About Reader's Workshop: Creating a Reader's Life

One of my goals this year has been to develop skills that will allow students to become life long readers. Interestingly, I've discovered that the students in my class, some of them non-readers before this year, have been teaching themselves their own skills or learning them from family and friends. They've taken on the life of readers. Here's some of the things I've noticed:

Students are becoming more creative at getting books
I have a tonne of books in my classroom. However, I usually only have one copy of each book, or there's certain books I don't have, or they don't have access to books on weekends or holidays. I have noticed students are moving outside of the classroom, and indeed the school to get their books. One tells me how he goes out with his sister and father to the book shop each week, even if they don't buy anything.  A lot of them have gone back to visiting the local libraries to stock up on books. Some of them have even managed to convince older siblings to procure them books from the high school libraries.

Students are getting more creative at finding time to read books
 One of the things I've taught this year is sneaky reading. Basically students are encouraged to read when they get a spare moment - when they are waiting for a teacher or have finished something early. We take our books with us to assemblies, and read while we wait for the assembly to begin (I collect the books before it starts, though). A lot of students tell me about their reading habits at home - a few of them have snuck in reading by flashlights under the blankets at night :) - but most have taken to finding other moments where they are able to read.

Students are beginning to set reading goals
A lot of the students are beginning to set goals of what they'd like to read. Particularly with the holidays, students are organising what they want to read, how many things they want to read. I also noticed that students were organising meetings on the holidays to swap books over with each other.

Students are becoming more confident about talking about their reading
Students are talking about their reading more and more. They talk about what they like, what they want to read. They write blogs reviewing books, and mention books in conversation. They're also beginning to make connections between books in their conversations.


All these things - selecting books, making time to read, setting goals, talking about books are all things that confident adults readers do. It's really nice to see the students beginning to take on these habits, starting to create reading lives.

Photo from flickr

Book Talk: It's the End of the World As We Know It . . . (Part Two)

In the last blog post, I talked about the rising popularity of post-apocolyptic and dystopian books. Some of the books I talked about included The Hunger Games and Tomorrow When the War Began. In this post I'm going to look at some of the other traditional books from this genre, as well as some books which have similar qualities.

Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld
It's been a while since I read this series, and it's one I haven't yet introduced to my students. However, some of my older students would probably be interested in reading them, so I'll probably talk them up this term. Uglies tells the story of a world where everyone goes through a procedure at 16 to make them 'pretty' - basically identical. These pretties are kept separate from younger teenagers who have not yet had the procedure. Tally, the main character, begins the story looking forward to being a pretty, but soon discovers that there's another option. The books follow Tally's attempts to negotiate the strict regulations of the government.

Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody
This book moves out in a different direction from others which tend to be pretty action based. Obernewtyn on the other hand is more fantasy based, with a main character, Elspeth, who can talk with animals, and magic present throughout the whole book. Obernewtyn is set in a world which has been destroyed by a nuclear holocaust, with a controlling council which condemns those with mental powers of any kind. I've only read the first book and part of the second, but the world building in the book is just brilliant.

Chasers by James Phelan
This is a new series, and I've only read the first one (Alone) but there's a really interesting premise behind it. Jesse is an Australian boy on a UN camp in New York, when there's what seems like a terrorist attack while Jesse's in the subway with some friends. Strangely, the survivors who were outside when it happened seem to have a virus of some sort, also making them dangerous to Jesse and his friends. It's not the best of books, but the twist at the end is pretty amazing.

When I was thinking about these books, I realised that there's a lot of other books that share similarities. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is one that jumps to mind, as Harry, Ron and Hermione deal with a world where a authoritarian government have changed the rules. Time Riders by Alex Scarrow is a time-travel book, but some of the possible time zones are scarily post-apocalyptic.

One of the things I really like about the books I've looked at, are the number of female main characters. Tally, Katniss, Ellie, Elspeth are all incredibly strong characters, with flaws and problems, but who go out and get things done. Better still is how many of these books, with strong female characters, are popular with boys.

What are your favourite post-apocalyptic / dystopian books?

