Helping Students to Own their Learning

As a teacher, I sometimes feel as though parents and people in positions of power blame teachers for problems in our country: “Our leaders can’t lead because of bad teachers.  Kids get into drugs because the schools and teachers aren’t doing their jobs.  My son is getting a C in history because his teacher isn’t doing his job”  No one is willing to take ownership for their actions and choices, and so it seems to be easier to blame teachers and schools as students spend so much time at school anyway.  Parents aren’t willing to take responsibility for their ineffective parenting because then it makes them look bad.  Just blame the teachers.  And this is one of the main problems with education in our country.  Our government has made it acceptable to blame teachers for problems facing our country and its youth; therefore, teachers are not given the respect they need and deserve.  Teachers work long hours, all year long despite what many people seem to think, to create engaging and meaningful lessons.  Teachers go out of their way to help support and challenge students.  We care for our students as if they were our own.  We are not paid what we deserve and schools rarely help support teachers when problems arise.  People no longer want to go into the field of teaching or stay there long because of how we are treated by the community and country.  Until our country takes ownership of their actions and choices, teachers are going to continually be viewed like Cameron Diaz in the movie Bad Teacher.

To help my sixth grade students begin to learn the power of ownership as it pertains to their learning, I’ve created a final math project that will help set them up for success in their seventh grade math class.  I want my students to realize that they are in control of what math section into which they are placed next year, and that it’s not fixed based on their work in the classroom this year.  I want them to own their learning so that one day they will own their actions and choices, paying teachers and schools the respect they deserve.

The project is divided into four phases:

1. The students will complete what I’m calling the Math Pre-Placement Exam, which includes a series of questions based on the three different levels of math offered in the seventh grade.  The first page of the exam has the students reflect and respond on their math ability regarding the specific section they feel they will be or should be placed into next year.  I want them to set a goal for themselves before completing this project so that they can begin to align their self-perspective with the reality.  The final page of the exam is a guide sheet that shows them which questions are related to which particular course.  Once they have completed the exam, they will be provided with the answer key and grade their exam.  This will give them a good idea of where they are currently in their math trajectory.
2. Then, the students will do some reflecting on their performance on this pre-placement exam.  They will make note of any gaps in their learning, skills they haven’t yet mastered, and then learn those skills via Khan Academy, working with the teacher, or seeking help from a peer.  They will practice these skills by completing problems in the textbook or on worksheets.
3. Once I feel they have mastered the skills they are lacking, they will complete the final Math Placement Exam, which is very similar to the one they may take at the start of the next academic year.  They will then grade their exam to see how they have progressed and to help them see into which math course they may be placed next year.
4. The final phase of this unit involves the students reflecting on this whole process as well as creating an action plan for what they will do over the summer to be sure they are prepared for seventh grade math and the course in which they would like to be placed.

I want my students to see where their math skills line up with the math courses offered at my school in the seventh grade.  I find that sometimes students think they are better or worse at math than they truly are.  This way, they can see what is what and then take ownership of their learning.  They get to decide what they want to do to be placed into the math course that they feel would be best for them.  It takes teacher placement out of the equation and puts the onus on the students.  They have the power to change their future.  If they do poorly on the placement exams but really feel as though they should in Algebra I or Pre-Algebra next year, they have the entire summer to prepare for the placement exam come September.  The figurative math ball is in their court.

I’m excited about this project that we just began yesterday in STEM class.  I feel as though it will help the students fill in any gaps in their math learning and help them see the reality of their math skills.  The boys seemed invested in this project and process yesterday when I introduced it.  They asked some great questions and seem to know that the power lies within them regarding what math class they will be in next year.  I’m hopeful that this project will help them feel and be as successful as they want to be while also learning how to own their choices and learning.  If I want my students to grow up to be able to make good choices and then own them, I need to create learning opportunities in the classroom for them to practice showing ownership now.

Teachers or Technology Police?

Back when I was in school, computers were far from portable and not that much fun to play with.  The coolest thing I was able to do on the old Macintosh computers my school had was make a turtle go up, down, left, or right on the screen.  And let’s be honest, that wasn’t very cool at all.  I didn’t really enjoy using technology or computers when I was a student.  The coolest piece of technology equipment my teachers used was the film projector.  Now that was a cool piece of technology.  I loved watching filmstrips in school.

