My students and reading

I love reading! I have been reading since I was two when I used to carry a dictionary around and ask my mother to read the words I found in it and reading for content since at least four when I would summarize newspaper articles for my mother and stepfather and started reading novels of sometimes 400+ pages when I was seven. I spent most of my childhood no more than a few doors down from the library in both towns I grew up in in Ohio, and my first real job was at the age of 12 volunteering to help the librarians with putting books, magazines, and videos back in order, reshelving materials, and running the summer reading program. It’s no surprise that I like to pass my love for books onto the children I teach.

I have never really been happy with just reading from the textbook from the North American program that my school uses. To supplement it, I included additional books for free reading and the full text of what ever excerpt we were reading that week, if my school had it (far more often than not, it does since our lending library here is amazing!). This year, I was able to run novel studies where my students read whole books and discuss them (I have student discussion leaders who ask the other students questions and discuss their opinions of the characters and events happening in the assigned portion of the book for the week) and have a big project or activity to end the book with, such as creating a game based on the book or putting on a play based on the story. I base the skills they are supposed to be learning by having them apply it to the novels they are reading such as comparing and contrasting (watching Babe and comparing the characters and their traits to the ones they read about in Charlotte’s Web). We also run a weekly survey where the students make predictions about what will happen next or how they feel about a character or an event and post the results for them to see. I have found that they have been responding much better, despite the fact that these are the same books that would be read in school by a native speaker in the same grade as they are in. They are also responding more positively to reading and are choosing more challenging books when they check out books from my school’s lending library. Even a student with the weakest English skills is getting quality stories of over 150 pages each week, in addition to the 120-or-so-page book he is assigned to read over the course of a month.

I have a class librarian who is in charge of making sure books are returned on time. My students are always asking when they can have a turn at this job…it is the job that has the most rigorous interview, asking questions from what they would do if someone returned a damaged book to what is their favorite book and why. This person helps select the books for our DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) box for when we have DEAR time at the beginning of class sometimes.

During DEAR time, I also read a book from the DEAR box (I choose two or three to go in), to help set an example that reading is enjoyable…sometimes I get so into my book, I start laughing and my students ask me to read the section that made me laugh aloud to them. Often, when I finish a book, one of them asks if they can read it and none of them have disliked the ones I have read. They also show appreciation for my taste in books by asking me for recommendations when they are looking for something good to take home from the library.

They have gone from wanting to check out books that were RL2 (grade 2 level) to regularly checking out books that have won Newbery awards or honors or are otherwise interesting and engaging stories that challenge their reading abilities.

I also read aloud to them. Sometimes I have something that I incorporates a theme that we are covering in class, like teasing and bullying in The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes or Christmas with Barbara Robinson’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Sometimes I spot a book on a library shelf (picture books usually) that I read to them while they finish signing their library cards for the week. If we don’t have time because they took a long time packing up, they often groan and exclaim things like “Not fair!”.

They are also very dedicated to straightening up the school’s much used library and challenge themselves to put the books the right way in the right place (the same thing that inspired my first job). On Friday, one of my students was putting the book The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo back in its place when I asked her to give it to me. I exclaimed how much I loved the book, and said that when the shelves were completely straightened, I would read a little bit aloud to them. We didn’t have time, but they made me promise that I would start reading it for them on Monday. I have read other Newbery books to my older students: Charlotte’s Web, A Cricket in Times Square, and Sarah Plain and Tall…but I have never seen kids get so absorbed in a book the way they have with this one. It’s a fairy tale about a mouse, some soup, a spool of thread, and a princess. Without giving away the story, that’s all I can say. I absolutely love this story and it’s on my list of books that I ate up in under 36 hours. There are quite a few. On Monday, I read the first three chapters to them before they started their work. Today (they have Tuesdays off), I was worried that the 25 pages I had selected to read was too much for them, but when I stopped, they begged, literally begged for more. And even after I read two more chapters, they begged for more.

Today, I read aloud over 50 pages of a novel to a classroom of 10- and 11-year olds who were still groaning because I had stopped reading (being as it was time to go home and my voice was gone to boot). One girl who is self-conscious about her artwork, sketched a picture of the main character while she listened. Another who has lower English skills than the others retold what had happened up to the point where I stopped two days ago. Even my boys were asking me to read more pages.

