MiddleWeb | Juli Kendall's 2004-05 Journal

Juli Kendall's
2004-05
READING/WRITING
WORKSHOP JOURNAL

Entry #02

My Students Write Their "Reading History"

Sitting quietly and reading — that's an oxymoron for 11- and 12-year olds, if I ever heard one.

It's the first day of school so we take some time for Independent Reading. We do this to get a feel for how kids manage themselves, and it all comes down to this — not sitting quietly and not reading. For some kids, being still and reading just isn't in the cards.

So why is this an oxymoron? An oxymoron, according to this useful website, "is a literary figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory words, terms, phrases or ideas are combined to create a rhetorical effect by paradoxical means." This phrase, "sitting quietly and reading," is definitely a contradictory set of ideas for this group. Everyone seems to be wiggling, squirming, scratching, or just generally avoiding the pile of books in the middle of the table.

Now that we know where we stand on this issue, it's time to find another assessment that will give us a window into the kids' reading. Gary, on the MiddleWeb Reading and Writing Workshop Project listserv, has some great assessment suggestions.

Well, our kids don't come in until next week, and then it will only be a three day week due to the Jewish holidays. This will actually make it quite convenient for conducting quick reading and writing assessments, and then having the four-day weekend to make some preliminary plans.

In my reading workshop, I've laid out about one-fourth of my library but cordoned it off with yellow police tape to tantalize the kids and get them excited when the library is open to them. I've taken a mix of 120 or so leveled books (using Fountas & Pinella's Leveled Books for Readers, Grades 3-6) and put them in baskets out on the tables. Independent reading during these first days will act as a barometer to see what my students' independent reading thresholds are.

I'll also be conducting Reading Surveys (modified from the Reading Survey in Laura Robb's Teaching Reading in Middle School and her Eleven Questions About Reading), and modeling my own Reading History to the students before having them write their own. These first few weeks will essentially be my time for establishing the routines and expectations that will shape my workshop for the rest of the year. And as always, I'll reserve time for read aloud (a mix of articles, poems, short stories and editorials early in the year before moving into longer texts).

I've never asked my kids to write a Reading History but it sounds like an interesting idea. I follow Gary's advice and begin my modeling by writing my own Reading History.

It seems like I have been reading forever. I remember when I had Rheumatic Fever in first grade and for almost the whole year I stayed in bed. Since I was sick, my mother home-schooled me and so I learned to read on the "Little House in the Woods" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. When I was six years old, I remember being all alone in the hospital the night before I had my tonsils out and reading one of the books to pass the time. The next thing I remember about my reading is the book Peter Pan. I was transfixed with the idea of Wendy, John, and Michael flying off into the night.

Reading in school doesn't really stand out for me. Mostly I remember reading the stories in the book and having to copy the questions and answer them in complete sentences, over and over and over again. My husband remembers the SRA box with dread but we didn't have SRA in my school in Arizona. I can still see the huge, cool library we visited on hot summer afternoons and the long row of orange biographies. I wanted to read them all, but I never finished.

The next thing I remember about reading was summer vacations in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. My mother read aloud the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as The Hobbit. The dark cabin was a perfect setting for those stories.

Now what I like about reading are books on tape, or rather, books on Ipod. I've just finished listening to the five Alexander McCall Smith stories about the #1 Ladies Detective Agency in Botswana. So reading is a big part of my life. But I've learned that I can read in many different ways, not just by reading stories.

After I read my Reading History to the kids, they all write their own. The writing of one young girl stands out. She writes:

When I started to read, I was in second grade. My teacher yelled at us when we didn't read the book right. My mom teach me how to read in Mexico.

My favorite book was The Lion and the Mouse. It is a very funny book. I liked it because at the end they were friends. The book I am reading now is Snapshots from the Wedding by Gary Soto.

Thanks to Gary on the Reading/Writing listserv, I now have a better understanding of my students as readers. This is a great idea!

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