Fast forward many, many years to now and everything is entirely different.  Not only have the students changed, but so has everything else.  Technology is small, portable, and really awesome.  You can watch movies, play games, listen to music, and so many other things on a small and very portable device.  Technology and computers can also be fantastic learning devices in school as well.  Students can learn how to code, make movies, create music, and design new products.  The possibilities are endless.  Long gone are the days of moving turtles on a green computer screen.

With this new technology comes new challenges for teachers and schools as well.  How do we address and effectively utilize technology in the classroom?  Do students have computers or devices?  Which device is the best to use?  How do we teach students to use technology as a tool and not a toy when in the classroom?  How do we set our students up for success when using technology in and out of the classroom?  So many questions and so many problems to be solved.  My school decided to go the route of 1-to-1, and so each student is provided a laptop.  Teachers are expected to help the students learn to properly use the device and make use of it as part of the learning process in every class.  Lots of good has come from this.  I have students designing inventions to help solve the issue of global warming and learning how to code in the language of Python using the online application Code Combat.  These laptops have been so amazing for my students this year

Recently though, I’ve noticed that my students have gotten a bit sneaky with how they use them.  They have multiple windows open at once and switch between games, videos, and work while they are learning and working.  They play games and watch videos when I’m working with or helping other students and then actually do work when I walk by.  Despite all of the teaching we’ve done throughout the year in the classroom about how to use the laptop as a tool, some of the students treat it like a toy.  I’ve been feeling a lot more like a technology patrol officer than a teacher for some students over the past several days.  Rather than complete their work to demonstrate their ability to meet and exceed graded objectives and to ensure that they have no homework, some of the boys have been misusing their technology tool.  I mentioned this issue to the boys the other day and asked for their feedback.  While they also noticed this issue to be a problem, they offered no possible solutions.  I don’t want to feel like a technology police officer in the classroom.  I want to help support and challenge all of my students.  So, how can I do this and trust that the other students are making positive choices regarding their laptops?

Three possible ideas I’ve brainstormed to address this issue:

• Have the students work on the opposite sides of of tables so that all of their laptop screens are facing the center of the room.  This way, I can easily help one student while scanning the other screens for good choices.  We utilize this model during evening study hall and it works very well.
• If I suspect a student is misusing his laptop during the class day, I can close it and not allow him to use it for the remainder of that particular period.  In order to earn it back, he has to complete a tedious writing activity.
• Help the students remember our class mantra, “We are a family, and families take care of each other.”  Remind the students to take care of their brothers by making sure they are not misusing technology in the classroom.

I’m at a loss for other ideas and so started by implementing options two and three in the classroom on Tuesday.  It seemed to really help.  I did not have to take away any laptops, as everyone was focused on what they needed to do.  I think they might have also been helping keep each other focused as well.  Today, however, I did have to confiscate two laptops as the students were playing a game.  To earn it back at the end of the period, they had to craft a complete paragraph, by hand, explaining why games should not be played during the academic day.  This took away from their time to work in class, which means that these two students will have extra homework to complete outside of class tonight instead of playing games or doing other fun things.  They seemed to learn from their mistake.  It was also great for the other students to see how serious I am about proper use of technology in the classroom.  Although these two strategies seem to be working so far, will they keep working?  Is there more I should be doing to help my students see technology as a tool and not a toy?  What other strategies could I be implementing so that I feel more like a teacher and less like a technology police officer?  I do believe that there is power in talking to the students about what I see happening in the classroom.  I hope to have further conversations with them prior to the end of the year about proper use of technology in the classroom so that they are ready to be effective technology users in the seventh grade.

The Power of Natural Consequences

When I was about 17 years old, I wasn’t afraid of anything.  I was invincible.  Nothing scared me, except for the police.  I was deathly afraid of getting pulled over while driving, despite being a very safe teen driver.  I feel like that might be a bit of an oxymoron, teen driver; however, I was a relatively safe and cautious young driver because I was afraid of getting in trouble with the law.  Whenever I saw a parked police car, I slowed down to almost a crawl, even on the highway.

