Demonstrating Habits of Mind with Reading and Writing
Building a classroom of readers and writers is a process that doesn’t
magically happen. Helping students create lifelong reading and writing
habits takes modeling and lots of discussion. I’ve been working on this
during the first semester in my 7th grade English and
Accelerating Literacy classes. It has been a process, and I’m proud of
the successes that I am beginning to see with some of my struggling
students.It was a chain of events that helped me to realize that one of my classes in particular wasn’t reading as much as I had hoped and could definitely be classified as “reluctant” when it comes to reading and writing. I had begun reading, Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller, and was intrigued by her explanation of reluctant vs. avid readers. I was doing daily Status of the Class checks and realizing that many of my students were not progressing through their books at a pace that I expected. In fact, some of them were reading 3-5 pages in a span of 3 days. I knew I needed to do something, but wasn’t sure how to approach the problem in a way that it could be fixed. I think the bigger questions was…could I fix it? Could I help these students to see that reading for pleasure was important and should become a habit, just like brushing your teeth or eating a meal?
I decided to start with just a discussion. A discussion about reading and asking them why they aren’t reading outside of the classroom. I presented the discussion in a non-threatening way and the replies were honest and heartfelt. They didn’t like reading…they had no time…all of the books are boring…they couldn’t find a good book…their house was very noisy…they had too many chores and other homework. From those responses, we discussed the importance of reading and I shared how I read for pleasure; I shared my reading habits. I read before bed. I read while my daughters are at Dr./dentist appointments. I read A LOT on the weekend when I have more time. We talked about sneaking in reading time and finding the right place to read where you won’t be bothered.
We then talked about books. Good books, bad books, boring books, interesting books. That discussion was full of life. They all had opinions and could share their favorite books. We talked about habits from when they were young. Did they read or were they read to as “youngsters?” Many shared happy memories of reading Dr. Seuss or Goodnight Moon. They all had a favorite book from their preschool time period.
After books, we talked about plans. I asked them to create a plan. Where would they read? When would they read? For how long? On my VISION page, I asked them each to create an initial post defining who they are as a reader. My plan was/is to have them update that post every 4-6 weeks to chronicle their reading habits and notice any changes as the year progresses. Below are two posts from two students – the two comments are about 4 weeks apart.
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My reading life:
by ------------Wednesday, December 11, 2013, 1:27 PM
To start off i only read books that
have a movie with it.I am sometimes a reluctant reader but this year I
have found myself picking up a book. I like to do all my school related
things in my bed room so its nice and quite. My last book i have read
was surviving the applewhites. My favorite book i have read well to be
honest i dont really have a favorite book but my favorite genre is
mystery of science fiction, I really will read any book in these genres.
Re: My reading life:
by -------- Thursday, January 2, 2014, 1:03 PM
January- 2-2014
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The type of reader I am
by ----------- Wednesday, December 11, 2013, 1:29 PM
I am a reluctant reader I ussually
only read at school. At home I always procastinate and make excuses not
to read. The last book I read was Life as We Knew it its was a science fiction book thats is really good. My favorite book I ever read was last year in the sixth grade. Catching Fire was the name of the book it was a really good a suspenceful book with alot of fighting and gore, it even has a little drama.
Re: The type of reader I am
by -------- Thursday, January 2, 2014, 12:58 PM
January/ Alot has changed sence I
last wrote that paragraph. I have found a kmew way that helps me. All I
have to do is find the right book I like, because if you dont like a
book then why read it. My reading habbits have improoved alot. All I
have to do to read at home is to start the book because once I do I cant
stop. Also i found an amazing book. its called this world we live in
by susan pffefer its so suspencful its awsome. But I heard the next book
in the series is relly good so you never now I might have a new
favorite book.
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These are two successes, and not all of my students have showed that
much growth over the past few months, but I think all of them are
beginning to understand that reading is a habit that needs to be
practiced and developed.In my Accelerating Literacy classes I have worked to create writing habits with my students also. We are doing daily writing exercises and honestly….in September the students HATED this. The process is that as soon as they get to class they each get their “MadMan Writing” journal. Titled this because their goal is to “write like a madman for about 5-10 minutes every day. Once they have their journal, they are to write non-stop for about 10 minutes about any topic that they want to. It is their journal and they can fill it twith their words on any topic they wish. It was a struggle to get many of these students to write for an extended period of time. I think they thought it would go away, and I’d try something different if they chose not to write. But…I didn’t. Madman Writing continued and I encouraged (sometimes very sternly) them to write about anything. They could write about what they ate for breakfast, how their game over the weekend went, why they are mad at their best friend, the movie that they want to see, what their favorite pop-star is singing…they JUST HAD TO WRITE!
We have had many discussions about the importance of writing and being able to communicate through the written word. As we finished the second semester, I can honestly say that they have surrendered to our daily writing routine, and writing for 5-10 minutes has become a habit for them. Many of the students look forward to this time. They are not at a loss for ideas, as they were in September. They are able to fill 2-3 pages in their composition book in the 5-10 minute period. They are not scared of the paper anymore and enjoy putting their thoughts down. I have used this process in other classes when I taught elementary school, but wasn’t sure how it would go over in middle school. I persevered and convinced these 7th graders that writing isn’t bad and actually…it’s sort of fun.
One evening when I was on Twitter, I read a post about “Zero Drafting,” and it had a link attached to it. Upon clicking on the link, I found that my Madman Writing had a new name. We were doing Zero Drafting in my class. The next day I shared what I learned with the students and they agreed that Zero Drafting was fun and actually…not that bad!
Zero Drafting link: http://seanziebarth.com/2013/09/21/zero-drafting-falling-in-love-again-with-a-simple-pleasure-timed-writing/
For something to become a habit, it has to be introduced…practiced…and understood. We are working on that in 7th grade. Not all of my students are showing the same levels of success, but all of them are demonstrating growth. I am hoping that my students are beginning to see reading and writing as habits of mind that they will continue to foster and practice after they leave my classroom in June.
