Guest Post: A Year of Whole Novels Part II (Paul Stoddard)

In this post, Paul Stoddard, 6th grade English teacher in Las Vegas, Nevada, continues his account of his year of teaching using the whole novels approach. He generously reflects on the ups and downs of each novel, as well as some of the writing that his students did in connection with the literature. Read Chapter One, about his first whole novel study in Part I here.  

Chapter 2: Walk a Mile in My Moccasins

     The second book I brought to my students was the required curriculum’s choice, Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech. The students enjoyed this book and since I taught it the year before following the prescribed curriculum, I had great activities to go along with the book. Some activities included: completing a road map of her journey, completing post cards in the role of the character about her journey, acting out scenes (as always), having a mock funeral speech towards the end of the book for the main character’s (Sal) mother, and character interview based where students role-played each of the main characters. I also did activities based on the post-modern, story-within-a-story structure that the book uses. I did this through showing examples from music like hip hop, using a Ted Talk about sampling from Mark Ronson, who was extremely popular that year with the song, “Uptown Funk” with Bruno Mars. I also showed examples of movies-within-movies and we discussed this idea.

I was worried my students would not pick up on these things without the direct instruction and chapter-by-chapter reading and activities we did the year before, but I was mistaken. Everything came together during the whole-class discussions. Another three days of discussion, students had clarified confusion, voiced opinions, became emotional (sad), and critiqued the ending. During this discussion, the students generated topics that I then turned into the essay prompts required by the unit. I put what the students had brought up into essay questions, which were highly unique and complex at times. Then, students selected one to write about and could use any of the text evidence brought up during the discussions. I provided a basic outlining tool for students to use, which I borrowed from Chapter 5 of Whole Novels For the Whole Class.                                                                           

Essay Questions: 

Select one of the following questions. Read the questions carefully.

1.     What did Sal learn about life while going on the trip with her grandparents across the country?

2.      How are Sal’s and Phoebe’s stories connected? What does Sal mean by “Underneath Phoebe’s story was another story. Mine.”

3.     Why did the author end the book the way she did? Do you think it was a good ending to the story?

4.     Sharon Creech writes with style. She uses story-within-a-story (frame story), memories, and goes back and forth in time and place between many different stories. Do these story techniques add to the story? Explain your answer.

5.     Discuss how a character changes throughout the book. I suggest Sal, but you can pick any of the main characters.

6.     How does the saying, “don’t judge a man until you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins” relate to the novel?

7.     How does Sal and Phoebe’s friendship change during the course of the novel?

8.     What do the families in Walk Two Moons teach us about family life and mothers/women?

9.     Why did Sal’s grandparents want to take her on the trip to Idaho to her mother’s grave?

I think that the biggest problems that came up were students not having enough essay writing experience, and I did not provide enough instruction before the essay, so although they had great ideas to write about, they could not cite text evidence or format an essay. I needed to supplement the unit with more writing instruction. Also, having another short story assignment combined with the essay was overload to do within four or five days. Also, Walk Two Moons was fairly unpopular with the boys in the class, and that led to a huge gender divide in both the discussion and the essays.

Chapter 3: Climbing the Ladder

The next book, after a break for an independent reading cycle, was The Jacob Ladder.  I believed this fit in perfectly with the witches and losing a parent theme, but the book ended up being very difficult for the parents to purchase, and, more importantly, it was a big flop with the students.  I think the valuable lesson I learned was to match the books to the students in front of me, not just copy what I think is ideal or perfect. The supplemental activities for this book were amongst the most interesting of the year, because we had so much fun. The first was playing music from the book and reggae music from the time. The next activity is that we went outside to the field and reenacted the Jonkonnu scene after learning about what it was in class. I brought out percussion instruments (I am a drummer) recorders and masks we created then students had to re-read the Jonkonnu scene and act it out exactly as the author describes it. Also, I read a supplemental picture book, Cinderillion that served to further the Cinderella theme as well as introduce Caribbean culture to the students. We also created a map of the village as recommended in Ariel’s book.