In the area in which I grew up, border patrol stops were common.  They would stop every car and check inside to be sure people weren’t smuggling drugs or people across state or country borders.  It was a common occurrence in the upper valley area.  I had seen these kinds of checkpoints on many occasions growing up.  I knew exactly how to react and what to do.  Despite this, after getting out of work late one evening, and knowing that there was a border patrol checkpoint on the highway, I decided to take a different route home.  While this route was much longer and out of my way, it prevented me from having to get on the highway, thus, missing the border patrol stop.  The fear for me was real back then.  As I took this alternate way to get back to my house from work, I ended up getting a flat tire.  You see, I wasn’t particularly familiar with this the route and all of its turns.  So, when I took a sharp turn, I hit the curb, which sliced my tire, causing it to deflate.  As soon as it happened, I was so upset with myself.  Because I had let my fear get to me, I had gotten a flat tire.  The moral of this story is, don’t listen to those strange voices in your head that tell you to make bizarre choices simply to avoid getting in trouble.  Lesson learned for me, as I never took that long cut home again.  The natural consequence of getting a flat tire taught me to ignore that particular fear in the future.  Now if only I could learn to ignore my other irrational fears, all would be well in the world.

Natural consequences are my favorite as a father and teacher.  Rather than having to lecture students or provide them with consequences that may seem fitting, their choices can naturally provide them consequences while also, hopefully, teaching them an important lesson: Don’t do dumb things.  Although not every action comes with its own built-in natural consequence, some things do, as long as the teacher or caregiver is prepared to allow the child to make his or her own choices.  Sometimes as parents and teachers, we are over-protective and don’t allow our children to learn from their choices. We tend to try and shelter children from harm.  Rather than let a student figure out what happens when they eat glue, we constantly monitor the students and remind them not to eat the glue.  What we need to do is allow children to make choices that might not be the ones we would choose for them, but one’s that provide them with freedom so that they can learn from their mistakes.  Choices with natural consequences are perfect for doing just that.

Yesterday in the classroom, I was finally able to take my students back outside so that they could visit their assigned forest plot.  As the weather has been cold and rainy for the past several weeks, and since the snow just recently melted in some places on campus, the students have been unable to observe their forest plots.  So, I needed to capitalize on yesterday’s moderately good weather.  Now, because of the crazy unspring like weather we’ve been having in recent months, I knew that the forest would be a bit damp and mucky.  So, I told the students to be sure they borrowed boots from the classroom so that their feet wouldn’t get wet.  While a few students took me up on the offer, a fair amount of the boys seemed to think like I once did, that they were invincible.  Their feet will never get wet.  Oh how sorely mistaken they were.  Three students wearing sneakers or dress shoes stepped right into a giant puddle or muddy bog, completely soaking their socks and shoes.  Those students, of course, immediately came running to me when this happened, begging to go back to their room to change.  I reminded them of the school rule that no students may return to the dorms during the academic morning.  Being the teachable moment kind of teacher, I then responded with, “Why didn’t you borrow a pair of boots from the classroom?”  They then responded back with, “I didn’t think it would be this wet.”  Of course they didn’t because they are impenetrable.  Oh to be young again.

Walking back to the classroom with one of the students who had drenched feet, we discussed the idea of natural consequences.  He asked me why he couldn’t go back to his room to change.  I reminded him, again, of the school rule and added, “Having to sit in wet shoes and socks for 30 minutes will hopefully teach you a valuable lesson so that next week when we go outside to visit our forest plots again, you will remember to borrow boots from the classroom so that you don’t get wet feet.”  He didn’t have a witty comeback for that.  He just slowly moped back to the classroom.  While I always want to help and support my students in every way possible, breaking the rules for this student or forcing him to wear boots outside would prevent any actual learning from happening for him.  He needs to see that when he chooses to wear sneakers outside in the forest, they will get wet.  Now he knows.  I don’t like to see students suffer, ever, but they do need to learn, and clearly, my words of encouragement and suggestion did not help.  So, natural consequences it was.   I’m hopeful that these students who had to sit through the final 30 minutes of class with wet shoes will remember this experience next week when we go outside to observe the forest.  Perhaps they will heed my advice to wear boots.  I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how powerful natural consequences truly are.

Does Study and Preparation Impact the Outcome of an Assessment?