Book Talk: It's the End of the World As We Know It . . . (Part One)

For some reason my students, and probably many like them, like to read about the end of the world. Or if not the end of the world, the end of the world as the characters knew it. There's definitely been a rise in post-apocalyptic, dystopian future books over the last few years. Interestingly enough, it's a type of book that I love too, so here's some examples of my favourites:

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
What, you mean you haven't heard of these books? Well you need to get out from under that rock you've been under! The Hunger Games tells us the story of Katniss, whose family struggles to get by in their post-war life. But, the most horrific part of Katniss' world is The Hunger Games, an annual kill or be killed reality television show in which tributes are forced to participate. Mockingjay, which is coming out soon, is one of the most highly anticipated books in our classroom (and there's a few lately).

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
I only finished this one last week, but I cannot wait to introduce it to my older students. Perfect for those who have finished The Hunger Games, and want a similar book to move on to, this book is the first of a trilogy (the second one is waiting for me to read it). It's the story of Todd, who lives in a different world, and indeed planet to ours. In his world, you can hear the thoughts of men, the noise. Todd, still a boy in his world, struggles to understand what it means to be a member of his community, his town and indeed his world.

Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden
I have a confession to make. Despite being an Australian teenager when these were first published, and a rabid fan of So Much to Tell You, Take My Word for It and Letters from the Inside, I had never read, nor even wanted to read Tomorrow When the War Began. My sisters tried to get me to read it, but no go. And this holidays I brought home the whole series from my classroom determined to read them before the movie comes out in September - and I don't know what took me so long! (I can hear my sisters saying 'I told you so' from here).

Tomorrow When the War Began is the first book of a seven book series about Ellie and her friends who were camping in thick bush when their town, and their country was invaded. The group of teenagers set out to see what they can find out, destroy what they can, and evade capture from the invaders. Where this series is strongest (and I'm only up to the fifth book) is in how they haven't aged particularly. They were written with enough differences from Australia of today (public holidays we've never had for example) that you could still see this happening in the future or now. Again, a perfect series for the Hunger Games readers, showing teenagers taking on real, adult responsibilities, although for different reasons.

The Giver by Lois Lowry
This is a deceptively thin book. It tells the story of Jonas, who seems to be living in a great world. Except, slowly you realise that things aren't as nice as they seem in Jonas' world, and that there's a lot bubbling below the surface. This book, like all these books, raises so many interesting questions - rich fodder for book talking and debate. This book has been a bit hit and miss with students, a lot see it as too easy for them because of the thinness of the book. Another one to try to sell this term!

Next blog post, I'll look at Obernewtyn, Uglies, Chasers and a few others that squeeze under the same banner

About Reader's Workshop: Flat-Earth Readers

As I have been reading Aidan Chambers' Tell Me: Children, reading and talk, I came across the best term- flat-earth readers. We all know them (in fact, you may, like me, have been one of them.) They are the readers who only ever read one style, or one author. They are the students who won't move past Diary of a Wimpy Kid, or move away from the Star Wars novelisations. In my case, it was Baby-Sitters Club books or later, Sweet Valley High. They see the reading world as flat, with dragons or other nasties at the edges.

What prevents the students from creating a more rounded world of reading? Chambers suggests three things in particular: the danger of boredom - other books might be boring compared to the books the reader is used to; difficulty - other books might be harder than the books the reader is used to, and the reader lacks the self-efficacy to read harder books; and the fear of exhaustion - that the other side of the reading world may never end (the I'll never read enough of the world's books fear)!

Obviously we don't want students to remain flat world readers - after all, we want the students to become better readers, readers who are willing to take risks and explore a range of books. But how can we assist students to experience a more rounded world of books?

One place to start is the classroom environment, and even little things can make such a difference. I never had a huge amount of success with getting students to read until I was able to turn my books around so the covers faced outwards. Placing them in baskets for different categories, allowed students who were interested in one type of book (for example, my Star Wars fanatic was interested in other science fictions books and ended up extending to new authors and harder books). Having an extra rack of books also allows me to display new books.

Also successful is read alouds. I've talked about read-alouds before (here and here) and why I think they're important, and I have found they're great for moving flat-earth readers. A lot of students go on to read the books when you're finished, or search for similar books. The read-aloud has assured them that there are other good books out there and that they may not be too difficult or overwhelming.