We discussed the book and the students found the ending to be quite anti-climactic and questioned what Tall T really achieved. Besides that lively discussion, many students struggled through the book due to language gap and lack of background knowledge. Also, the books realistic structure was found to be boring to the majority of the class.

The culminating activity was to draw on the theme of losing a parent and overcoming challenges to craft an original Cinderella story.

Cinderella Story Prompt: Final Exam for the Unit

2/26/16

Dear Students,

You have read or listened to many stories this year with some similar themes. Let’s start way back when I read you the fable Ashputtle, and we first practiced writing sticky notes. There was also Cindrillion which is based on Cinderella, of course. Then you read The Witches, Walk Two Moons, and, finally, The Jacob Ladder. All of these stories have things in common with the first story we heard Ashputtle (Cinderella). All of our main characters had to learn to grow up without one or both of their parents around. Cinderella’s themes of a child overcoming losing their parents is one of the most popular stories around the world. Now, it’s your turn. You are to write your own story based on these themes. You will create a character, put them in any setting you choose, create the conflict based on losing their parents in some way, and create a resolution (ending) to your story.

Use your creativity and be sure to develop the story with: Dialogue, description (sensory details), and word choice (diction).

Chapter 4: You Will Not Recognize Me When I Reach You

 As the final book, we read When You Reach Me and this was hands-down the favorite book (myself included). The students enjoyed the book very much, although some were tired at this point. I will not go into much detail on this as I will bring up When You Reach Me later with my students from this year.

Reflection:

That year I discovered many things but here are some of the biggest take-aways that will help any teacher using the whole-novels approach:

First , make sure to communicate the importance of the approach right from the beginning of the year with both students and parents. Second, make sure to tailor your books to the kids that you teach. Three, always have extra sticky notes. Fourth, three days of discussion is too much with 100 minute blocks, two is just as good, Fifth, although students love to write fiction, do not overuse the “kill off a character” activity. Sixth, they need scaffolding and instruction and strategies in order to complete any of these writing assignments, fiction or non-fiction. Most importantly, fear not, this method truly works, if I can do it, you can do it!

Chapter 5: A New Journey

This year began a new journey, a new school, a new grade (7th and 8th) and new students. So far, I have completed the first novel study. I followed and learned much from last year and here are a few things that have helped me. One thing is that I focused extensively on the three-types of thinking lesson and practicing sticky notes right off the bat. This helped make expectations clear and many problems with both note completion and lack of understanding was solved this year.

We read When You Reach Me as the first book for seventh grade and it was a success! The discussions went very well and the students loved the writing assignment. However, I want to focus on eighth grade as it has been quite the experience!

The required curriculum starts out with a “hero’s journey” theme and the first major assessment is to create an original hero’s journey. I thought this would fit perfectly with The Maze Runner as a first novel. But I have learned a few things. Most importantly, a long book like that is a very poor first choice for a whole-novels class. Students are uncertain of the new methods (many are downright scared) and they are not used to sticky notes either. This led to many problems for me both classroom management wise and grading wise. I think scaffolding with the hero’s journey was a success. I used both Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and the Lion King to lead up to writing the hero’s journey. I just think it was quite a challenge to do a 5-10 page typed short story to begin the school year. The hero’s journey would be better suited for the end of the year. Although many students were successful, many were not and I think spending so much time on one concept, the hero’s journey, was a poor way to begin the year. Luckily, many students completed great works, but the order was all wrong.

The other problem was blasting through the novel and writing that long work, left not much time to work on the mini-projects that scaffold instruction, and without knowing these students well yet, I was unsure if it was poor study/homework habits or skills deficiency. I think it was often both, and the lack of stamina to make it through such a long work without the feedback needed at the beginning of the year.

It is very important to give those mid-way homework checks as well as spot check regularly, but I would highly suggest to use a shorter work to start the year, so students can see the rationale for the whole-group discussion and the magic that comes from it.

The discussions went well and next week I will introduce more terms and lead the discussion in directions of: how does this relate to us? What about how our society is structured?

 One of the biggest challenges is scheduling half-group discussions and keeping the other half of the room quiet and non-disruptive. I am still at a loss for fixing that problem.

