Schooled

2012-02-19T20:27:00.000-08:00

New York Times's Schoolbook is a great site for all things related to New York City schools. I'm no longer a New York City teacher, but I find the articles are relevant no matter where I teach.

I was touched by a recent opinion piece, "Students Learn Differently. So Why Test Them All the Same?" by high school E.S.L. teacher Arthur Goldstein about the need to differentiate assessments for English Language Learners.

Goldstein writes, "But depriving [English Language Learners] of the time and instruction they need is not, by any means, putting “Children First.” Children are not widgets, and not only teachers, but also educational leaders and test designers, need to differentiate. . . Of course my kids can be assessed. But expecting the same thing from them and kids who have been speaking English all their lives is ludicrous."

I love the bit about children not being widgets. It seems we've lost sight of that fundamental truth as we move further and further into the morass of standardized testing.

2012-02-12T21:59:00.000-08:00

Colorful pictures and a high-interest topic will get the attention of most hard-to-reach readers every time. The Magic School Bus book series gets a lot of use in my 4th grade classroom and what most students (and their parents) don't get is how deceptively challenging non-fiction texts can be. Students have to track the text all over the place, instead of the basic left to right of traditional texts. Then here are all those awesome vocabulary words.

Lesson Ideas: These books, along with the videos, are a great way to convey science content, but I'd also think about using a page or two to model how to read a non-fiction text. Students can then grab another title in the series to do some practice on their own.

Pro Tip: Check the age levels for each book as they can range quite a bit. I keep a big bucket of these in a plastic bin in my classroom library with the label "Magic School Bus." Works like a charm.

2012-02-05T12:52:00.000-08:00

Check Out My New Tumblr!

Reads for Reluctant Readers

Thanks for checking out my page. Hope you found what you were looking for about using Wallwisher in the classroom. Here's the latest post from my new Tumblr, where I will offer lots of book recommendations for your reluctant readers.

As an adult, I will read the odd graphic novel, but my fourth grade students love them. (I believe the art in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series is a important part of its success.) I bought this book because I read a review somewhere awhile back that this series was good. And it was available at the local used book shop for cheap!

I gave it to one of my less inclined readers and he finished it in a day. Then another lower reader asked to borrow it next. Then another. Soon, all of the kids who rarely contribute to book discussions were talking about this book without me even being a part of the conversation. Like, during lunch. They asked me if I had the next one (there are four in the series), which I didn't, but I bought it that night.

Lesson Ideas: I can see using a few pages of the text to do a guided reading lesson on inferences - think about how much you have to infer from just a few frames of images! There are lesson plans on the Scholastic website, but I think the fun for them was just devouring a fun book in a day or so.

Pro Tip: This is a Scholastic book, so get it with those Book Club Bonus Points.

Blogging Science

2011-06-04T12:35:00.000-07:00

I wanted to take a minute to share the amazing work my students have been doing in science, captured here in several blog posts here.

Our most recent circuit project is a culmination of a lot of their hard work and enthusiasm in many areas: collaborative and project-based learning, really putting in time to get our blog off the ground, and, of course, some amazing science writing - to name a few.

Also, look out for our upcoming composting tutorial, where my students will blog about creating a school-wide composting program!

Setting Up Rules and Guldelines For Student Blogging

2011-04-16T19:24:00.000-07:00

From http://mshoward.edublogs.org/ page on Blog Guidelines

Now that I have the go-ahead from my administration to start a classroom blog, I knew I had to set some guidelines for the students to follow. My reasons were two-fold: I wanted to set up expectations in terms of quality of the content, and I also wanted to outline rules to ensure student safety. After explaining the difference between a post and a page, I opened up a fresh page on our blog and asked them, "What should our guidelines be for our blog?"

All of the reasons for teaching Internet safety in school are best articulated here, at the Edublogs post on the subject. While keeping our students safe online consists of a series of common sense steps and precautions, a class discussion revelaved that their use is not yet common sense to the kids (and possibly not to their parents either).

From http://mshoward.edublogs.org/ page on Blog Guidelines

The quality part of the discussion was easy, because they'd been drilled on proper writing conventions for years now. They know that when I ask what good writing looks like they should parrot back the need to use proper punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. They also know to make sure that their writing makes sense, and -this one impressed me!- verify what they wrote was really true. One student even piped up and suggested we had to keep the content of the blog appropriate, including not just our words, but also pictures or YouTube videos.

