life that week (ahem, Boothbay Literacy Retreat!) and it took me longer than usual to finish. (I also wanted to linger in it so badly.) All week, I was sharing the special company of Jackie Woodson in the pages of her book, listening to her share the stories of her childhood and being reminded of my own-so very different. This is to say nothing of the added bonus that came with reading after Justin had, noticing passages that he had marked and noting those that struck me, too.

When I did finish Brown Girl Dreaming, I talked to people about this book. I tweeted. I blogged. I shared by word of mouth. People responded. I responded to others. I got on my computer and sent an email to Linda, who I had seen comment in another conversation that she was interested in the book.  We wrote back and forth a little (me about Brown Girl Dreaming, Linda about having just finished Locomotion-same author). Justin gave me the nod, and I shipped the book out to Linda.

Brown Girl Dreaming was not an "alone" reading experience. 

If anything, my experience with Brown Girl Dreaming made tangible the real connectivity of reading.

I feel gifted with a new chance to awaken to this notion that reading is not solitary. But what does it mean for me as a lead reader? What can I do to promote the awareness that reading is connectedness in my classroom? How do I not only permit the social act of reading, but promote it?

Three things I want to try to promote connectedness:

1. Taking the lead from my interest in Justin's response to the text, I want to see what will happen if I leave post-it note flags or pencil notes in books after reading them. I don't want to distract my developing readers, but I do want to extend an invitation to react to parts that made me think, note places that made them think, and see what-if any-conversation ensues. I know Justin has put copies of books he marked up in his library. I'm curious to see if my 4th graders will connect with me and each other this way. (And maybe this will create a spin-off to Donalyn's graffiti board model, too.)

2. Included in our discussion of Brown Girl Dreaming was the need to find other readers to whom we would recommend this book. I am better now than ever before at regularly incorporating book talks into the reading community's routines. (My students will ask for Book Talk Tuesday on any day of the week, actually.) What I am not good at (yet) is helping students synthesize their thinking about their own reading and handing over the hot seat to them to make peer-to-peer recommendations. I want to be more deliberate in promoting their ability to influence other readers by giving attention to this.

3. I'm dreaming up a way to emphasize our connectedness through books visually. I want to find a way to illustrate for and with students what the chain looks like when readers pass books along amongst themselves. The copy of Brown Girl Dreaming that I read changed hands three times. I don't know how many times Colby's copy got passed. But I also know that a book vine has since been started and other copies are being mailed reader to reader, state to state. On a smaller scale, I want to encourage students to share books with other readers, and to begin taking interest in what each other are reading. I think this might be workable.

How have books helped you feed connectedness?

How do you promote connectedness in your classrooms?

Reading in the Wild: Reading Networks (#cyberPD)

When Twitter connections selected Reading in the Wild (Donalyn Miller) as this year's #cyberPD book study, I found myself grateful for the chance to go back to the treasure trove and reread parts of the book alongside so many others. For more on the #cyberPD project, visit Reflect & Refine.

Donalyn's truths have a way of making me own up to the teacher I am and want to be, and I appreciate her work for that. As usual, I read through the wisdom and evidence that supports choice and independence in the reading workshop nodding my head, marking strong statements, noting ideas that I may want to explore further. However there was one phrase that lingered with me pages beyond it's devoted section and prompted me to reflect on two fronts: as a lead reader and as a teacher of reading. Today that phrase was "Reading Network."

In the last few years, I've done a lot of work to revitalize literacy instruction in my classroom, mainly with a priority to cultivate community. I've observed the increased strength and independence in my readers each year that is all the evidence I need that my shifts are for the better. Community is critical and must be nurtured and developed before the truest value of literacy--what comes from sharing with others--can be uncovered.

But, while that word "community" has received a lot of my attention, I hadn't really set it down next to the word "network" and considered what might set one apart from the other. Are they really the same?

My reflection began. You claim to be a wild reader? A lead reader? Do you have a reading network? And how did you find it or build it? Who is it? What sites or resources do you depend on?

I started a list. And I have to admit, I was surprised with the truth it revealed and I have to face. Even though I occasionally get caught revealing my inner-nerd in book talk with a few close colleagues, most of my people, sites, and resources are teachers and/or readers outside of my face-to-face circles. That is to say: I do most of my reading networking online. From Goodreads to Twitter, emails from publishing groups/sellers to authors' websites and countless hashtags, most of my network is outside a 50-mile radius.

Naturally, this led to reflecting in my other role. So--"teacher of reading"--how ARE you going to help foster a reading network with next year's students?

For my own sake, I have decided to interpret "network" as an extension, reaching out beyond the classroom. The reading community interactions--student to student and student to teacher--are a subset of the students' network, but to me, "network" implies a broader connection, beyond the classroom's four walls.

At the end of my list making and scrawl, I am walking away with three main ideas for expanding students' reading networks this fall:

1. Family. It's time to get real about parent involvement in reading. Maybe that will take some heavily scaffolded event nights or being a broken record about having parents visit us in the classroom, but the word MUST get out that our kids need to see the adults in their lives as readers. They need wide exposure to who reads and the variety of what they read. Donalyn describes an activity she does with students in which they bring in and share favorite read aloud books. My mind is rolling with how this could be tailored for a "get to know you" evening with students and families at the start of the year...

2. Geographically-diverse peers. My students need their horizon broadened. Their local community is small, and they have little opportunity to connect with peers in other places. The Global Read Aloud project will be a wonderful opportunity to facilitate some conversations between my students and others about a common book. (We're going to read One for the Murphys.) Yet, there's no reason to limit the book talk and networking to only October. Maybe this is the year to consider pairing with a "sister classroom." Maybe it's time to modernize the old pen pal routine (see #3).

3. Increased access to technology. The fact is, most of my students do not have access to a computer and/or the internet at home. Our access at school is limited also. However, now is the time to begin to lobby for the rumored laptop carts again. Now is the time to think creatively about scheduling to maximize time with the equipment. It's time to compile a bank of possible sources for collecting and sharing ideas of students' reading recommendations. Edmodo can host our classroom discussions. Eventually I expect to prepare students to maintain their own blogs on KidBlog. What I need to look for now is a site with student-generated book reviews and/or ads, or a safe-search site that will produce a query for book trailers.

How do you foster a reading network for yourself?

How do you foster a reading network for your students?