On the commute this morning, Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher explore how personalized and student-driven reading experiences can cultivate a deep appreciation for literature. In this excerpt from their audiobook, 4 Essential Studies, we'll hear about research-backed strategies for integrating book clubs into your curriculum and practical methods to prepare for meaningful book club discussions that will deeply engage students and push their critical thinking skills.
Below is a full transcript
Penny Kittle:
In making meaning with texts, Louise Rosenblatt writes, "The desire to run the whole repertory of the classics down the throats of unresponsive students implies admission of defeat. The assumption that once out of our influence, they will turn no more to good literature. We need not fear the persistence of our present low cultural level however. If we concentrate not on force-feeding of the classics, but on the nourishing of a personal awareness of the joys of literature and a capacity for critical judgment, we shall then send forth from our schools and colleges, men and women eager to turn spontaneously to literature as their own life creates the need. Able to distinguish and to assimilate the good and the great wherever it manifests itself in the literature of the past and of the present."
Kelly Gallagher:
Penny and I regularly read research on the teaching of reading. We recommend all teachers do. We also study our current students' habits and behaviors throughout the school year. We are committed to their development as lifelong readers and writers. If there weren't research to support the benefits of book clubs, we would deeply question why, since the evidence is clear in watching our students. But in fact, there is an abundance of research focused on the power of small communities of students reading and learning together like Gay Ivey and Peter H. Johnston's engagement with young adult literature outcome and processes. And Sonja Cherry-Paul and Dana Johansen's book, Breathing New Life into Book Clubs.
However, there is something we can't seem to find in research, how teaching a year of whole-class novels builds all students' engagement in the habit of lifelong reading. When large populations of adolescents refuse to read what is assigned to them and also do not read for pleasure outside of school, our curriculum needs revision. According to Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop's research, Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors, we should start by including not only books that represent the lived experiences of our students, but books that open new worlds to them. It is worth noting that Dr. Sims Bishop called for this revision more than 30 years ago. We want all students to experience the joy and discovery of learning from books, which means revising our curriculum.
A volume of reading is necessary practice to become strategic readers. When our students are in book clubs, they read more. They hold each other accountable, which spurs them on. Book clubs build a student's capacity for reading hundreds of pages a week. They are so essential that we build in opportunities for students to participate in them throughout the school year.
Beyond our classrooms, book clubs are an integral part of our personal reading lives. I founded a book club with my colleagues in 1993 and have since read and discussed over 200 books with fellow faculty and staff members. Penny runs a book club for hundreds of teachers every summer through her Book Love Foundation. Book clubs motivate us to read. They deepen our understanding of not only the book, but how others read and interpret the same text. Book clubs stretch our thinking and they expose us to books and authors we may have otherwise missed.
We know that choice engages adolescents. When we ask students to choose books to study, they will often invite their friends to read with them. We watch students in groups of three or four form close-knit book clubs and dig deeper into their thinking in response to what they're reading. They talk more because they're actually reading and preparing for discussion. And they're more comfortable sharing their ideas when the spotlight of an entire class is not turned on them alone. A group is less intimidating. All group members begin to ask questions and listen to answers. This small group experience deepens their understanding of the value of books and each other.
Penny:
Students are social. They crave time to connect with others and think together. But this simply does not happen enough in whole class discussions, no matter what the text. There are two reasons, it's easy to hide in a class of 30. And if students haven't read the book, they're not going to jump into a discussion where follow-up questions could reveal their deception.
In book clubs, students choose the book so they're more likely to actually read. When only four desks are huddled together, students are more likely to talk with peers. They not only engage with characters', emotions and motives, but also ask questions about the moral dilemmas the characters face. Students turn inward from the reading, and the small group setting makes it more likely they will discuss how these same dilemmas exist in their lives, as Gay Ivey and Peter Johnston found in their study of eighth grade book clubs.
"Reading was no longer a spectator experience, but one shared with peers. This made the act of reading one that built relationships within their book club, yes, but also within their classroom and school community. This engagement itself is satisfying to students, which is why book clubs that feature contemporary literature and non-fiction are an essential study." Ivey and Johnston continue, "Some students also admitted to having begun the year with a simmering anger because of their personal, economic, or family situation. But reading books in which plausible characters with whom they could relate, have lives as hard or harder than theirs, gave them a different perspective on their own lives." This is exactly what we are looking for, purposeful, student-driven talk about books that moves beyond the book to life itself. These are the habits of lifelong readers.