It is perfect for reading aloud as each chapter ends with a cliffhanger and there are asides where the author speaks directly to the audience and wonderful pencil illustrations to accompany the text. The story is engaging and full of opportunities to act out scenes and to dramatize your voice, such as imitating an angry human king who hates rodents or a vain French mouse mother who swears to have no more babies because it ruins her looks.

The Tale of Despereaux won the 2004 Newbery Medal, the highest award given to children’s literature each year. Of all the children’s books which have been given either the Newbery Medal or a Newbery Honor, this book is among my favorites.

I believe that the power of reading has caused great growth in my children’s English abilities and confidence. I think that for an English program to be successful here, it should recognize how important of a role reading authentic materials can take, whether it’s individual reading, novel studies, reading aloud, or doing a play. It’s a great way to boost pronunciation, word decoding, phonics, intonation, critical thinking skills, vocabulary, and self-esteem. I am lucky that my school gives me a lot of freedom to develop my curriculum in a way that I feel is effective, as long as it meets the scope and sequence that the students have to achieve in order to progress into the next grade level.

The quote “Good children’s literature appeals not only to the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child” comes to mind when I think of my classroom full of now avid readers.

Check out Esme Raji Codell’s website, Planet Esme, for great tips to incorporate reading and literature into your classroom.

Nice post, Imaniou. I also have a small classroom library from which students can borrow books to take home. We also do a fair amount of whole-class activities with stories. There is so much more to reading than taking turns round the class with robotic voices then ploughing through some comprehension questions.

[quote=“ImaniOU”]I believe that the power of reading has caused great growth in my children’s English abilities and confidence. I think that for an English program to be successful here, it should recognize how important of a role reading authentic materials can take, whether it’s individual reading, novel studies, reading aloud, or doing a play. It’s a great way to boost pronunciation, word decoding, phonics, intonation, critical thinking skills, vocabulary, and self-esteem. I am lucky that my school gives me a lot of freedom to develop my curriculum in a way that I feel is effective, as long as it meets the scope and sequence that the students have to achieve in order to progress into the next grade level.[/quote]Krashen is a bit dogmatic on Free Voluntary Reading but his findings are well worth looking at, and some undoubtedly apply to enjoyably-taught “class readers” as well.
Children’s Literature: Very Good News and Very Bad News
sdkrashen.com/articles/child … index.html

88 Generalizations about Free Voluntary Reading
sdkrashen.com/handouts/88Gen … index.html

Free Voluntary reading: New Research, Applications, and Controversies
sdkrashen.com/articles/pac5/index.html

Thanks for the great links. Stephen Krashen is one of my favorite psycholinguists.

My school’s program is designed around how to make kids independent readers asap.

We have a series of books that teach key words in a more repetitious manner. Then we use a series that I wrote myself that teaches them how to chop a sentence down into meaningful fragments, and how to piece the fragments back together for a comprehensive understanding of the sentence.

Then we move into stories. Then into free reading simple phonics story books and Dr. Suess. Then into a Reading Labs, which is what grammar school kids in the States have used forever to improve reading skills.

We built a sweet library in our new school that grows bigger by the week. We have tried to get book trades going with the kids (flopped the first time out…we’ll see what happens next time). And after a few months and my constant pushing them into the librabry to “Read a BOOK!” they finally go in on their own.

I like Krashen’s thoughts on free reading as they mirror my own personal reading history, right down to reading complex vocab in comic books. My kids are amazed at themselves when they can pick up a book they’ve never seen and read it and then tell me what it’s about. Most have never read any book for pleasure, or been read to by their parents, which I see as a child abuse.

Education is the key that unlocks any social door: poverty, ignorance, racism, fear…and if strong reading skills do not exist in a child, what kind of future is there?

I tell my kids that I come from a very small town in the mountains of New York, where most of the people end up working in the garnet mines or doing construction and being unemployed half the year. I was the weird kid. I read. I went to college (and finshed, a first in my family’s history) and now my life is good, and if it weren’t for my reading, it never would have happened. They seem encouraged by that.

More programs should allow kids books, real stories to read, instead of fencing them into "Reading/grammar and story/phonic books. Build their skills and interest. Then let them read The Magic Tree House, Little House on the Prarie, or Goosebumps.

Good OP. There is more to teaching English and reading than "A-A a-a- apple!

I love what you are doing, all of you.

I am fighting an uphill battle to get this kind of thing going at the moment.