"They are thinking about their audience!" I thought. "They know they can't just write or post whatever! Victory in our time!"

From http://mshoward.edublogs.org/ page on Blog Guidelines

When it came to the safety part of the discussion, it was clear some students had been given a lot more instruction from their parents about using the Internet than others. Even then, the kids who knew to look out for "weirdos who want to hurt you" still weren't clear on what preventative measures to take beyond not giving out their address or phone number. It was a terrific opportunity to explain what practices we were going to adopt to keep them safe and why. For example, not giving out their after school activity schedule made sense once explained, but I'm not sure it occurred to any of them that their daily routine was information they needed to protect.

After about five minutes of discussion, a student looked at me very earnestly and said, "Wait. Why do we have to think about safety on the computer? What could happen?" It has always been clear that some students in my class are allowed less access to media and the Internet than other students, but it did not occur to me that some would have no experience with this subject at all. I understand parents wanting to limit their children's screen time, but in that moment I saw why we have a responsibility to teach this in our schools.

Our middle school humanities teacher happened to be in the classroom during this discussion, and she said she taught a similar lesson with her 6th - 8th grade students, but I wondered if that was not too late for a lot of our students to be formally taught how to handle themselves online. We teach children how to act in physical public spaces from the moment they leave the house. Why shouldn't we teach them how to navigate virtual public spaces the moment they enter them?

When, Dear Reader, do you think Internet safety should be taught in the classroom? What have you learned from your students when talking to them about online safety?

And then. . .

2011-04-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

I was all ready to go. I created a sweet little class blog, complete with a picture of the classroom from the beginning of the year (above) and a note welcoming the students. I even had a handful of lovely comments from fellow educators from around the world. And then. . .

It seems like when things don't work out the way you expect them to, there is always an "And then. . ." lurking around the corner. My "And then. . ." started with some small-but-necessary questions from my school's administration. Would anybody be able to read this blog? What if it was just the parents who had access? Who is going to do all that work, all that writing?

I had my answers at the ready - Thanks, Teacher Challenge! - and was able to answer all the questions asked about privacy concerns and Internet safety. Of course, anyone could read it, that was the point. Only allowing parents to access what the class wrote would keep it from being the authentic writing experience I was looking to create. The kids would do the writing, and I would help them, as with any of our writing assignments.

I made it through the first round of administration, but I had a second round to go, as our principal was out of town. And then. . . I got scared. What if it just didn't work? What if the parents objected? What if my principal thought it was bad idea?

And then. . . the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if I didn't have enough time available to add this to my workload. I was already pressed for enough hours in the day to get all the rest of it done and had recently taken to sequestering myself into an unused conference room during lunch to get a solid fifteen minutes of uninterrupted grading finished.

And then. . . report cards were due. And soon! I had to write them, and review them, and revise them. Nothing keeps me up late at night like fear of accidentally writing the wrong name on a report card. Or, heaven forbid, a typo. (What could undermine my authority as an educator more than misspelling the word, "science"?)


Whoever thought of this mnemonic is a genius!

Eventually, though, the report cards were finished. And then. . . we started doing really cool projects in math around measurement. For example, I decided it would be fun to have the students bring in various items packaged in gallons, quarts, pints, and cups. It was going to be a customary capacity party! There was going to be ice cream, chocolate chips, juice, and milk in different-sized containers and we were going to compare them. It was the kind of lesson that would make for a great blog post, I thought. So, I bit the bullet and asked for permission from my principal and was given a couple weeks to try it out.

It was not a seamless process, that first group post. Luckily, I had help from a colleague, and she took all of the pictures, while I wrangled the kids to give me usable copy about our party and customary capacity measurements. They are terrific writers, and eventually they were suggesting revisions so the writing was clearer and more detailed - exactly the kind of changes I had been urging them to make as they considered their audience. Only this time, they had an actual audience they were considering and I didn't need to remind them for whom they were writing.