Kelly:
Establishing meaningful peer talk is a critical component to sharpening critical thinking skills. To do this, we have to move our students away from questions that test only their extraction skills. We use the following strategies to increase student talk in book clubs.
Penny:
Open-ended discussion questions. In addition to the daily notebook writing, we ask students to respond to weekly focused questions on Google Docs that we shared across our two schools. Week one, what's worth talking about? Is there a passage that struck you as important in developing a character or a person or an idea in the book thus far? Week two, name and discuss a big idea that is emerging. Week three, name and discuss the systems or institutions that contribute to equity or inequity. Week four, how has this experience of reading and listening to others changed your thinking? These questions were intentionally open-ended to spur fresh thinking.
Kelly:
Student generated two-page spreads. Even though our book club discussion questions were open-ended, they were still provided by the teacher. We wanted our students to generate their own thinking before coming to book club meetings. So, we asked them to prepare for discussion by creating two-page spreads in their notebooks. Our directions were not much more sophisticated than that. We simply asked them to bring evidence that they had been thinking about their reading.
Some students did not like this. They knew it was easier to simply answer the teacher's questions. What should they put on a blank page? We anticipated this resistance. We shared notebook observations we had made on one of the books. We encouraged students to collect what they found important in the text, to sketch if they chose, to organize their thinking however it made sense to them.
We used examples from their peers. When students turned in the first round of spreads, we quickly combed through them searching for varied examples. We flagged these and brought them back to class. We said, "Look at what Taylor did here. Look at what Callie did there." Check out the online resources to see examples of student work.
One student made bulleted lists of what she considered important information from chapters one through four of her book. Her categories for Bryan Stevenson's, Just Mercy, included, court case, racial profiling, Walter's time in court, and Herbert Richardson. We showed this under the document camera to remind students that organizing notes into categories is a smart strategy to make sense of a lot of information.
Other students kept sticky notes in their books as they read, and then added them to their notebooks before class. One of them used colors to categorize the kinds of notes she was taking on, I Will Save You. Another student wrote two pages of notes and thoughts on the reading to prepare for the book club discussion, and then highlighted points she felt were most important to share. And yet another student put the open-ended questions we posed on the top of the left side. The student listed elements of writing craft as well as quotes from the text and thoughts. This is a different organizational system than the sticky notes examples, so we shared it with students as well in order to show that how they kept notes was as individual as they are.
Because many students were not used to generating their thinking without prompting from the teacher, some of them started slowly. But as the year progressed and students had numerous opportunities to share, their spreads markedly improved. Many found the freedom refreshing. As teachers, we celebrated their divergent thinking and it made for richer discussions.
Edie:
That's it for our commute today. To hear more from Penny and Kelly, you can stream or download their audiobook, 4 Essential Studies: Beliefs and Practices to Reclaim Student Agency, wherever you get your audiobooks. Thanks for listening and let us know what you'd like to hear about in our time together. You can learn more about Heinemann's audiobooks at heinemann.com/audiobooks.
About the Author
Penny Kittle teaches freshman composition at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. She was a teacher and literacy coach in public schools for 34 years, 21 of those spent at Kennett High School in North Conway. She is the co-author (with Kelly Gallagher) of Four Essential Studies: Beliefs and Practices to Reclaim Student Agency as well as the bestselling 180 Days.
Learn more about Penny Kittle on her websites, pennykittle.net and booklovefoundation.org.
Kelly Gallagher taught at Magnolia High School in Anaheim, California for 35 years. He is the coauthor, with Penny Kittle, of Four Essential Studies: Beliefs and Practices to Reclaim Student Agency, as well as the bestselling 180 Days. Kelly is also the author of several other books on adolescent literacy, most notably Readicide and Write Like This. He is the former co-director of the South Basin Writing Project at California State University, Long Beach and the former president of the Secondary Reading Group for the International Literacy Association.