In my previous blog entry from yesterday, I examined the most effective way to help prepare students for a math assessment.  I hypothesized that because we provided the students with lots of extra time to review, practice, seek help, and prepare for the exam, that they would all fare quite well and not need to complete the test redo process.  Following Saturday’s final preparation period, I felt as though each and every student was prepared and ready for the assessment.

Then came the assessment, today in STEM class.  While many of the students did do quite well and felt successful, two of the students in my math groups do need to complete the redo process for one objective.  Now, this isn’t at all a negative outcome.  In fact, today’s result is actually an improvement from past assessments.  Usually, at least three to five students need to complete the redo process for one or more of the objectives.  This time, only two students need to redo one objective.  That’s a huge change from earlier in the year.  So, in my mind, the extra preparation and review time we allowed, helped the students better meet, and in many cases, exceed the graded objectives.  The boys seemed to feel prepared and felt confident, for the most part, when they turned in their completed assessment.  In my mind, today’s outcome was successful and positive in every way, and proved that students do need extra time to process information to prepare for a math assessment.

But what about those two students who need to complete the redo process for one objective?  What happened there?  Why did they struggle to display their ability to meet one graded objective?  Did they not effectively study and review the skills covered outside of class?  Each of the two students struggled with the same objective involving word problems.  They were unable to transform a word problem into an algebraic expression in simplest form.  Was this because the problems were too tricky?  The two problems came directly from previous lesson check-in assessments, and had been reviewed and discussed in class on a few separate occasions.  While they were challenging problems, they were not impossible or meant to fool the students in any way.  So then, why did these two students get both word problems wrong on their chapter assessment?  What happened?  Although their answers were, in some cases, somewhat close and showed an understanding of the skill, they did not simplify their response or properly execute the needed computations.  In this particular case, more review did not help these students understand how to turn written descriptions into algebraic expressions.  Would anything have helped them?  Some students just struggle with word problems, which is why we completed a whole unit on how to tackle word problems earlier in the year.  I even reviewed the four steps involved in the problem solving process when the students worked on this skill of turning words into algebraic expressions.  Nothing seemed to help these two students with this one objective.  While I would have loved to have seen all of my students master every objective covered on today’s assessment, these two students still have a chance to master the skill with which they struggled by completing the redo process.  Some students just struggle with word problems and how to decipher them.

Overall though, I was very pleased with today’s outcome and realized how important giving the students time to review major concepts prior to completing an assessment is to the learning process.  We can’t expect our students to master skills in just a day or two before completing an assessment; they need time to ask questions, complete practice problems, and review the concepts covered before demonstrating their mastery of the skills or topics covered.

How Much Test Preparation is Effective?

I was never a good test taker in school.  For one, I didn’t really know how to study.  Do I reread the pages in the text book?  Make flashcards of vocabulary terms?  Reread my notes a bunch of times?  My teachers never taught me how to study.  So, I usually just glanced over my notes and called it a day.  As I was a relatively good writer, essay exams were my jam.  I generally aced those.  But when it came to standardized tests or multiple guess exams, I struggled.  The questions were tricky on purpose and I didn’t know the material well enough to take an educated guess.  No test prep in the world could have helped me when I took a fill-in-the-bubble test.

As a teacher, I’m armed with my experiences as a student.  I hated tests and still feel as though they prove very little about how much students have learned material.  Most students cram for exams and will often due quite well, but when you ask them about the content learned weeks later, they remember almost nothing.  In those cases, there was clearly no genuine learning taking place.  So, as a teacher, I rarely use tests as assessments, except for math, as that is how they will be assessed in all future math classes at my school.  Being mindful of this, I know that I need to prepare them for next year.  Following each math unit, I have the students complete a math assessment.  I make sure there are no multiple choice questions on the exam.  I also spend much time going over study strategies and techniques.  What’s the best way to study and what does that look like?  Usually though, I only have one day of review in class prior to the assessment, and what I have found is that some students struggled on the assessment.

Keeping this in mind when I planned my current math unit, I made sure to leave more than a week for review, discussion, and preparation.  I want all of my students to feel ready and prepared while also being successful.  I had the students complete a math review packet last week.  Once they completed the packet, I gave them the answer key so that they could correct their work.  For every problem they got wrong, they had to explain why it was wrong, as I want them to own their learning and truly comprehend the skills covered throughout the unit.  Then, I made myself available throughout the week during class and outside of class for extra help.  A few students took advantage of this extra support and saw me for help.  I addressed their questions and had them complete sample problems regarding the skills with which they struggled.  This seemed to help those few students feel much more prepared and at ease for Monday’s exam.