"I learned that different-sized containers can have the same volume." -student comment

I'm particularly proud of how the process of writing really led my students to step back and thoughtfully consider the topic at hand. My favorite comment was when one student said, “I learned that different-sized containers can have the same volume," because that is a hard concept for kids to get. (I also liked how they wanted confirmation that Goldfish crackers and sour cream came in pint-sized containers.)

It occurs to me that "And then . . ." is often used as a writing prompt, as it pushes the writer to think about the consequences of what has come before and the possibility of what can come next. It is my hope that we can continue to take on this new challenge and see where it leads us.

Check out our Customary Capacity Party here!

Integrating Technology

2011-02-21T14:29:00.000-08:00

Well, the 30 Day Teacher Challenge is over and I've found myself thinking about what I would like to do as I move forward with this blog. It seems to me that I've read a lot about technology integration and the different ways students can use technology, but not a lot of what it looks like on a day-to-day basis. I've often found that for most teachers* technology is not actually integrated into daily lessons or classroom life yet.

To be honest, when I lesson plan in any subject, be it Social Studies or Math or Reading, I don't immediately think of blogging or Animoto; I think of writing projects and creative projects in the old-fashioned, paper-and-pencil sense. My students research and draw product maps of California or write like authors they like, and I have been happy with the results. They like the projects and get something from what we are doing. It's authentic.

Adding technology on top of already authentic projects does not necessarily make them any better or teach more content. That would only be technology for technology's sake, like the teachers I've seen who use their SmartBoards exactly like they were whiteboards. I used Wallwisher a couple weeks ago to have students record character change as a way to generate supporting details for an expository writing project. The control group with the poster paper "wall" seemed to show the same enthusiasm than those using the virtual "walls." The quotes both groups chose were of the same quality. The paper group even had the advantage of being more on task, leaving me to wonder why I used Wallwisher in the first place.

But I can see how value could be added if my Wallwisher lesson was used as part of a blog instead of an essay, maybe where students in another class across the country could comment on their post. So I'm dedicating time and space here on this blog to think about technology in the classroom. Is the only way to authentically integrate technology to add a web of technology around it? Does technology only beget more technology or can technology become just another tool in our teaching arsenal? How can we truly integrate technology into our classrooms?

Photo by Llewi034 licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License .

*One terrific exception to this is Ms. Yollis and her amazing classroom blog. Check it out to see how technology can be used daily in a classroom.

In the Classroom: Wallwisher

2011-02-04T17:08:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I wrote about how I might use Wallwisher in my classroom to support reading comprehension. Here is how it went!

Small Book Group Lesson: Exploring Character Change Using Wallwisher

Materials
The Secret School, Avi
From the Mixed-up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg
Hatchet, Gary Paulsen
Computers with Internet access
Post-its

These are the three books we happened to be reading; this lesson should work with any book where the character does, indeed, change. Avoid series books, especially mysteries, because they often have static characters!

Previous Lessons
Prior to this lesson, my students had just finished reading their books and had been studying character change. They used post-its while they read the last couple of chapters, marking both epiphanies and character change. They then went back through the first few chapters of the book, marking places where the author described the character, knowing where the character would eventually end up at the end of the book. We also did some quick writing where they jotted down their thoughts in response to questions about the main characters.

Using Wallwisher
I had created the two of the three of the online "walls" ahead of time. Technical issues prevented me from setting up the one for the third group. I showed the students how to post on the wall simply by walking around with the laptop. Those of you with SmartBoards or projectors can obviously use your fancy technology to your advantage, but my students got the point. I used a straightforward example from The Secret School by Avi to model for all the students, but especially the lower readers, what a strong quote would look like.

The two groups which had computers seized upon them immediately. My thinking was that the novelty of using a computer in Reading would keep them all actively participating, but I definitely needed to pull at least one computer per two or three students. (They were in groups of six with one computer each. Rookie mistake.) I also forget how slow they are at typing. This whole integrating technology is much harder if they have little experience using technology.

And, to be fair, one day with laptops in Reading does not integration make.

But this was a small step in that direction. I wasn't able to pull up Wallwisher on a third computer for a third group, but we compromised and I gave them poster paper to put actual post-its on. Turns out that the poster paper allowed all six students to be active simultaneously unlike the computers did. The students also worked a lot faster. This is not meant to disparage using the computers, but an observation on the limitations of technology.