Epilogue

One day, an awesome ELA curriculum coach was in my room observing and we were doing a whole-class check-in. I asked, “How’s it going?”

The students responded, “Sometimes I just want to read without doing sticky notes.”

“I really like sticky notes.”

“It helps me share with a partner”

After we got back to reading time, the curriculum coach was whispering a question to a couple of students. They looked over and smiled.

I continued on and the bell rang. A clamor of noise filled the room as students scurried to their next class.

She walked over, kindly smiled and said, “Wow, you are really doing some great things here. It all constructive and makes the students really responsible for their learning. Those sticky notes are such a great idea.”

“Thank you, I think the students enjoy it as well.”

“Actually, those two students I spoke to were just raving about it, ‘I actually really like sticky notes,’ they told me.”

All I could do was just smile.

On The Shoulders Of Giants, the title of Ariel Sacks’ blog, fittingly describes her. She is the inspiration that guided my teaching with her amazing book. A mentor, a guidebook and hope those are the ingredients needed to reach your goals as an ELA teacher.

Reading the Walls!

An oldie but goodie: This post was first published in on March 30, 2011 at On the Shoulders of Giants hosted by Center For Teaching Quality. 

Today I "caught" a student who I would characterize as a reluctant reader reading the walls of my classroom to another student, who has also struggled a lot with reading this year. Mind you, they were both supposed to be doing a different assignment at their tables. While one part of me was about to redirect them both, I realized that this was a great moment I had no interest in interrupting. They were reading together out of a genuine interest for the information on the walls. Voluntary reading—the best kind. 

What was on the walls? Students have been studying the history of the English language, how words get their meanings and how they change across time and place. It has been fascinating. One night for homework, I asked them to research their own names. Where do their names come from? What do they originally mean? How did they get their names? What do their names mean to them?

The written responses shared with one another in class were wonderful. They beautifully reflected the diversity of the students and shared something special about each of them. From a linguistics standpoint, it was illuminating to see the myriad ways that people arrive at names for their children, where these names come from, and what they mean. These stories echoed the word etymologies students had been studying in class at the same time.

Finding the two boys reading the walls was a great reminder that, for every student, there is a way to voluntary reading. Sometimes the wall is the perfect medium for repackaging something from class—especially student voices—to reach more students. Sometimes the timing is just right for reading and the wall is a way to catch a child on a whim and create flexible opportunities for reading. Finally, this reminded me that, though it takes time to update classroom bulletin boards, it is so worthwhile.    

Paul Stoddard: A Year of Whole Novels in 6th Grade, Part I

Paul Stoddard, a 6th grade ELA teacher in Las Vegas, Nevada, contacted me with the wonderful story of his first year implementing a whole novels studies in his classroom. With only three years of teaching experience, he's accomplished an impressive amount with his students, and he's taken the time to reflect on it and share it all with us here! His message to other teachers? "Just try it!" Stay tuned for the next part of Paul's story, in which he describes some of the struggles he encountered in subsequent novel studies and how he responded. ~Ariel

I think that the whole novels approach is one of the greatest ideas to come into my teaching life, and I hope to spread the news. I think that with all the structures in place in this method, and an individual teacher's own ingenuity, it is possible to have deeper experiences with whole class novels than I ever thought possible. The truth is that the books and the students themselves discover what is important, because the authors and their magnificent use of language make it impossible not to happen.

Prologue:

After finding Whole Novels For the Whole Class by Ariel Sacks at the teacher and curriculum library of my university, UNLV, I fell in love with the book. Not only did it contain theory and ideology that made the approach appealing to me, but more importantly, it had the day-to-day, practical and specific details that any practicing teacher desires (and needs). Aftre reading it, I was ready to implement and jump into the whole novels approach right away, and throughout my study, I had a guidebook to turn back to. With Ariel Sacks as my mentor (through her book), and my students as my inspiration, I was ready to start alone and unassisted, and confident my students would enjoy this.

