We read every day starting in late October for first-years and in late September for second-years. I set the timer for eleven or twelve minutes and I tell the kids we are going to read for nine minutes. Single digits just sound more approachable to the kids. So shhhhh, let’s just keep that secret between us, OK?

I am doing more of a Reading Workshop approach rather than a Sustained Silent Reading approach. The main difference is that instead of reading with the students, I am working as a reading coach: taking data, assessing, and conferring with the readers in class. I quickly know who’s a self-motivated reader, who’s disengaged, who’s having a hard time finding an engaging and comprehensible text, and what kinds of texts each reader prefers. As they read, I’m watching the class, conferring with individuals, and assessing/taking data on them.

I have thought long and hard about how to grade or assess their reading. I don’t want to put too many extra activities in the reading time because I want them to spend that time reading. I also want them to stay motivated. I’ve found that reading logs and summaries and book reports decrease motivation. But I do want to hold them accountable for reading, for interacting with text. I want my assessments and grades to support them in finding texts they like to read and developing metacognitive skills and habits that help them grow stronger as readers.

For those reasons, I developed this Habits of Strong Readers rubric. As they read, I watch them. I assess them on their focus, their persistence at finding a can’t-put-it-down book/text, their word attack skills.

At the beginning of the week, I give them a 100% on the reading score for As they read, I watch the class. I adjust the grade daily to reflect their performance. If I notice that a particular reader is struggling, I slip over to them, usually with some different text choices and my conferring notebook in hand, and talk quietly with them to help with their reading habits.

I make notes of the texts the students are reading. If a reader is switching books frequently, I might suggest they take a stack of shorter texts back to their seat. If they are finishing lots of shorter texts, I might bring them a beginner chapter book and tell them they’re looking ready to try a more challenging text. I always assure them they can always abandon a book if it’s not interesting to them.

This year, I will set the students up with a reading partner. They will have a book box where they can keep their current texts and the “on-deck” texts they want to read later. I might have them “shop” for new texts on Mondays, to set themselves up for the week.

With or without partners and book boxes, I do not allow “shopping” during reading time. That time is sacred, silent, and set aside for reading only. I encourage them to bring several texts to their seats so that they can switch if need be, but I don’t allow them to get up and search for another book. I’ve seen far too many kids spend day after day hanging out at the book boxes, avoiding time on texts. I tell them if you’re not happy with your selections today, that’s great. You just learnt something about yourself as a reader. That’s growth! But I still make them sit with their selections the whole time. Otherwise, they will not have time to reflect on what wasn’t a good fit about their selection.

I will write more about conferring with readers once I begin that. Right now, my second-years are the only ones reading and we are mainly working on procedures and logistics. They have different procedures than last year because I asked them to all challenge themselves by choosing a chapter book. Most of them read at least one last year and many of them finished five or more chapter books. But I want them to finish more this year.

So they now have one class book box with their current selections in it. I will allow them to switch if they hate the book, of course, or if it’s too hard. I never say it’s too hard though. I say it is boring. Blame the book, not the reader, is my strategy. And of course these conversations happen one-on-one. I don’t want to tell the whole class a particular title is boring, of course! What’s boring to one reader might fascinate another. That’s one major reason I do only a choice reading program. The differentiation.

French Two! It’s just, like, too happy up in there. The kids were together all last year in seventh grade in one big (38 kids) happy class and now they’re a year older, a year bigger, and a year better friends. We had such a great year last year, being the first time I taught all year with the Invisibles, but it was also a super-rough year. I had a deep spell of chemical depression, I helped revise A Natural Approach to Stories, which took a LOT of time, I had a rough time with the election results and their aftermath, I quit a heavy alcohol habit, my gramma died…I missed a good deal of school on the second half of the year, and wasn’t always “on it” when I was there.

So enter my second years this year. Last period of the day and really feeling their eighth-grade selves. They roll in LOVING French! And so happy to be back together! And sooooooooo not even having any boundaries! And so chatty and just Devil-may-care about where people are, like, supposed to sit. Sorry, kids, if I’m like harshin your mellow, but I’m not tryna rewrite my seating chart every eight minutes!!! So, while they’re feeling young and wild and free, I’m feeling old and disrespected and annoyed.

I have a plan though.

It contains several steps.