Although, my kids are independant readers really quickly, once they get to that level the Taiwanese jump in with trying to do things more “Taiwan style”. It’s like, “thanks for the kick start, we’ll take it from here”. Over my dead body they will.

Your posts have given me the courage and the mindset to grab this situation by the throat and make things happen. Make or break.

My kids got natural phonics under their belts, then the local arm pushed KK in, and to my shame, I let them.

They just don’t get how important reading really is.

Thanks for the posts.

Book Clubs like Scholastic and Troll are godsends for schools in Taiwan. I’m not even sure how many books my school owns in their library, but I know it’s probably well beyond 6,000 different volumes just for the chapter books/novels section of it. Almost every single book is imported from the States.

Bassman, can’t you offer an advanced reading class where you can have the kids read and do weekly oral/written book reports?

Videotape the book reports and show them to the parents…I’m sure they’ll be impressed.

There’s always a way around idiocy.

It’s difficult to deny the truth when it’s on video…so says Paris Hilton.

[quote=“Bassman”]I love what you are doing, all of you.

I am fighting an uphill battle to get this kind of thing going at the moment.

Although, my kids are independant readers really quickly, once they get to that level the Taiwanese jump in with trying to do things more “Taiwan style”. It’s like, “thanks for the kick start, we’ll take it from here”. Over my dead body they will.[/quote]It doesn’t have to be on a huge scale. If you have a small lending library, kids will want to take books home. Parents will be pleased that their children are voluntarily reading English books.

It doesn’t really matter whether they can read and understand every single word, as long as they can get the general gist.

[quote=“Bassman”]My kids got natural phonics under their belts, then the local arm pushed KK in, and to my shame, I let them.[/quote]I agree that there is little use in teaching KK or similar to elementary-age kids, and of course the basics of phonics need to be taught. I think whole-word recognition is also very important, however, and this is a skill that can be picked up by everyone, native speaker or otherwise.

Reading “real books” is a great way to develop whole word recognition skills (as well as to practice and refine phonics ones). Interesting themes and real contexts keep a reader occupied in figuring out new words and becoming more familiar with known ones.

There is nothing wrong with the teacher reading aloud to the kids from time to time, making it a collaborative effort if wanted by getting the kids to read out or predict key words. You don’t need to worry that the kids are more passive in this situation; they are soaking up knowledge. And after you’ve read the story to them they will often want to take the book home to read again for themselves.

The various kinds of games you can use with readers; Jeopardy, running dictations, reading out with errors and getting students to press a ‘buzzer’ and tell you the correct version, are all fun and useful.

Creative work such as re-writing or continuing the story from a particular character’s perspective is also good.

But one of the most direct and effective ways to use a text (especially shortly after you’ve just read a new section of it), is to act it out. This works well with all elementary-age students; the younger ones immerse themselves in the story, the older ones do it over-the-top with a sense of irony or parody sometimes. It’s all good.

Good for you Imaniou. Nice post and I like what you’re doing with the kids. But there’s no reason a kid should wait till age 2 to start reading. It’s never too early. My daughter began shortly after she was born and, now 11 months old, there are few things she likes better than books. Of course she doesn’t understand the words yet, but she loves turning the pages and looking at the pictures.

She has a whole collection of colorful books with cardboard pages (my favorites are by Eric Carle), which she sits down with and reads by herself (if you place her between a plastic toy with flashing lights and a book she will invariably go for the book). She’ll sit there mesmerized, turning the pages one by one, babbling away and having a good time. The books with paper pages we read together, because I don’t want her to destroy them. So she’ll sit on my lap while I read to her, but we rarely finish a book because she’ll generaly get too excited halfway through and start grabbing, trying to turn the pages for me (books used to excite her so much that she would get the hiccups). She began pulling books off our shelves and reading them when we weren’t around, inadvertently tearing out pages, so I’ve now crammed the books securely in place on the shelf and left a few old magazines for her to grab and leaf through on her own.

There’s a nice children’s book store near my house, a few blocks behind the Formosa Plastic Bldg (Tunhwa and Minsheng E Rd) that has a great collection of books in Chinese and English (I buy both), paper and cardboard. If anyone’s interested, I’ll see if I can get their address. Incidentally, another nice thing is that it’s good practice for my Taiwanese wife to read the English books to her, because even children’s books contain lots of good vocabulary words for adult ESLers.