If I Were to Use Wallwisher Again
First of all, I would definitely use Wallwisher again. The students were so excited to write their ideas, even the more reluctant workers/ writers. They also worked together a bit more, supervising one another as they typed on the computer, much more so than when they write by hand. Their answers were limited by the number of characters allowed per post by Wallwisher, but they also contained less mechanical errors and were much more on topic.

In order to keep students actively involved, I would either have at least one computer for every two students minimum or set it up so one student rotated one-at-a-time to a laptop, while the other students did independent or group work.

I also had a bit of a hiccup with not saving the "wall" properly, and lost some student comments, which I was able to fix. It was not a big deal, but good to know for future use.

Other lessons I could see using Wallwisher for:

Processing concept understanding in Science, especially after an experiment
Posting examples of geometry in the real world, especially if students can gather pictures to link to their stickies
Writing and editing sentences that contain grammar, capitalization, or punctuation errors.

Dear Reader, What has been your experience using Wallwisher in the classroom?
Have you experienced the same logistical difficulties with Wallwisher as I did? How did you set it up so that all students had a chance to actively participate? How often do you use Wallwisher or other similar programs in the classroom and what subjects do you use it for?

Epiphanies

2011-01-27T23:30:00.000-08:00

As a teacher, I find that I tend to really concentrate a lot of thought outside the classroom on a specific subject and how I can teach it more effectively. Lately, I've been focused on reading instruction, and how to help my students get more out of their book group discussions.

The biggest problem with most ten-year-olds is that they still don't know how to really listen to each other and respond directly to what their classmates say. They have an idea, raise their hand, and wait for their friend to finish talking so they can share their thought, often to the detriment of the flow of the conversation. I have tried taking myself out of the equation -it has been quite hard to break them of just the practice of only looking at me when talking about the book rather than addressing the entire group- but true conversation seems to be hard to come by.

It seems a blog could really make it so students have to respond directly to one another and at the same time get their thoughts out. The online notice board creator, Wallwisher, seems like a great resource to get students to share and comment on ideas as they read. I like that no one has to create an account and posting is pretty easy and straightforward.

Earlier this week, I had students post-it a page in their books where a character has an epiphany or sudden realization. How easy would it have been for them to take the information one step further and simply post the same information on the wall so others can see and comment on their examples?

Having students respond to one another directly would certainly go a long way in taking me out of the equation as de facto moderator of their discussions. With time to think about and craft responses online rather than to wait to be called on (or to get a word in edgewise, if you, like me, you are trying to get them to have a give-and-take discussion without the traditional classroom hand-raising) maybe students will be able to craft much more thoughtful and thorough responses to one another.

Notice that I am using a lot of conjecture here as I haven't tried this out yet. What success, dear reader, have you had with using online notice boards or other tools that allow commenting? Do you require students to respond a minimum number of times to keep the conversation going? How often do you step in as a teacher to moderate?

Check back in with me soon to see how it works out!

Images

2011-01-24T22:12:00.000-08:00

"Teaching Science"

I made this graph at crappygraphs.com, which might be my new favorite toy. I'm not sure if my students (fourth grade) could handle creating their own graphs using such on open-ended tool -they are still learning how to create their own straightforward bar graphs on paper- but I could see creating one to kickstart a discussion or sum up a mini-lesson. (I'm also not sure they could handle the name either. I predict lots of the kind of snickering over the word "duty" a few weeks ago. And could you imagine that one kid going home and saying "crappy" all weekend?)

Instead I'll use this graph to start a conversation about using images in the classroom. What cool projects have you, dear reader, done with photos? Graphs? Images of all kinds? In an era of less time for formal art instruction, how do you sneak visual art into your lessons? Or how do you use images to teach content?

I asked my students for ideas about how we could document an ongoing service project and many of them suggested we take pictures. Of course, images would much more succinctly show what we are doing than any other medium. In the past, I have really loved assigning "photo essays," where students explored an ethnic neighborhood, taking photos as they went. We then used the photos as inspiration for a five paragraph essay, which really gave concrete details to those writers who claim to have nothing to write about.