As this lengthy preparation is a big change from past units, I wonder if this new method is more or less effective.  Did I spend too much time preparing my students for tomorrow’s math assessment?  I could have used that week to begin another unit.  Did I spend too much time having the boys review the major vocabulary terms covered in the unit?  Will they be better prepared for tomorrow’s exam because they were provided with extra time to process the information and complete some practice problems?  Will I see a difference on their assessments?  I’m hopeful that they will all do very well as I feel as though I had a chance to check-in with all of them over the course of last week to be sure they understood and had mastered all of the skills covered.  I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out for certain, but I do feel as though giving the students extra time to review for tomorrow’s assessment will help them be and feel successful.

Can Curiosity Be Taught?

When my son was very young, he once asked me why the sky is blue.  Being the creative and caring father I am, I made up some elaborate story about a green frog and a blue frog.  To this day, I don’t remember exactly how the story went, but I remember it being very long and in depth.  My son wasn’t very curious and believed my story without asking any follow-up questions.  A few years later, when he was in fourth or fifth grade, his teacher posed the same question to the class, “Why is the sky blue?”  My son, who loves being right and always knows the answer, told his teacher and the class, the story of how the green frog got angry at the blue frog and chucked him into the air, making the sky blue.  He had believed my creative story.  The teacher did a great job of explaining how sometimes parents make up stories to make life seem a bit more interesting.  I’ll never forget when my son came home from school and told me that I had lied to him.  I had completely forgotten that I told him that story.  If I hadn’t been so convincing in how I told that story to my son so many years ago, I wonder if he would have asked me some clarifying questions.  He’s a pretty curious young man, always asking why, and so I wonder if he would have been able to see through my untrue story had I not stated it so matter-of-fact like.  Would he have asked some questions about the frogs and how they were able to throw each other?  How do frogs change color?  Had my son been more curious about my story, I wonder if he would have been able to figure out that I was weaving an elaborate tall tale.  Curiosity might have killed the cat, but it also helps people figure things out.  Why is the sky blue?  Why is the grass green?  How does light work?  The more we know about the world and how it works, the more power we have to solve problems and make the world a better place.

In the sixth grade, I spend a lot of time trying to help my students think critically about the world around them.  Why is it that way?  Why can’t it be this way?  How does that work?  I  want my students to learn something new and then and wonder why.   I want them to be able to make educated hypotheses about new information.  I want them to be curious and question everything.  Knowledge is power, I tell them repeatedly throughout the year, and so, the more you know, the more powerful you will become.  Teaching students to think critically and creatively is not easy and requires much practice and modeling.  Through completing various PBL activities, the students learn how to think critically in order to solve problems.  They learn to persevere and find new solutions to problems.

At this point in the year, I am able to easily track the progress my students have made regarding the skill of critical thinking.  I observe them during STEM and Humanities classes as they work to complete tasks and projects.  I hear them asking insightful questions and working together with their peers to find answers to problems encountered.  Most of them have become creative problem solvers.  This year, though, like every year, I have one student who doesn’t seem to have made any progress in this area.  He doesn’t ask a lot of questions and doesn’t seem to be able to creatively solve problems.  He makes use of a very fixed mindset and frequently gets stuck completing work in and out of the classroom.  Is it because he wasn’t really paying attention when we talked all about how to think critically, how to ask insightful questions, and how to solve problems?  Could that be?  Perhaps he just hasn’t learned those skills yet.  What if it’s something more though?  Sometimes, depending on the problem or topic being discussed, he does display his ability to solve problems and think critically, which leads me to believe that something else is at play here for students like this particular one.  He seems to accept information as is and doesn’t question things.  He doesn’t seem curious and seldom wonders why.  Is this the issue?  Is his inability to think critically about new information due to his lack of curiosity?  If so, what can I do as his teacher to help him?  How can I teach him to be curious?  I feel as though I model it on a regular basis.  I ask tons of questions and always make sure to field questions the students ask as well.  I make noticings and observations as I model the skill of critical thinking.  Nothing I’m doing seems to be helping though.  The bigger question seems to be, can curiosity be taught?  Do students learn to be curious or is it an innate trait?  Are humans born asking why?  If not, then how can we teach our students to be curious?  What else could I be doing to help inspire this student to question the world around him?  How can I help all students not simply accept facts and information at face value?  How can I help them to wonder why and be curious?