I agree. My son was being read poetry when he was still in the womb. I’ve read to him pretty much every single day of his life and that was planned. He never had to make a choice about wanting to read on not. He just automatically goes to a book, picks it up and looks at it. And now at 5 he’s been learning to read and write for more than a year.

It makes me so sad when a 5-6 year old kid comes into my school and I send him to the library so I can talk to mom and the kid doesn’t know what to do, doesn’t pick up a book. I’ve actually handed a book to a kid like this and he didn’t know what to do with it, as in didn’t open it, so I did. And he liked the pictures. Then I had to turn the pages. He just had no idea how a book worked.

That’s a great OP. I had a private class once with a very bright girl. One of her favorite things was to read with me. She read a page and then I did. We took turns this way and her reading improved because she learned from me how a native speaker would inflect/pronounce/express things that would have just sounded flat comming from a non native speaker. We read all kinds of books and even corresponcences like faxes and post cards. Post cards are especially good for immaginative writing assignments on what happens next.

I also did these same things with my adult classes. I always read to them and let them read to me. We always discussed what we read. I have a wonderful book of folk tails from different cultures that has vocabulary and such built in and my adults usually love it. I’ve even had adults tell me before that all their life they’ve read only for study or work but never to enjoy it, but that they really enjoy it in my class and that they planned to start reading at home as a hobby!

It’s understandable that someone can grow up here without pleasureable reading when you realize that their childhoods are spent studying until midnight or later for school work. Very, very sad, though.

Update on our story, my 5th graders have me reading over 40 pages a day to them so they will be able to finish The Tale of Despereaux before Chinese New Year they scold anyone who asks me questions such as the pronunciation of a characters name or who talks to their neighbor about the book because it interrupts the story. I like putting the book down at the end of a chapter and announcing, “That’s all I said I would read today” and hearing them exclaim, “Please, just one more chapter! We’ll be good!” One boy who I wasn’t sure how much he listened actually said I couldn’t stop reading because he wanted to find out what happened to one of the characters. Again, I love reading this aloud because every chapter ends with a good cliffhanger. The one I was supposed to end with was the line, “Cook said,‘Who said that?’”. They begged me to read the first line of the next chapter. The next line was, “‘Who said that?’ Cook repeated.” They begged for one more line which was, “Despereaux said nothing.” I tell you, I lost my voice for almost all of last week and they still hung on to every word I read, even offering me water and lozenges so I could continue the story. By this time tomorrow, due to the urging of a captive audience, I will have read 269 pages of a novel aloud in the course of 8 school days.

I urge you, that for a group of students 8 years and up with intermediate+ English listening skills, you simple have to read The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. I have never seen older kids so hooked on storytime before.

They also enjoyed me reading Today is Monday by Eric Carle. They were a little familiar with the book from when they were preschoolers and I have been using it all year to teach my 3-year-olds the days of the week (which you can ask any of them on any day of the week what the previous day was and what day tomorrow will be, although they might add the words “string beans”, “spaghetti”, “zoop”, “roast beef”, “fresh fish”, “chicken”, or “ice cream” depending on what day it is :wink: ) using strips that I made by scanning thumbnails of the pictures from the book. We sang the song that goes with it with each student (only 7 came on Friday, fortunately, so they all got one day) chiming in their food when they heard the name of their day. Very cute. They did it impromptu today as we were packing up to go home…remembering which day and food they were nearly a week ago.

This summer when I went home, I took only two suitcases: one that was halfway filled with what I needed (clothes, toiletries, and 1.5 years’ worth of presents from Asia and Europe for my family). The other was full of picture books, educational manipulatives, a few cute outfits, construction toys, montessori videos, and did I mention picture books? The second suitcase was for my niece who, at 20 months, had never been read to and spent time watching daddy (my brother) play video games and watch TV in his spare time. As a matter of fact, she walked into my sister’s room, picked up a controller from her old Sega Genesis, and pointed to the TV to indicate she wanted to play video games.
I spent a few months gathering those books…more fervently when I had heard from my mother that she was not being read to… I got quite a few through Scholastic and others through local bookstores, and well over $200 USD on them. Shortly after I came back to Taiwan, I talked to my brother who told me that she would pick up one of her books and give it to him or my sister-in-law, wanting them to read it to her. I can only hope that they keep granting her request to be read to.

Tristan definitely will get story time with her aunt when her aunt goes back to the States for a visit. I love reading aloud to kids.

Great thread, ImaniOU, and everyone else. I really enjoyed it.