One. Accept that there’s a problem. Accept that it’s going to take effort. This is shitty to accept. I HATE making an effort!!! But that’s what I gots to do. Make a stinking effort. It is either pay now or pay later, with a crap ton of interest. Gotta hit the reset button with a big hammer now or spend Spring term playing Whack-a-Mole.

Two. Have a Hallway Smackdown. That is what I like to call it when I meet my class in the hall before class starts and give them a Serious Talk about Expectations. Somehow doing it in the hall is so much more effective.

Three. Call home tomorrow while they write. Whenever the class needs to hit the reset button, it is a good time to give them some quiet work so that I can call home. Reading doesn’t really cut it. They need to be holding a pencil. So tomorrow I will have them do a reading assessment or a writing assessment or some type of an assessment. These kids had assessments all year last year so they know what’s up. I can just hand them an assessment that will take 20 minutes so that I can call home. Those in class phone calls are like pure teaching golden. It’s just that they take effort. And I hate effort.

Four. Cut myself some slack. I had a rough year last year and I’m still doing cleanup on aisle five right now. Honestly it was just like today I just all hit me. I was so tired that I slept my entire prep lying on the floor before this French class. I woke up and I was still groggy when they walked in. So I wasn’t as strong as I normally am. But that is what started scaring me. Because if I am tired now, think about how tired I’ll be when it comes to February. February in Portland is a special kind of hell. And with my proclivity for seasonal depression, I really need to build a functioning classroom system that doesn’t require me to expend a lot of energy. So being tired today was like a little taste of February, and I realized that I need to get this class whipped into shape. Which I will do. Starting tomorrow.

The only time classroom management is done is when you say it’s done. And I’m not the type to throw in the towel, just regroup and come back with a plan.

My husband has to put up with a lot from me. One thing is my mania for classroom books. Even in grad school fourteen years ago, I was madly buying up all the YA lit I could get my hands on. And I didn’t even have a classroom to put them in – I just had tottering piles of boxes in the basement of our 768-square-foot house!

I’ve always been an avid classroom librarian, in English Language Arts, Social Studies, and World Language too. It’s because I’ve always run my classroom as a reading workshop, with a free choice reading program. For a choice reading program to thrive, students need access to a variety of interesting, comprehensible texts and time to read them.

How do we assemble a collection of texts when we’re just getting started and have limited budgets and time? Here are some tips that might help.

1. Create reading material with your students’ assistance. Mike Peto posted a genius idea last year to have students illustrate one-page comics of class discussions, characters, and stories. You can download his template here. I started this with my students this week. On a late-start Wednesday, we spent the whole period illustrating comics I had written from papers we had done together as Write and Discuss activities. I wrote the comics during prep time. But now that I see how cool it is to have them, I’m just going to write directly on the templates during Write and Discuss. That way, we will build up a nice collection for the next time we draw in class. I will also start having the students take already-filled-out templates home over the weekend for homework. I’ll have them read the stories to their folks and have their folks send back a sentence describing their child’s ability and illustrating them will be optional. I think I’ll give a class point for each comic we get back that’s good-looking enough to make it into the class library and give them a class reward (probably choice seating and video/snack time) when we get fifty points.

Last year, I had my classes create children’s storybooks for the class library. This culminating project took about four weeks in May and June. The instructions are here. The books are not as comprehensible as the classes’ own stories, but they do have glossaries and are cute.

You can also type up stories from class and insert photos of the artists’ work as illustrations.

2. Use Reading A to Z. They have leveled readers that you print out and assemble. I had students and families volunteer to assemble them for me last year. A year subscription is $100. You can get a good number of texts for that price.

3. Scholastic magazines are popular with my kids. I get ten or so subscriptions.

4. TPRS books (novels) are popular with my students. And they’re fully glossed so motivated beginners can look up words they need. The books generally run $6-8 each. I use my school funds for them. I’ve also gotten grants through Donors Choose.

I’ve also shamelessly sent home requests for $$ for books, asking each family for a 5, 10, or 20 dollar contribution.

5. Subscribe to Martina Bex’s Mundo en Tus Manos or Cécile Lainé’s Petit Journal francophone. These current events readers are interesting, timely, comprehensible, and affordable. My students enjoy them!

