A while ago I found myself questioning the purpose of traditional literacy circle sessions in the classroom. Why do we split the kids into ability groups, give them three or four books to choose from and tell them how to organise themselves? I couldn’t justify continuing with this traditional approach as I watched the students become less and less enthusiastic about reading. A colleague suggested I read Nancie Atwell’s, In the Middle: New understandings about writing, reading and learning (1998). As I read through her ideas I found myself adapting the concepts to suit younger students and my own personal philosophy. I realised that my main (reading) objective as a 5th grade teacher was to have my kids leaving the classroom identifying as readers. I realised that the only way I was going to achieve this effectively was to give the kids control of their own reading. So, after quite an insightful (for me) and lengthy discussion with the kids, we all went down to the library where the students were invited to select the book they would like to read – no need to find multiple copies, no need to be fiction, no need to be a chapter book, no need for it to be a book (as long as you could borrow it from the library), there was no need words at all in fact.
The remainder of the year was one learning experience after another for me. As the students began to take control of the books they were reading during ‘literacy circle’ sessions they began to talk about books, unprompted, throughout the day. I often heard them talking about what they were reading as they walked in in the mornings and as they walked out on their way to lunch. They would compare and share authors, they recommended reading material of all different genres and styles. The students themselves initiated reading circles as they began to find like-minded readers – and sometimes in the most surprising of partnerships. As the year came to a close many parents commented on the diversity of reading material their child had been engaged in over the year, including holiday periods. The results could not have been more positive, as I said goodbye to last year’s grade five students I knew they were leaving the classroom not only as readers but identifying as readers.
It stands to reason then, at the beginning of this school year there were no literacy circle groups assigned, no books offered as a place to start. Our literacy sessions this year started with conversations about reading. Questions and conversations, which were very similar to those posted by Melanie in her blog, Once Upon a Teacher, because reading in the classroom should happen just as it does in the real world. In our classroom we developed a list of reader’s rights. These rights form the basis for our reading together:
What does reading look like in your classroom?
That's awesome! Well done.
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