How a Reflective Research Process Can Empower Students to Change the World

When I was about ten years old, I wanted to be a doctor so that I could saves lives.  It seemed like a really cool thing to do as I liked helping people anyway.  Then, when I found out that a lot of math was involved, I decided to switch gears.  While I still wanted to help others, the math parts of my brain never seemed to work right.  And that’s when I realized my true calling: circus clown.  Unfortunately, there was no circus in my town and so I had no way to train.  As that option was out as well, I kind of stopped trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and just started living.  Then, in my junior year of high school, I discovered that teaching was in my bones.  So, I became an educator to help students see that school and learning can be fun and engaging.  I wanted students to see that school doesn’t have to be boring.  After four years of college and many years of training and practice, I’m still trying to save the world, one student at a time.

As a teacher, I have realized over the years that helping students also means helping make the world a better place.  If I inspire a student to study and learn about cancer and he or she one day helps to find a cure, then the world will be forever changed.  If I inspire a student to learn more about astronomy and he or she then discovers how to communicate with the alien life living on other exoplanets, then the world will become a more inclusive place.  One of my main goals as a teacher, is to help students find their passion and reach for the stars.  I want them to see problems in the world and want to make a difference.  I want my students to be angry that all mention of the very real and critical issue of climate change is no longer on governmental websites.  I want my students to be shocked when they learn about how women are treated in other parts of the world.  I want my students to want to make a difference in the world.

Today in Humanities class, I had a chance to witness the birth of empowerment and shock within a student in my class.  It was amazing.  The boys were working on their I-Search projects in class today as they mined their four resources for knowledge nuggets.  They were taking notes, in their own words, on facts they learned that will help them answer their guiding question.  The students were intrigued by the facts they learned and curious for more knowledge.  One of the ELLs in my class asked for help in clarifying a fact he found on one of his online sources.  The fact explained that more than 300,000 people have lost their lives due to the conflict in Syria.  I reworded the fact for him so that he could comprehend this shocking statistic.  I then asked him how he felt learning this knowledge nugget.  His response, “I’m speechless.  I can’t say words.  Why is nothing being done about this?  What can we do to help?”  While I provided him with some information about diplomacy and how interactions between countries need to be treated carefully, I also didn’t want to give him too much information.  I want this student to be upset and angry so that he will want to make a difference in the world.  I went on to tell him how we hope that some of the students learning about more serious research topics will see the adversity and atrocities being committed and want to do something about it.  “Perhaps you will now want to grow up and be a lawyer so that you can help victims of human rights violations,” I said as he smiled and quickly returned to researching his topic.

Although the I-Search project that we are having the students complete does effectively teach the students how to complete the research process, it also helps to better engage them in their research topics compared to the routine and normal research project.  Most research projects do not contain such reflective phases and aspects.  Because the students feel connected to their topic as they choose one that truly interests them, they care more deeply about the research they gather.  The facts mean more to them than just the words they read.  They become married to the information and their guiding question.  As we constantly have the students reflect on the process as well as the information learned, they quickly grow attached to their research topic.  Each year, we have some students who become so interested in their topic, that they do more extensive research.  It’s possible that some of those students will go on to address the issues that their topic raised for them, later on in life.  This reflective research process helps to empower the students to care about what they are learning.  They become so deeply engaged with their topic that when they learn something shocking, it upsets them.  They get angry and curious.  This particular student wondered why countries haven’t stepped in to overthrow the leader of Syria.  Why isn’t anything being done to stop this bloodshed?  I could almost see the wheels turning in his brain: “What can I do to help?”  This byproduct of the I-Search research process is one of the main reasons why we utilize this research process in the sixth grade.  We want our students to not only learn about the world and how to complete a research project, but we also want them to see problems in the world and brainstorm solutions.