Have another great idea for building a class library? Please add it in the comments.

Happy reading!!

The more time that students spend with their eyes on text, the better for their development as readers and for their language acquisition.  Therefore, maximizing the amount of time that students spend interacting with texts is of the utmost importance in setting up a reading program.

In first-year classes, I would not start SSR till after the first seven or wight weeks, in general.  And when I start them off, I start them with EASY and SUCCESSFUL texts:  write-ups of our class stories and discussions, comic books I made from Mike Peto’s template, Reading A to Z books (levels A to E are best to begin with), board books, Scholastic magazines.

1.  Make time to read consistently.  For me, it is easier to make sure that reading happens at the beginning of class so that I do not get involved in other things and have to cut reading time down or skip it entirely.  For that reason, I greet my students and then have them immediately read for about ten minutes each day.  I have them pick up their books on the way into class, sit and visit in their seats till I say “Hola clase” and then we read right away before anything else.  The books stay in the room unless a student really wants to take one home.  That way, there are always books available for them to choose from.

2.  Maintain a quiet, focused environment for reading.  You have to help them build their reading stamina, I do not let them sit anywhere but their seats, I make them get a little pile of books and bring them to their seats (because I do not let them get up and “shop” for another book during reading time), and I spend the first two or three weeks watching them like a hawk and assessing their reading habits using the Habits of Strong Readers Rubric.  I am literally changing their grades right there in real-time.  They know I am doing it.  I am upfront about it.  “I am here to help give you feedback on your reading habits and so my job is to enter scores for you as you read so you know how you are doing.”  I make eye contact if I can with the kids who need to focus up, look at my computer and change their grade, then look back up and smile at them so they know I just noted their behaviors.

3.  Support the readers who can’t do it on their own.  In some classes, there are just a few kids who cannot focus, who need help with their reading habits.  You can get up and confer with them individually, find out what they might like to try reading, bring them different types of text to read, plan a follow-up with them in a day or two, and generally let them know that you are there to support them and that they are on your radar.  In other classes, the ENTIRE class needs support.  In that situation, you would want to give the whole class lessons on how to select a book (I would advise them to bring several books of different genres, lengths, and topics to their seat each day until they hit on a book that they like, and then to continue selecting that kind of book, since it works for them).  Or perhaps lessons on how to keep themselves reading (I would advise them to take small breaks, to look up from the page and perhaps jot down some thoughts on a post-it or in a notebook, and then get back into the book).  In a class in which there are many reluctant readers, you might want to have them read silently for only four to five minutes, then take a processing break in which they talk to a previously-selected reading partner (most likely talking in English) and then get back to reading for four to five more minutes, gradually increasing the time.

4.  DO not read with the class.  I know that the conventional wisdom is to read alongside them, in SSR, but my background is more in Reading Workshop.  In a workshop, the teacher sounds reading time conferring with the readers in class.  We keep a notebook with data on the readers, especially the reluctant readers.  In the notebook, we can write students’ goals, struggles, and successes, and make notes for follow-up work with them.  In a world language classroom, these conferences would most likely happen in the students’ shared language, which is English for us in my school.
Reading conferences and the information we collect in out notebook can help us support reluctant readers by providing text that they want to read.  For instance, if we learn that a reluctant reader enjoys learning about a certain topic, or reading a particular genre of book, we can search for information on that topic or in that genre online and print it out for the student.  I generally search for the topic (in the language)  in parentheses and “for kids” in the language in parentheses.  For example, I would type this into the search bar:  “planche à neige” “pour enfants”.  The goal is to find the easiest-possible text for the student.  However, students  who are interested in the topic tend to be capable of “reading up” which is to say that they can tackle more difficult text than they would be able to with texts that are not on topics of interest to them.
With reluctant readers, you might confer with them as much as two to three times per week.  There are many kinds of reading conferences, with different purposes.  However, for a reading conference to help a reluctant reader build stamina, I would use some of these questions:

Is this book/text working for you?
Is this book/text boring?
What has happened so far (fiction)?
What have you learned so far (nonfiction)?
(If the student cannot answer that question, the book is not a good fit for them, as it is probably not comprehensible or interesting.)
Have you read a text this year that you enjoyed and were able to finish?
What do you like to learn about?  What would you like to know more about?

