Annual Book Challenge - Turn that frown upside down kids!

               

My placement middle school, as well as others in the district, has a book challenge that students are expected to participate in during the course of the school year.  Students at my school are expected to read eighteen texts in addition to any reading done for their classes.  At some schools the requirement can be as high as twenty-five books per student.

                Personally, I adore reading and professionally I understand the value in literacy as well as benefits reaped by not just reading, but learning to read well.  But I also see a struggle here.  The collective groan and grimacing faces in our classroom were a clear indicator of how the vast majority of our students felt about having to read eighteen books plus needing to do a one page book report or a quiz on each one.  As a lover of books, an avid reader and a teacher this reaction was impossible to ignore – the students did not want to do this and the majority was openly disgruntled about the task.

                My task became clear – find out why the response to the book challenge was overwhelmingly negative and find ways to have students become excited at the prospect of choosing their own reading material.  Why are our students not interested in reading materials of their own choosing? Is this happening across all grade levels and all classes? How we change student attitude about book challenges?  What resources are available to implement change? 

                In an article titled “Literature Is” published in a 1974 English Journal, G. Robert Carlson proposed five stages of developing readers (23-27):

                  1. Unconscious delight: the typical response of elementary to middle school                               readers. They read for enjoyment without analyzing why;                                                         they have not yet developed a vocabulary for discussing emotional responses.

                  2. Living vicariously: Action and escape seem to dominate for middle school and                       junior high readers – horror, mystery, romance, fantasy and true adventures.

                  3. Seeing oneself: The typical response of readers in junior high school into high                       school is more egocentric.  Now readers are concerned with what’s happening                       in their personal and social lives.  YAL has a strong appeal at this stage.

                                

                  4. Philosophical speculations: Upper level high school students shift from                                  focusing on self to an interest in others, looking for relationships, examining                            why. Some are still reading stories of adolescent life.

                    5. Aesthetic delight: In late high school to adulthood, readers have acquired                              critical awareness and begin to recognize universal themes.  By this stage                              readers have developed the vocabulary to describe literary elements.  They                          can delight in, recognize, and appreciate the qualities of writing.

                1974 may seem like a long time ago, but read the above and tell me you do not see some of this reflected in your students.  I know I do.  I think there is a lot of relevancy in what Carlson says about young readers and what appeals to them as well as what they glean on their own.  I’m not considering what we give them to read or guide them to through in class – but what a student will inherently get from a text if they are reading without guidance.  If we can find where they might be on the above list we might be able to give them better suggestions on texts or even genres they might enjoy reading for things like book challenges.   Pure observation of my students would put the vast majority at number one or number two and we (I) should be guiding them to books that fit those categories.

                I had the good fortune to use Pam Cole’s Young Adult Literature for the 21^st Century for a class on Young Adult Literature this summer.  I’m already an avid Young Adult (YA) reader in my own right, but knowing how to shift that enjoyment of literature to my students is much trickier.  In Chapter 2, Cole discusses the various attributes that turn tween and teen readers on and off of reading, but one thread that ran through much of what she had to say here and in other chapters was the emphasis on the social aspect of reading; that teens need their reading to not just disappear into a one person void. 

                Here’s what I see happening: students are given the assignment to read a large number of books with deadlines for each one established by the due date for a book report or book quiz.  They read on their own at home or during selected class time for independent reading (every Friday in the case of my 8^th graders) and eventually, per the due date, they turn in their assignment or quiz and move on to the next book.  I see very little community in this process.  I see a lot of deadlines and pressure to move at a particular pace with little positive interactions involving their peers or teachers to talk about what they have read. 

                On top of that, the students resemble deer in the headlights when trying to choose a book.  All those spines of books lining classroom shelves and I suspect many students have no idea where to start trying to find the right level book with an engaging story.  The frustration of students in my class when choosing books or reading what they have chosen is palpable, but I think I can help ease some of their frustration.

                I opted to do a book talk on Friday on a book that might appeal to my students (Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins who also wrote The Hunger Games).  I picked a book already on the classroom shelves and one I happened to have a copy of myself (so we had 2 copies to check out students if they were interested).  I also did some informal book conferences with 7 of my students to ask about what they were reading, if they were enjoying it and if it was a genre they like to read.  I’ll continue to do weekly book talks and the informal conferences, compile that information and see if I can formulate a better picture of student reading interests.  With this information, I hope to set-up some books of interest around the classroom for students to peruse.  

                I think we can do a lot more to make book campaigns a less solitary endeavor.  Have students give book talks on the book they have read or write a comprehensive book review instead of a quiz or book report that they can share with their peers.  Put them up in the classroom or build a binder of book reviews that students can look through to find something they may want to read.  Or do like the bookstores and have students pick suggested books that we can highlight with a few pertinent notes about why the book stood out to them. 

                I think the book challenge can be a powerful purposeful tool to building lifelong readers and I hope I can find ways to turn those early grimaces into something more positive for my students.  If you have such a program at your school  or have input I’d love (LOVE) any ideas or suggestions you might have or resources for making this a positive experience for middle school students!

References

Carlsen, G. Robert. (1974) “Literature IS.” English Journal 63.2, 23-27.    

  

Cole, P. (2009). Young adult literature in the 21st century. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Gallo, D. (2005). From Hinton to Hamlet: Building Bridges between Young Adult Literature and the Classics. Greenwood Publishing Group.