I can't help but think about how increasingly important it is for our students to know how to read all kinds of texts, including images. The frenetic pace at which we consume information is only going to speed up, not slow down, and images are a major part of what we are bombarded with on a daily basis. When I think of all of the aesthetic choices I had to make to create this fairly straightforward blog, including creating an avatar and choosing and refining a theme and layout, I can see how the visual will be just important or possibly even shape the text that accompanies it.

Celebrating 25 Years of MLK Day With 25 Acts of Service

2011-01-23T07:59:00.000-08:00

"Everybody can be great because everybody can serve."
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Corporation for National & Community Service, the good people who bring us Americorps and the MLK Day of Service, have suggested honoring the 25th anniversary of Martin Luther King Day by performing 25 acts of service. They are calling it the MLK 25 Challenge.

As a teacher, I believe very strongly in teaching about the Civil Rights Movement and the work of Dr. King. I have done units in the past, focusing on his work and the work of others to create social change, but the idea of honoring his legacy by serving others really struck a chord with me. I often think the term "service learning" is redundant. What else is service but learning about yourself and others?

So, I decided, unilaterally, to commit my class to 25 acts of service between now and the end of the school year. In retrospect, I should have asked them first, but, knowing them, I felt certain they would be onboard.

I'm so proud their reaction was to literally cheer when I told them about the challenge.

They then very eagerly worked together to straighten our school library in preparation for our school Open House next week. Our first official act of service! We have also been hard at work all school year to get a composting program off the ground at our school, and that will count as our second act, even though it is ongoing.

We are still working out the details of what counts as service: Holding the door open for someone else? No. Donating food to others? Yes. We also brainstormed ways to record what we have done, which I think might make an amazing class blog project. . .

If you happen to stumble upon this, dear reader and fellow educator, what service projects have you done with your students? How have you recorded or reflected on your service afterward?   Any terrific projects I should look into or projects I should avoid?

Check Out My New Recommended Reading Page

2011-01-17T18:45:00.000-08:00

I recently added a page to the right where I hope to compile resources that I find valuable. The first book I highly recommend is Smart But Scattered by Pam Dawson and Richard Guare:

Pure genius! This book was written for parents to help their children manage various aspects of "executive function" deficits (organization, time management, emotional control, impulse control, sustained attention), but I use it often in my classroom. There are charts to help students independently manage everything from anger to long-term projects.

Two Small Miracles

2011-01-14T00:11:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting on my couch, eating a Trader Joe's Chicken and Beet Salad, thinking about two small miracles that happened in my classroom this week. Well, actually, the first took place on a school bus.

Small Miracle #1

One of my more verbose but not entirely eloquent students paid me a terrific compliment. We were talking about things we like. His list was shaping up nicely: math, airplanes, computers, Wii. Then he said, "I know you like reading and writing because you are really good at teaching it."

Oh, geez! How did he know how much I've been thinking about my effectiveness in both areas, particularly reading?

Sure, I do my best to assess my students, use best practices, etc., but I know it's a bit more complicated than crossing strategies off a list. I want them to do a bunch of things at once as they read and really take enjoyment in reading. Sometimes, I feel like I'm not pulling it off as well as I could.

This is also the first year I've managed three leveled book groups concurrently. In the past, I had the luxury of a small reading group of six students all at the same reading level. I really knew my readers, and any differentiated instruction was easy to implement. Well, as easy as it can be.

Lately, I haven't felt like I've had enough time to do all I see needs to be done in our book groups.

And, I've felt like we've spent forever getting through these particular books. I wasn't really sure what that kid on the bus was talking about.

Small Miracle #2

Then, I asked the students to look at their book group's author and describe his or her writing style. I thought it would take about a period, maybe a period and a half to complete. Ha! Instead, it took three entire class periods for the students to finish, with students, in the end, getting through only four pages of their novels over those three days. What they took from the assignment, however, far exceeded my expectations.

First, I photocopied four pages of the novels my students are reading in their small book groups. My highest group is reading Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, my middle group is reading From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and my lower group is reading The Secret School by Avi. The students were supposed to annotate the pages from their book, looking at the author's writing style as we had as a class with the author Andrew Clements's book The Janitor's Boy back in October.

Then all the bickering began.

