Link to my Prezi from the Strategies for Teaching Literature course at West Chester University, presented on March 15, 2016. Click here to see the Prezi, which includes 20 strategies I use for teaching literature.
Slice of Life 8: This I Believe
My students and I are in the midst of an argument unit, and this week we’re talking organization. When I think about where I was when I first started my career regarding teaching writing versus where I am now, I’m amazed at the difference.
When I first started teaching, the only explicit writing instruction I ever gave was the five-paragraph essay. There were more creative writing assignments, too, but I didn’t instruct students on how to write. Instead, I simply assigned the writing.
There were many reasons for this approach, not least of which my own lack of training in teaching writing. While my graduate coursework was excellent, much of it had to do with the teaching of reading. Far less was focused on the teaching of writing. Looking back, I can see why the five-paragraph essay appealed to my young teacher self so much. Read More
Finding Moments Worth Writing About
It’s just after 7:20 a.m. and my students are settling into their seats. Although it’s early, this class is lively, with students generally willing to try out whatever their English teacher has planned for them that day. This morning, I pass out cream-colored quarter sheets of paper and several tape dispensers. I go over the lesson plan to the sound of pages flipping, synchronized to the squeaky pulling and staccatoed tearing of tape. Into their notebook, students tape the following Willa Cather quotation:
“Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.”
Today is Day 1 in a brief unit on the personal history essay. I decided to call this next essay a personal history rather than the more familiar term memoir for a few reasons. One, the term memoir feels a little intimidating to me; the term has always implied a confessional quality to it, like a great secret is about to be shared, a great burden lifted. For better or worse, memoirs feel too big a task, too much to ask.
So instead, I like the term personal history. Read More
Steps Toward an Inquiry-based Classroom
For years, whenever my students and I read a novel, I would pass out a study guide with a list of questions for each chapter. By giving students the study guide questions―questions I wrote―I could make sure that students wouldn’t miss anything in their reading. Too often, students would read too quickly and miss details. Requiring students to answer study guide questions was my way of getting them to slow down to notice what they were reading. To get them to see the dots that they could later connect together.
After we finished the novel, the next step would be a writing assignment. On that day, I would pass out a list of essay questions. I often included questions of varying difficulty in order to better differentiate instruction, and students could happily chose whichever essay question was most accessible (or least terrifying). In case none of the questions interested students, I always gave them the option of creating their own essay question (just so long as they reviewed it with me first).
Of course, rarely did students ever take me on that option. After all, by creating essay questions for them, I had already sent the message that it was the teacher’s questions that mattered, not theirs. And while some students were more than happy to answer my questions―in fact, I think some of them preferred to―what I’ve come to realize that what I needed to focus on was getting students to answer their own questions about the text. Read More
Letting Go (and Getting Students to Do the Talking)
Although this is my 15th year of teaching, I have always struggled with discussions. It’s not that my students and I don’t have engaging or thought-provoking discussions. We do. But I often put the pressure on myself to lead (dictate?) our discussions, and I’ve never been confident that I was making the most of our time in class. I tend to do a lot (of the talking), and though my questioning techniques have gotten better over the years (I’m particularly good at playing devil’s advocate), I’m not sure how much better my students’ discussion skills have become.
I’ve taught Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried for a few years in my AP Lang & Comp class, usually as a summer reading. Anyone who’s read Tim O’Brien’s novel knows how rich and complex the text is. There is just so much to discuss, so much you can do, that I often feel overwhelmed. Worried I’ll make out discussions overly complicated, I tend to simplify. Worried I’ll be reductive, I tend to do too much.
This year I decided that rather than be the one to lead each class discussion, I would get out of the way and take my cue from my students. In the past, one approach I might have taken with a book like The Things They Carried would be to put students in groups, assign each group a short story from the novel, give the groups time to discuss and determine the story’s themes, and then present their findings to the class. While that technique has its advantages, I wanted to move from the practice of presenting ideas to discussing them. Read More
Fostering a Reading/Writing Life Using Independent Reading
Presented on October 16, 2015, at the PA Council of Teachers of English Language Arts (PCTELA) Annual Conference, Harrisburg, PA.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PRESENTATION.