Sometimes a reluctant reader would benefit from being paired up with a more engaged reader with whom they have a relationship.  In that case, the more skilled reader would read an easier text with the less-eager reader.  You might have them work together as long as they whisper, to work through their text together and support each other.  I have not found much success in pairing up two reluctant readers for this work.

With persistence, consistency,  and guidance, and some creativity on the teacher’s part at sleuthing out tests for the reluctant readers, choice reading can work wonders for increasing the time student spend interacting with text in your language.

I am a big believer in student choice and engagement in school. As a student myself, I always craved more choice in my education, but it wasn’t generally available in the eighties when I was in elementary and middle school, nor in the nineties in high school. I was a bright kid who loved learning and reading, yet I was often bored and disliked the texts we were assigned to read. Not till college in the Honors Program at UGA was I able to do independently-designed learning through Honors Option courses.

In graduate school, I learned about Reading and Writing Workshop, and quickly set about learning as much as I could about this literacy program. The basic tenets of student choice and voice were very appealing to me. I began by reading Nancie Atwell’s book In the Middle and began attending the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project‘s Summer Institutes on reading and writing. I used Reading and Writing Workshop for nine years, never teaching a whole-class novel the entire time I taught middle school English Language Arts and Social Studies. Instead, I read mentor texts aloud to my students – poetry, articles, opinion columns, novels, short stories. Most of the time in a workshop class, students are reading in self-selected books. The teacher’s role is to model reading strategies using the mentor text and then confer with readers to help them apply the strategies that work for them, in their independent reading books. This supports students in their choice reading.

Choice reading helps students find their way as readers. It’s inherently differentiated by interest and ability level. It’s motivating and satisfying to be able to try books and abandon them until, perhaps with support, you find a Just-Right book. Having a rich variety of text types – fiction in various genres, nonfiction, shorter texts, graphic novels, etc. – helps the students find their niche as readers.

Now that I have transitioned to full-time World Language teaching, I have been doing a lot of thinking on the whole-class novel in my French and Spanish classes. I used to teach whole-class novels in my World Language classes. It was what I’d been trained to do. It was what I saw others doing with the novels. It seemed like we had to do that because our kids were beginners. So even though in my ELA and SS classes I would have never done a whole-class novel, I taught them in French. We would do SSR a couple times a week in my small library (of books that were way too hard!) and do one or two novels a year.

My students would grow weary of the novels despite the activities we did with them. We generally would get through three or four chapters and the bloom would fade. I would sometimes abandon the novels and sometimes plug on till the end. I thought that because many of my my students’ reading abilities in L1 were low, that it was just to be expected that they wouldn’t like the novels as much as I hoped they would.

Then I moved to full- time language teaching in a low-poverty school. The kids generally love L1 reading. But the first year when we did whole-class novels, they still tired of the novel. I started thinking maybe it was about the nature of whole-class novels, not the kids’ attitude towards reading. The same kids I’m fighting with to put their books away during class would groan quietly when we got out the novel. They would also be heard complaining about their ELA novels (my new school does not implement workshop as widely as my previous school).

So I began to think about whole-class novels in World Language. And I stopped the practice in mid-year three years ago. And then the next year when I began the year with just SSR, I noticed that the kids’ attitudes toward reading in L2 were much brighter. The power of student choice had worked wonders! Even novels that has elicited groans as whole-class books were being read eagerly by engaged students. I like to died when I heard a kid recommending Pauvre Anne to a friend!

The nuts and bolts of implementing SSR are certainly a big consideration, which I hope to write about soon.

Happy reading!

Yesterday in my French Two class a student who just joined the class this year kept getting out a book and reading. I spoke with her during a Turn and Talk. (Having then turn and talk is a great way to give ourselves a chance to have private talks with kids.)

She said, I get bored cause all we do is listen. I told her that listening is the foundation of language acquisition so we worked all year last year on building our listening stamina. I asked her if she wanted to take notes in English or Spanish during the listening portions. I told her that that could help her focus.

She seemed resistant to that idea. I told her my goal was to help her build her listening stamina and that soon we would be starting our SSR reading program. I was planning to start next week but I think I’ll push it up to start today.