My lovely, kind students were not listening to one another, the loud students got even louder, and the students who avoid work all asked to go to the bathroom. I found myself hopping from group to group to put out fires. At the end of the period, they'd barely seemed to get through annotating a page or two and my attention was so divided that I had only a vague idea of what kinds of observations they were making. I was trying to prevent tears over in the Hatchet group.

The second day was a bit better as the students began to make a poster of examples of their author's writing style. Again, there was negotiating to be done around who got to write what. And lots of words were misspelled. However, their observations were actually good! Their examples made sense! Again, they took much longer than I thought they would, but I gave them the time they needed and they'd almost finished their posters by the time we had to go to lunch.

The third day, I gave them about ten minutes to decide who was going to present what, reminding them that the other groups had not read their books before. This was meant to cue them to provide a summary of their novel for the class, but I didn't say so directly. They seemed to be getting better at working together, or at least delegating, since they had finally stopped arguing. Sort of.

The small miracle came during their presentations. While their presenting style reflected their age, complete with lots of rambling and mumbling, they really took a lot from a few pages of text and were able to put their observations into their own words, backing them up with solid examples. They asked their classmates good follow-up questions, so even that leg work was taken from me. If I said anything, it was to highlight the fact that they provided a really good example or insight.

When I suggested that one detail the Mixed-up Files group gave was also an example of E.L. Koingsburg's use of humor, the group tripped over themselves to provide other examples of humor from the rest of the book for their audience.

The other cool part of this was that each group really worked to their level, with the higher Hatchet group making much more sophisticated observations about the use of repetition and the lower group focusing on more broad observations about the level of detail. They pushed themselves, but worked within the zone of what was in their own reach, without my having to give them any of the answers directly. (I was too busy keeping the peace.)

The lesson I took away from this week in Reading was to give my students the time they need to process the text. Instead of going faster through the book and through the curriculum like I thought they should be doing, they slowed the process down. Really slowed it down. And from that deep look at the text came strong observations and independent thinking.

Maybe, if I listen to my students on this one, I will prove that the kid on the bus was kinda right.

Why We Teach Literature

2011-01-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

Historians trade in the immutability of facts, but any English major will tell you even historians have subject positions. My subject position is this: I was a bookish kid who grew up to be a bookish adult, earning a degree (or two) in English along the way. I became an elementary school teacher because it fell in line with a number of my interests and skills. I am not infinitely patient, nor did I chose my job because of the hours and vacations. (Although any teacher worth their salt works nonstop through lunch breaks and illnesses of all sorts, making the vacation time a built-in mechanism to keep teachers teaching.) I had a positive relationship with school growing up and a deeply personal connection to reading fiction, which was nurtured by lovely bookish teachers.

Of course, my first response to curriculum design guru Grant Wiggins's call for a ban on literature* in the curriculum was a simple knee-jerk defense of the books and stories I hold sacred. "Reading will give you great joy and comfort," the teacher says, defending literature as if their own childhoods were under attack. It's true I want to share my love of literature with my students, but that's not reason enough to teach any subject and won't gain favor with reluctant readers. Insisting brussel sprouts are both delicious and good for you isn't going to win many converts, but even the most eloquent defense of literature can end up portraying fiction as a sort of vitamin for the soul. Any defense I make of teaching literature then will have to overlook my subject position as a lover of books, both fiction and non-fiction. Instead, I will attempt to describe the kind of learning that takes place when I teach fiction, which cannot be replicated through the study of any other text or subject.

Fiction tells the stories of people and each of these stories has a specific point-of-view. It's the only genre where an unreliable narrator is not only possible, but a result of craft rather than falsehood. Literature teaches children to consider perspective, of both the author and the characters, and to see the inclusion (and exclusion) of details as purposeful choices. Subject position exists in all texts, whether we want to believe it or not; fiction alone brings it to the fore. I don't much like Holden Caulfield, and I don't think I am supposed to, and from literary characters like him students learn subjectivity, implied meaning, and - dare I say it just yet? - the critical thinking people seem to want to go on and on about without providing concrete examples. Sure, subjectivity, point-of-view, and a whole host of other skills could be taught discreetly like long division. But, as context is everything, understanding point-of-view would remain, like a math algorithm, a series of steps rather than part of a larger critical sense. Fiction provides a platform for teaching how to read beyond the surface meaning of text, while also satisfying the part of us which wants to hear a story.

