The Purpose of Reading
Think
of a recent time when you sat down with something to read (maybe this chapter,
perhaps?) –
you had a purpose, right? You probably
can’t think of a time when you read something without a purpose. It might have been to relax for a while or
maybe to learn a new recipe, but whatever the case, you had a purpose.
The
same is true for kids. They need to see
a purpose in order to get something meaningful out of reading. If you put a Literature Circles novel in
front of a student and they don’t know the purpose, I guarantee you’ll have
behaviour issues and the student won’t gain anything of value from the
experience.
There
are three main reasons for reading:
- You can read to perform a task, such as specific directions. For example, “Read until you get to the part where...”
- You can read for enjoyment.
- You can read to learn new information. For example, if you wanted to learn about sea otters.
Before
asking your students to read, make sure that you give them a purpose. Be specific.
You can (and should) do this before asking them to read anything, not
just a novel for Literature Circles.
Some
specific prompts you can use include:
- Read until you find the solution to the story problem.
- Close your book once you’ve made a text-to-self connection.
- After reading, I want you to tell me…
- Read until you find out about…
- Put the book down once you discover the setting of this story.
After
some time, students will begin to see the purpose and value of reading. They’ll become more independent and have much
greater buy-in for reading tasks. You’ll
see readers with more focus and engagement, and far deeper comprehension.
A Strong Class Community = Comfortable Communication
It’s
no secret that classroom community is important. When students respect and acknowledge each
other’s unique abilities a feeling of positivity and safety exists in the
classroom. If you want your students to
feel comfortable sharing their thoughts about novels during Literature Circles,
classroom community is essential.
One
of my favourite
ways to build classroom community is through
a class agreement. This is the backbone
of management in my
classroom. Once built, we have a
whole-class understanding that
we’ll follow it. If a student isn’t
being respectful during Literature
Circles, I always reference the class agreement. This
blog post outlines how I build a class agreement, and gives some other
community-building pointers, as well:
Other
ways to build classroom community include:
- Encourage student questions, and follow them up with another open-ended question to further thinking.
- Get to know your students interests so you can plan lessons/suggest novels that are more to their liking.
- Hold a Circle Talk/Morning Meeting to allow students to share their excitements and concerns with the class.
Independence is Key
During
Literature Circles, you’re not going to be able to sit with every group, every
time. Students are going to need to be
able to have some independent working skills.
The good news is that if students see a purpose for the reading, and
have a strong class community, they’ll feel accountable for their learning and
independent working shouldn’t be of concern.
On
days where I feel that students weren’t using their time as wisely as they
could have been, I’ll often ask them to offer up a self-reflection of their
work. Using a sticky note, students can
write a sentence or two about what they did during the work period, give
themselves a rating out of 5, and set a goal for the next time. Quick, easy, and accountable.
Model, Model, and Model Some More
How
do students know what’s expected of them? Through explicit teacher
modeling. If you’re going to ask your
students to make connections during Literature Circles, they need to have
experience making connections before hand.
If there is a certain format you’d like them to write responses with,
they’ll need to have that modeled too.
You
can model for students by:
- Thinking aloud
- Providing a visual
- Working through the task together
- Checking for understanding and remodeling points of confusion
- Showing past student samples
Before
you begin Literature Circles, decide on the task you will want your students to
complete. Are there any that require
pre-teaching and modeling? If so, short stories and picture books are great
tools to use when modeling strategies!