In French Two I have been eagerly piloting content-based instruction. We have been learning about the geography of France. I’m kinda pushing these kids because I wouldn’t really recommend doing this kind of Instruction until third and fourth year. In this class it’s still technically first year since our middle school program awards one year of high school credit for two years of seat time. I’m playing around with the mix of CALP activities (to build Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) and BICS activities (to build Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills). Ideally second year would just still focus on BICS but I’m eager to pilot strategies to build CALP so I’m kinda pushing my kids.

I’m wondering if we need a BICS break. I think today I’ll do a one word image with them and then use it in a story. We can intersperse the geography unit in shorter doses.

It would probably be best to take breaks from the academic language anyway because the brain learns best with processing time between exposures. And the brain craves novelty as Carol Gaab has always said. Though the GLAD Strategies have a good deal of novelty built in, switching gears to more creative, character-driven, narrative work would add another layer of novelty.

I have never done these GLAD Strategies in world language, only in my high-ELL Social Studies classes at my previous school. So playing with the mix, especially with this second-year class of eighth graders, is key.

And helping the four new students learn to value attending to the input is also key. It makes me realize how much training went into the first-year class last year. They built a good deal of listening and reading stamina over the year and also came to see its value as they watched their writing and comprehension skills soar.

On Mondays I have to consciously slow myself down and get back into the groove of SLOW. I tend to feel frazzled on Mondays and also the kids need to ease back into the language after most likely not hearing it for two days.

Slow is the most important skill in CI, I think. Here are eight pieces of advice I am giving myself this morning.

1. Connect with the kids in English before starting the input phase of the lesson. Remind them of the expectations. I will speak so you can understand the messages in class. Your job is to listen with the intent to understand and help maintain the flow of language. There will be times to turn and talk when English is ok and times to listen and keep to Spanish or French. Also remind them that they are being assessed constantly in this class on their communication. (I sent home parent communication last week to reinforce this.)

2. Write on the board to support their comprehension. Walk calmly to the word, touch it, say it, and let it sink in before saying something else. Count the seconds of silence. One, two, three. Then move on. Even if I’m saying a kid’s name I pause and point to the kid. Better still is to walk over to the kid. The more steps I can put between me and the next word, the slower I end up going.

3. Between words, in that silence, scan the room for people getting lost or looking like they’re about to get off-task. Make as much eye contact as possible in those few seconds. This lets them know I’m looking out for them. That I care about their understanding.

4. Take gesture breaks to cycle back through previously-used gestures. This slows me down, gives us all a mental break, and builds confidence. We’re learning so much!

5. Breathe. Breathe between every word. Breathe like it’s a yoga practice. Calms my nerves and slows me down. Anna Gilcher does a breathing break where she has the whole class breathe deeply a couple times. I would like to try that if I can remember. But at the least, I can breathe. It helps me maintain a calm presence that influences the emotional tone of the entire group.

6. React to what they say as if they’re the most fascinating kids in the world. Take a moment to be genuinely astonished or amused or interested by their responses. Make the reaction physical and visible. This slows me down too.

7. With good humor and calm and a smile, walk to the rules each and every time a student breaks a rule. Take a deep calming breath over there. There is nothing more important than teaching the rules and that I am unshakable in my application of them.

8. Pause and let the Who and Where and Today etc kids say their thing and then smile and acknowledge them with a thumbs up. This builds in more silence.

Above all I must remember that my goal is for the classroom to have a calm, slow, quiet, focused, workmanlike feeling. This feeling is CI gold. It’s the only way we can create the optimum conditions for slow, focused, deliberate speech. If the kids don’t expect this slow flow, they amp up the energy. They start amping it up and in turn I get frazzled. It’s my primary concern to lay the groundwork for a calm, slow, steady year.

https://sites.google.com/site/cascadiaciresources/rubrics

We had some snow days.  I also have a student teacher.  Result?  A lack of videos.

In French Two I had the “brilliant” idea to do nonfiction Story Listening with an article I wrote about the schedule in a French daycare.  I am attaching it in case you think you might have better luck with it than I did.  My students thought that it was a little snoozy.  I forgot it was PJ day.  Should have gone with my gut and just talked about les pyjamas.

Oh well you live and learn!  At least they got some input.  Just not the easiest day for the teacher.  Goes to show that compelling trumps all.

French Two:
Part One
Part Two

French One