At some point, maybe third or fourth grade, you started to understand sarcasm. Maybe you were even explicitly taught what it means by an older sibling or a teacher. Understanding sarcasm means being able to read a whole host of social cues that you probably now take for granted. You understood the speaker's implied meaning because you have what we in the business of teaching call implicit understanding. Your implicit understanding serves you well everyday and you might even be able to use it to predict where I'm going with this. After children learn to decode words, they learn to read longer and longer texts for meaning. At first, this meaning is explicit and they are asked to retell what happens in a story. Then, as the text gets longer and the words more complex, the cognitive demands change. We teachers ask our students to move beyond retelling and start comprehending figurative language, character motivation, and tone. The demands of a reader to comprehend fiction are of a higher order than many non-fiction texts because of the need to interpret nuance in language. Seeing and evaluating this nuance, from a pedagogical perspective, is where the magic happens.

We teach fiction so our students have to read “between the lines” to obtain information rather than have it spoon-fed to them. Think about opening a new novel and reading the first page. Maybe there is a bit of dialogue or a description of the setting and from those few paragraphs you automatically do a bunch of things your fourth grade teacher urged you to do: You inferred that something bad was about to happen or you pieced together a few bits of description and now know the main character is both intelligent and desperate. You picked up on tone and genre, made connections between the text and yourself, the text and other texts, the text and what you know to be true about the world. Now imagine how these skills come into play when reading poetry, where the few words used must be examined and reexamined for meaning. Maybe you are familiar with these skills and employ them all the time or maybe it has been a long time since you even read fiction. The point is literature – novels, poetry, short stories – are my textbook of choice for teaching reading because, when done right, it offers so many opportunities to teach students how to read.

Literature also seems to be the last and best place to find appropriate vocabulary to teach my students. Situated in a meaningful context, vocabulary found in fiction is a purposeful choice on the part of the author, and Sure, non-fiction has a wealth of vocabulary, but key words in textbooks are often in bold and flatly defined in the text, and then redefined in a box in the margin. Students don’t have to work to make meaning. Vocabulary in non-fiction is often subject-bound; words like, “photosynthesis” and “estuary” have few uses outside the specific context. Vocabulary words found in fiction like “inconsolable” and “contrite,” are more useful for building a student’s everyday vocabulary.

I’m not attempting to delegitimize non-fiction because of its straightforward nature, as reading non-fiction poses its own set of worthy challenges important to the well-rounded reading curriculum. However, arguments made in favor of teaching non-fiction over fiction make the familiar mistake of confusing process and product. Sure, fiction doesn’t always hold the interest of all students all the time, especially boys, and many adults hardly read fiction after high school. (The same could be said of my childhood experience with Dr. Dodgeball and my current relationship to physical education.) I don’t see these as reasons to abandon or even weaken our commitment to teaching fiction, but as examples of the disconnect between those who preach education reform from the sidelines and those who actually educate students on a daily basis. I question the benefits of elementary education or even secondary education falling neatly in-line with how adults currently spend their time. Most professionals spend a lot of their day reading emails, but teaching students to read a story instead yields more actual learning. Process over product. Likewise, the de facto focus on “test-taking strategies” over substantive reading instruction in pursuit of quantifying learning confuses end results with actual growth. Changing our curriculum to meet the changing whims of those outside education seems reactive at best, and limiting and reductive at worst.

Maybe the reason many adults don’t read fiction is because they were forced to the find the main idea in boring standardized test paragraphs or read books that bared no relevance to their daily lives. That would be a shame, but not a failing of literature per se but a failure of the people teaching it. Instead of defending the importance of teaching fiction, I think it would be much more fruitful to discuss to what end do we teach reading in the first place and let that guide how we go about teaching it. I want to my students to be able to read all levels of text from poetry to textbooks to essays. I also want them to like to read, which, as it turns out, is a bit more tricky. I know, without doubt, that not exposing them to all genres will fail my students on both counts.

*Grant Wiggins's original blog post, "Ban Fiction From the Curriculum" is no longer available on the ACSD website.

Required Reading:

"Will Humanities Save Us?" Stanley Fish, New York Times Opinion column

"Can the arts and humanities 'save us'?" Response to Stanley Fish's column by Stanford University faculty