How to Choose the Best Read-Aloud Novel

When I was in sixth grade, I had an amazing language arts teacher who utilized the workshop model of literacy.  Twice a week, she would read aloud to us from our current read-aloud novel as a way to teach reading strategies.  That’s how I fell in love with Roald Dahl.  After she read us Matilda, I was smitten with Dahl’s prose and word play.  While I don’t recall the other books she read aloud to us, I remember them being great choices.  My year in sixth grade helped direct me towards reading and writing.  My dual major in college was creative writing because of the fire that Mrs. Lacombe lit within my soul in the sixth grade.

Now, although she made it look easy because she had carefully chosen the read-aloud novels ahead of time, there is a fine art to choosing the right book to read aloud to a class.  My teachers from other grades read aloud to the class just like Mrs. Lacombe did, but you see, because they didn’t carefully choose the novels they read aloud, I found myself usually quite disengaged and bored while they read.  This was typically the time I got into a lot of trouble as well because I was so disinterested in the story being read aloud.  Had those other teachers taken the time and put in the effort to carefully choose engaging and fun read-aloud novels, I might have started to enjoy reading at an earlier age.  I also might not have gotten in quite so much trouble either.  Regardless, the moral of the story is that you can’t just pick any old book to read aloud to a class; you have to choose one that is interesting, fun, well written, and engaging.

As I want my students to enjoy reading and see it is an adventurous experience, I make sure to take the time to carefully select just the right read-aloud novels to drive our Reader’s Workshop mini-lessons.  I spend hours online researching engaging books that will also tie our curriculum together.  I then read each book first to be sure I enjoy it because if I’m not into it, then it’s going to be super hard for me to sell it to the students.  Once I choose a read-aloud book, I try it out on a class.  I then seek feedback from the students.  While I usually don’t have to change the books we read aloud to the students unless we are altering our curriculum, I did drop one book a few years ago because the students did not like it.  It’s important that the students enjoy the book being read aloud to them.  Throughout this process of selecting books and trying them out in the classroom, I’m always looking for new books as well.

As today was host to a Reader’s Workshop block in Humanities class, we began the period with our class read-aloud.  Now, about four years ago, I was looking to try a new read-aloud book with the students as Sacagawea by Joseph Bruchac just wasn’t doing it for them anymore no matter how much I liked it and tried to sell it to them.  The boys hated the book.  So, I went on a quest to find a new read-aloud novel.  After much searching and research, I decided to try three and then choose my favorite.  While two of them were fine books and may have actually made good read-aloud options, the third selection, was by far the best choice.  Not only was it one of the best books I had read in a while, the prose was beautiful and heartbreaking all at once.  The story was inspired by true events and took an alternative approach to storytelling.  Instead of going with the typical third person approach or even the first person human method of telling a story, Katherine Applegate decided to tell her story from the perspective of a gorilla.  After reading The One and Only Ivan, I knew that I had found a special book that would remain in my read-aloud library for years to come.  Year in and year out, the students cite that book as being their favorite of our read-aloud texts.  They enjoy the story and the way in which it is told.  Ivan’s character is relatable and it’s easy to empathize with him and the other animals in the mall.  As we are almost 200 pages into the book this year, the students are loving it.  As I close the book to signify that we are transitioning into silent reading and conferences every Monday morning, shouts of “NOOOO!” can be heard for meters and meters.  My students love this book.  They enjoy learning about Ivan and his story.  They laugh at his jokes and the cute way the author tries to get inside the mind of a gorilla.  They just can’t get enough.  They hang on my every word.  One student even tried to find a copy of the book in the library about a week ago so that he could finish it on his own.  Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your perspective of the situation, the library at my school does not have that particular title in stock.

So, not only are my students loving this book and its story, they are finding enjoyment in reading.  Those students who began the year as reluctant readers are now voracious reading machines.  They love reading and finding new books.  They look forward to Mondays and Reader’s Workshop as much as I look forward to going to concerts.  They love listening to our class read-aloud novel and then curling up with a good book and getting lost, for a few brief moments, in another world.  Helping our students find their love of reading starts with our approach to teaching it.  We need to offer students choice in the books they read, but we also need to choose interesting books to read-aloud to them as these are the vehicles by which we teach the critical reading strategies they will need to grow into mature and careful readers and thinkers.  Choosing the right read-aloud novel requires much time and energy, but pays dividends at the end of the day when the right ones are read aloud to our students.