RAMS English

There’s been a big hue (and, as required by law — cry) over the new Common Core, what’s in it, what’s not in it, and who gets the power to dictate it. Not being a politician, I won’t step into the fray on that one, I’ll just go along knowing that I have the power in my classroom — yes, and the responsibility — and that I should be aware not only of the new CC but also of the old CS (read: Common Sense) that tells me what students need to know to succeed in high school, college, and/or their careers directly after high school.

One emphasis of the Common Core is the teaching of nonfiction. I don’t see this as a threat to literature — the merits of which are self-evident — so much as an acknowledgment of two things: many English teachers have historically given nonfiction short shrift, and the non-future English majors among our students (gee, do you think they’re out there?) will read a heck of a lot more nonfiction than fiction in their future lives. Studies show this is especially true of males who, by the numbers, show a preference for nonfiction.

This week’s idea is one I used in the social studies classroom for a textbook chapter. It would work equally well with any collaborative reading of a nonfiction piece in the English classroom — especially a longer one that teachers might otherwise avoid. Reading a 10-page feature on a topic highly interesting to students might ordinarily be given a wide berth by teachers who fear that its length could intimidate students (who might also grow restless reading it in class) or who fear their students just won’t read it if assigned for homework.

But what if the reading were collaborative?

When I did this for a chapter called “The Rise of the Warrior Class in Japan” last year, I found every student engaged. They loved reading with a partner, they loved the constant switches in methodology during the reading, and yes, they loved the material (that’s in our courts as teachers if we’re selecting material — less so if we’re using textbooks).

First, the strategies and their codes as seen on the handout:

• RR — Read and retell in your own words
• DP — Read, stop, discuss with your partner
• PP — Predict with your partner before reading
• WR — Write a brief response on your own
• SKIM — Read quickly for purpose stated and discuss with partner
• MOC — Organize information with either a map, a chart, or an outline

As with academic conversation activities, students are paired for this work. If you have an odd number of students, you will have one threesome. The activity works especially well if the feature is naturally divided with sub-headings, a feature already provided in most textbooks and many journalistic articles. If not, divide the reading into segments yourself. You can simply draw lines and write a sub-heading title of your own in the margins.

In addition to reading together, students use self-monitoring checks as a means of helping the teacher to craft subsequent lessons. Thus, as they move from section to section, they can use codes for “I understand this information” (a check), “I’m not sure if I understand” (a question mark), and “I do not understand and I need to restudy” (an “X”). The last is more a signal to the teacher than the student, as it translates to, “They do not understand and I need to reteach or emphasize this material.” In that sense, “X” marks the spot in your planning book.

For the retelling option, I have students take turns retelling. The first partner retells everything she remembers from what was just read, then the second partner adds information left out. Listening and summarizing skills get a great workout from this practice and, as I have since read Jeffrey Zwiers’ Academic Conversations, I might add a wrinkle to the instructions: the second partner can ask the first to elaborate and clarify, to go back to the text to find a “right there” quote in support of her summarizing, or even to defend or challenge a point made in the reading. Of course, the next time retelling is called for, the second partner goes first.

Notice, too, that the MOC option gives students practice with map and chart skills. As a teacher, you can make your handout elaborate enough to last a couple of classes, even throwing in homework. If you have been teaching the reading of maps and charts, there’s no better practice than having your students create some themselves. Thus, if your nonfiction piece lends itself to statistics, numbers, geographical locations, etc., ask yourself what manner of chart might work best to reflect material read in a very visual way, then add it to your reading guide.

To show you what an interactive reading guide might look like, here’s the one I used with the social studies textbook last year. However long it takes, collect the work when students are done and plan subsequent lessons accordingly. Remember, your curriculum should as much be dictated by the students day by day as it is by your “master plan.” In that sense, students are the masters. They are the reason we do what we do, and our ultimate obligation is to their mastery of the skills we teach.

If you like this reading guide, you’ll find one like it and many more in Guiding Readers Through Text by Wood, Lapp, Flood, and Taylor.

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