Feel free to browse this site for additional materials and ideas. Much of the information shared in the presentation is available in one or more of the blogs posted on this site. Some graphics (like the 2 HR/WK reading chart and the Reading Rate) are on my teacher site, mrsEbarvia.com. Also on my teacher site are a list of articles and resources that support independent reading practices in the classroom (go to mrsEbarvia.com > Honors World Lit > Parents).
How I made time for reading . . . and had one of the best years ever (Part 3: A Weekly Framework)
With the first week of school behind us, the groundwork for our independent reading endeavors has been set. This week, my 9th grade students walked around my room, browsed the classroom library, and marked titles that they’re interested in reading. Through our scavenger hunt, students learned the ins and outs of how the library is organized (alphabetical by title with color coded genre stickers) and how to check out books (Classroom Booksource website). One of our quickwrites this week had students thinking about all the books they’ve read and enjoyed over the years (preparation for a reading memoir they’ll write next week). On Friday, I booktalked two student favorites from last year―All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven and Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick―and many hands went up when I asked who was interested in these titles. And even though we’re not officially beginning independent reading for another two weeks, a few students already asked to borrow books.
I also enjoyed seeing several students from last year who stopped by my classroom to return books they borrowed, update me on what they read over the summer, and even donate books to my library. One of my colleagues happened to be in the room when they were visiting and after they left, he turned to me and said, “All your hard work last year… looks like it’s paying off.”
Yes, indeed.
To learn more about how I organize my classroom library, click here.
In Part 1 of this series, I discussed why and how I made time for independent reading in my classes. In Part 2, I reflected on how to expose students to high-interest and engaging titles through booktalks and other strategies. Here, in Part 3, I’ll share the weekly framework for independent reading I used for the first part of the school year.
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How I made time for reading . . . and had one of the best years ever (Part 2: The Power of Booktalks)
Although I’d been doing some form of independent reading for several years, with each year better than the one before, I came into last school year determined to commit in a way I hadn’t before. I wanted to find a way to make students’ independent reading a core component of their learning rather than something they did “on the side” or “in addition to” what we were doing in class.
Was I successful? I think so. Certainly there’s always room for improvement, but when I look back at last year, my 9th grade students together read more than 1000 books. That’s 1000 books in addition to the whole class novels they were assigned. That’s 1000 books I’m sure that would have gone unread had I not made the time in class for students to develop independent reading habits.
In Part 1 of this series, I briefly discussed why and how I made the time and room for independent reading in my classroom. In the next several posts, I’ll discuss what we did―especially the key components of our reading workshop that made our endeavors successful. And the first component? The booktalk.
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How I made time for reading . . . and had one of my best years ever (Part 1)
I‘m ashamed to admit that for many years, I rarely built in any time for independent reading. The extent of independent reading in my classroom was taking students to the library to check out a book, telling them it was due by X date, and then giving students a list of projects from which to choose to prove they had read the book. Aside from the trip to the library, all of this was done outside of class. That’s what independent meant, right? Plus, my students were taking honors English. Shouldn’t they be expected to read outside of class? And did I mention that when I say students picked their own books that what I really meant was that the books had to fit X, Y, and Z criteria?
Fast forward to last school year. In that same course, we spent 30 days in class dedicated to independent reading. Students chose their own books—any book—which they brought into class on our designated reading days. And what did they do during class? They read. What did I do? I read, too. And I shared what I was reading and why. And I conferred with students about their books. And then we talked books, books, and more books. And then students began recommending titles to each other and to me. For the first time in my career, I started to finally understand what a real reading community felt and looked like.
What changed?
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Making space for learning: a classroom tour
August always brings mixed feelings. On the one hand, I’m always surprised and sad that summer is coming to an end. Lazy days at the pool, s’mores over a campfire, water ice after dinner—I know I’ll be missing these days all too soon.
On the other hand, there’s something exciting about the beginning of the school year. Read More
Tricia Ebarvia 
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