Chapter 1: The beginning- The first page

Last year, my students were 6th graders, and it was my second-year teaching. I worked in an arts-integration based school where the Kennedy Center and arts-integration were considered the philosophical lights to guide the school. However much that ideal may or may not have been met on a daily basis, I wished for my students to read more whole-class novels in a student-centered way, in which they could experience and appreciate the art of the story. I worked in a suburban charter school in Las Vegas, Nevada, a rapidly growing area, which had experienced dramatic economic fluctuations over the last 5-10 years. This was an area in the southwest part of the valley filled with foreclosed homes and brand new homes. It was beginning to recover, and the parents were lining up to get into the arts-integration charter school, and to escape the “failing” school district (CCSD).

I was about one-quarter into my second year when I introduced the concept to the students and parents. Although the school adopted a prescribed curriculum, Springboard, we had considerable freedom to adapt and alter it for the students’ needs. The school has a variety of ability levels, and in one class I had students with college-reading levels all the way down to 2nd grade reading levels.

I prefaced with e-mail in which I communicated to families a message along the lines of, “By the way, I have decided we would read more books this year; one is not enough anymore! Please purchase the following books for your student.” I also told the students, “I expect you can do more, so we will!” The students showed the positive attitudes that I was certain would help on this journey.

It all started with introduction to the first novel we read, The Witches by Roald Dahl.  The welcome letter and first chapter read-aloud had students excited to begin reading and my class was full of sticky notes right away. We did the model lesson on three-types of thinking (described in Chapter 3 of Whole Novels For the Whole Class) by using Ashputtle, the original Cinderella story, as I wrote down student responses on the board. We classified them as Literal, inferential and Critical a few days later. The reading schedule was a great way to keep students on track. They were reading, I was conferencing with them, and everything seemed off to an awesome start.

Below is the welcome letter I gave to students along with the books: (adapted from Whole Novels For the Whole Class: A Student Centered Approach, 2014)

Dear 6th Graders,

Welcome to your 1st whole class novel study of the year!

I am very excited to lead you as you begin this journey! The first day of our journey starts now. You will read The Witches, by Roald Dahl. It is organized into chapters and features illustrations by Quentin Blake. This book has been a favorite of thousands of young readers since before I was born. This is no ordinary fairy tale; it is a story about REAL witches! You will read an adventure that involves many extraordinary events.

You will need all the following, which we will go over today:

·      A copy of the Novel

·      A Schedule and reading guide

·      Sticky Notes

Expectations: We will read in class nearly every day for about 30 minutes and for homework. You are always responsible for keeping up with the schedule and writing at least four sticky notes for each night of reading. (This applies even if you are absent or there is no class or a substitute teacher.) Keep the books in good condition, and bring your book to class every day!

After the book is finished, we will begin true, real discussions just like we did when I read Ashputtle to the class. Bring your honest reactions, responses, reflections and questions about the story. I look forward to the interesting conversations!

You can do this- little by little, bit by bit. :)

Your teacher,

 Mr. Stoddard

During the novel study, I supplemented the book in the following ways:

·      I broke students into differentiated groups and assigned a mini-project on character that is directly from Whole Novels For the Whole Class (see pages 224-225). I think this helped students make sense of the characters in the story.

·      We also did dramatic enactment strategies as this is a big part of the school-- integrating English and theatre is a major factor in my teaching. About half way through the novel, I had students act out the scenes that they wished to in small-groups.  Then I had the observers say which scene was taking place and give an oral summary the scene back to the performing group.

·      Finally, I also had students perform tableau scenes from the witches following the same process as I did for the scenes acted out above.

·      We also watched the film version of the book which has a different ending then the book itself.

·      Some students partner-read in order to support each other, and others received pullout sessions with the Special Education teacher going over their sticky notes and reading the book together.

On the first day of the discussion circle, I was excited, nervous and thrilled all at the same time. I recorded the thoughts on a laptop and the students discussed in half-circle groups while the other half worked on the short fiction writing scenes. The students surprised me with their deep understanding of the book.

On the 2nd or third day, after prompting from me to go back to the text, we ended up discussing why the author did a couple things the students brought up. First, why did he drag out this one scene in the middle for so long when it was not very exciting?  Second, there was so much debate about the ending. After we figured out what actually took place, which took much questioning on my part to return to the text, they debated why the author ended the book the way he did, and where the author went wrong with this. Students discussed how they would have ended the book, and this was a direct lead in to the fiction writing assignment to continue the ending or rewrite a scene.