Incidental book talk - or what Chambers calls book gossip - is another powerful tool. Earlier this year, the younger boys in my class went through a massive 39 Clues phase, talking about the books before school, in class, at home online. A lot of them have moved on from these books to the CHERUB and Alex Rider books. They want to share in the world the other boys are sharing in. I'm particularly lucky in this aspect as I have a multi-age classroom and a lot of the time, the younger students want to follow the older students in their reading. This definitely led to the success of The Hunger Games.

We also have formal books talks. These can be a little hit and miss. Coming from me, they're generally pretty solid. I'm lucky again, in that I've taught some of these students since 2007 and they trust me to find good books that they'll enjoy. Especially if I'm really enthusiastic (Percy Jackson, Out of my Mind) a simple book talk from me can have the whole class buzzing. When the students book talk, it often depends on the student. Some have a great pull in the class, others less so. Some give great book talks that make you want to go out and buy ten copies of the book, others are still developing their public speaking skills.

Recently we've had a new place to talk about books, through the use of kidblogs.org. A lot of students use their blogs to talk about what they're reading and what others should read, which means we've had to have lessons on spoiler warnings and other reviewing niceties. :-)

Despite pressure from other sources, the least success I've had in expanding the world of readers is in set books, or even 'choose from this list' books. Often students approach the books with a certain amount of resentment, especially if they'd prefer to spend reading time reading 'their' book. They take little ownership in the book, and it's difficult to get them to read 'similar' books. I have had some success, particularly when nominating books to small groups, but all in all, it's not a particularly useful way to expand the world of readers.

Of course, if you want to know more about moving readers through different types of books, you can't go past Teri Lesesne's Reading Ladders, and if you can get your hands on Tell Me, I recommend it too - so far, a really great thoughtful read.

What stories of flat-earth readers do you have? Were you one yourself? What made you move on? How do you approach flat-earth readers in your classroom?

About Reader's Workshop: Talk and Reading

So, I'm three days into my winter holidays and I was getting slightly bored so I picked up a book from my massive pile of 'teaching books to be read'. This one, Tell Me by Aidan Chambers, was picked up at the Lifeline Bookfest, so is a little older (published in 1993). However, it highlights the importance of talk in reading.

I'm finding this particularly useful for a number of reasons. First of all, how important is talk in reading? Can we develop any kind of successful reader, let along life-long readers without emphasising the place of talk? Secondly, how do we use talk throughout the school life of a child - what talk are we successfully using with Preps? How do we translate this into Grade 7s or Grade 12s? Thirdly, how can we use books to help talk? We have growing numbers of children arriving at school with speech difficulties. Can books/reading be used to work with these children?

The other thing Chambers points out is that without a 'reading environment' (a topic he's written another book on) it is very hard to cultivate successful talk about reading. It's interesting to think about how one piece fits in with another.

I'm only just into the book, but no doubt I'll be posting some of my ideas here as I go through it. So let me know if you have any thoughts, questions, musing on talk and reading and how they go together.

Photo from flickr

About Reader's Workshop: The Lifeline Bookfest

Books, books and more books, as far as the eye can see.

That's the scene that greats you at Brisbane's twice a year Lifeline Bookfest, which I attended on Saturday. If you're there at opening time, and you're lucky enough to be one of the first people though the front door . . . well there's nothing better than two massive halls full of books.

I've been attending the bookfest for a number of years now. It has two benefits. Cheap books for the people of Brisbane, and money raised for Lifeline, a charity which provides counseling services. In fact, I attended earlier this year. Unfortunately, then, I was only four days out of surgery, which made the whole experience pretty hard, so I was looking forward to this event.


The anticipation that builds up around this event is pretty huge, and you'll see so many different types of people there. Parents, children, grandparents, students, people seaching for the one elusive book, people trying to get as many as possible. And teachers. In fact, so many teachers go each year, that they even give a special shout out over the loudspeaker.

But it's no surprise they go. Where else can you pick up good quality books for you classroom library, and teacher resources and textbooks, all under $5 each? What surprises me (and saddens me) is that I'm the only teacher at my school who regularly goes. I did run into one of my old students though, who very proudly told me that he'd moved on to really thick books now.

We're really lucky to have this event in Brisbane. The whole thing holds together on the good will of volunteers, but it's an event which allows everyone to be a reader, to leave clutching a book of their very own.

As for me, I was actually a bit more conservative this time. I had a time limit, so I had to choose well and choose fast. Still, I managed a number of excellent bargains, including Cathy Cassidy's Dizzy (completes our classroo collection), Jerry Spinelli's Loser, Morris Gleitzman and Gary Paulsen books and some excellent looking books on reading.

Book Talk: The Danger Zone Books

This week I'm going to be focusing on books, series and authors that are HUGE in my classroom.

One of the things I've done this year is improved the number and range of informational texts in the classroom. A lot of my students are right into history, and one series has been incredibly popular with students exploring different eras and times.

The Danger Zone books are colourful books, filled with lots of comic-style pictures. They're quite busy, your eye is drawn from one part of the page to the other, but each book has a similar format, so they're easy to follow. Like the Horrible Histories, they tend to focus on the blood and guts aspects of life in history, but unlike the horrible histories, the text that connects things is a little easier to read, and therefore more likely to actually be read.

And with names like Avoid Being in a Medieval Castle, and Avoid Sailing on the Titanic, you've immediately captured attention.

One thing that I really, really liked was the broad scope of the books. Although I still have a tonne to collect, you can get books that range from ancient history to European history, to American history and even some Australian history (Yay!) It's really good for opening up the world a little for the students and feeds nicely into other history books and historical fiction.

Book Talk: Verse Novels

This week I'm going to be focusing on books, series and authors that are HUGE in my classroom.

It was honestly a surprise when it took off. I'd had Love that Dog sitting on my desk for a while, but I kind of put off reading it and recommending it in favour of other books. After all, there were two verse novels in my class, and neither of them had really taken off.

But then I finally read it. Wow! So I took it in, book talked it, and watched it take off. The boys couldn't wait to read it once one of them raved about it. They begged me to buy Hate that Cat and just about took it straight out of my hands when it got to the classroom. More and more began reading Pearl Verses the World (which is up for a couple of Australian book awards!). Then I bought Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall, which went straight into another pair of hands, and already has a line up.

Poetry is big. Which means that students are choosing to write it too. Which is a Good Thing, since that's what we'll be concentrating on early next term. And their poetry has become more thoughtful, more realistic, more personal. Just like the books they read.

Book Talk: The Who Was Series

This week I'm going to be focusing on books, series and authors that are HUGE in my classroom.

One of the types of books I try to promote in my classroom is biographical texts. This has been largely hit and miss, unfortunately. So I went out in search of some new biographical material. This brought me to the Who Was . . . series of books. These books are fairly short, the better readers get through them in about a day, and are all biographies of famous people. The range covers scientists, pioneers, presidents and people who were just amazing in their field.

What I particularly like about them is their structure. The text doesn't dominate the page, there's line drawings throughout to add to the book, and there's also little information boxes which give you more information about the time or the place, helping the students place the books into a wider context. My goal is to really push the other biographical material in the room now, to make the connections between the books they've already read, and all those still out there.

Some of the favourites in the class:
Who were the Beatles?
Who is Barack Obama?
Who was Amelia Earhart?

Miss yesterday? Read about Conspiracy 365 books here!

Book Talk: Conspiracy 365

This week I'm going to be focusing on books, series and authors that are HUGE in my classroom.


It seems a little strange to be book talking Conspiracy 365, by Gabrielle Lord. Why? Well I haven't actually been able to read them myself. In fact, I can't keep my hands on them long enough to read myself. They are so popular in my classroom, the students have created virtual line ups to read them when the person currently reading them finishes.

What's the fuss about? Well it's the story of Cal who is chased down a street on New Years Eve and told that someone, the person who killed his father, is trying to kill him. He must survive the next 365 Days. What follows is pretty much standard thriller fare - except that a new book is released each month, so you feel like you're following him through the year. (I also love that the pages are numbered backwards, to assist with the whole countdown idea).

Who loves them in my classroom. Everyone. The girls, boys. Grade 5s, 6s and 7s. I have the sixth book, June, to take into school today -there may be a riot for it.

What would this book connect to? Alex Rider, CHERUB, Margaret Peterson Haddix books


The website for Conspiracy 365 is over here. Apparently there's an associated online club, but I haven't had any students get into that.

Tomorrow I'll look at the Who Was . . . series of books