After reading and discussing the book, we did a newscast activity where the students created “News From Mr. Stoddard’s Class” presentations in the form of news reporters. This was a big hit with the students!

Stay tuned for Chapter 2 about Walk Two Moons, in which I reach my first hurdle.  

Blog Update: My New Space!

Hello and happy Friday!

I'm writing to let you know some exciting news: I have begun a new blogging adventure, called Teaching For the Whole Story, hosted by Education Week. There, I will write about many aspects of education (as I have done at On the Shoulders of Giants), but I will be focusing especially on issues and practices related to the teaching of reading and writing.  

So far, I have two posts:

In the first one, Why I'm Teaching For the Whole Story, I try to apply the whole novels concept to life beyond literature and explain what I mean by teaching for the whole story. It's a post that was not easy to write and took me back to some pieces of my own history that led me to teach. 

This week, in Helping Students Toward Reading More Complex Students Independently: No More Training Wheels!, I tried to answer the question of how we should approach teaching students to read complex texts independently, since there is so much pressure to increase the Lexile levels in our text selections. I find some answers to this question in a story involving bicycles. 

I hope you'll check these out! I will continue to post updates here about all things whole novels, and more.  

Simple Activity To Increase Engagement and Peer to Peer Interaction During Whole Novel Studies

This post first appeared on the Share My Lesson blog on July 7, 2016. 

When my classes study novels together using the whole novels method, my students read and annotate the entire book before formally discussing it. One of the most common questions teachers ask me: “So what do you do in class while students are reading the book?”

Broadly speaking, I try to find a balance between giving students time to read the book—whether independently, in pairs, in small groups and occasionally as a whole class—and facilitating other activitiesthat help students engage with each other around elements of the text. There are endless possibilities, but my goals with such activities are to help students go a bit deeper in their reading and to provide a sense of community for them as readers.

I want to share a simple activity I recently tried out for the first time that worked really well. It’s one that easily could be adapted to any text, novel or other reading material.

Students were reading Animal Farm, and according to our schedule, they should have read up to Chapter 7 by today. When students came to class, I had these instructions waiting for them on tables along with a large sheet of newsprint:

1. In a group of two or three, choose a quotation from Chapter 5, 6 or 7 that is significant.
2. Copy it on the paper in quotations with page number.
3. Explain its significance.
4. Ask one question about it.

I imagined this as a formative assessment for me and a way to get students to engage with one another without my having to ask specific questions or lead a discussion. Most students worked with the person next to them or as a table, which is a procedure they are accustomed to by spring.

The process of looking back to the text and selecting a quote together was simple, yet meaningful. Students had to discuss what they thought was interesting and significant with the rest of the group. Working on the explanations allowed students to build comprehension together, and reading their responses gave me an idea of the students’ comprehension of the story without quizzing anyone.

I wasn’t sure what students would do with the question piece (step 4). I purposely didn’t include more specific requirements, because I wanted to see what they would ask, given the opportunity. I was impressed with the mostly critical, thought-provoking questions they posed. I’m not sure if this would have played out differently earlier in the year or with a different text; however, even if some students had offered literal-level questions, it would still have been useful information for me, and give students a chance to get some answers.

Initially, I thought this would be a quick opening activity and that I would simply display the papers around the room; but I realized we had an even better opportunity to use the students’ questions right away.

When most groups were done with the initial directions, I told them the next step was to go read another group’s work and respond to the question on the other group’s paper. They should sign their name to their response. The students should continue doing this until they had read and responded to most of the groups’ questions.

This part of the activity got students moving, which is important to incorporate into any middle school classroom. It also augmented the impact of the simple activity, because now students got the chance to engage with a range of quotes from the text, chosen by their classmates, which helped build comprehension (a form of rereading). Most of all, I loved that they got each other thinking by interacting with each other’s quotes and questions through written conversations. 

Here are some examples of their work:

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