“You become a better reader by reading,” said Peggy Bragg, director of reading K–8 for the Harvard schools, explaining one of the premises behind the independent reading initiative now in its first year at the Bromfield middle school.
Many factors contributed to the creation of the new program, Bragg said. With the expansion of her job six years ago to include middle school along with elementary, she observed the difficulties many students faced in the transition from fifth to sixth grade in language arts. In fifth grade, she said, the teacher models strategies and reading behaviors by reading texts aloud to the class. Students then apply the strategies in their independent reading of texts at their own reading levels. In contrast, a typical sixth-grade curriculum requires students to read books on their own for full-class discussions. Usually middle schoolers read about six books each year.
Bromfield eighth-grader Jessica DiPietro engages with her chosen book during a monthly visit to the public library, part of the new middle school independent reading initiative. (Courtesy photo)
Additionally, said Bragg, all of the education research shows the need for kids to do more reading in order to become lifelong readers. And, she said, “Middle schoolers need choice; choice is huge for that age.” She described how research and language arts standards show that kids in any grade are reading at all different levels. A program that encourages students to choose books on their own from a wide variety of both subject matter and level of difficulty can help accommodate those differences.
Over the years, Bragg had conversations with former principal Jim O’Shea, who she said was a “proponent of changing up the tried and true,” and with English Department leader Janet Brown, about introducing choice and diversity into the language arts program. Last year she discussed the idea with sixth-grade teacher Miranda Miller, seventh-grade teacher and author Luke Reynolds, and eighth-grade teacher Cristin Hodgens. “I tried to just steer and let it evolve,” said Bragg.
The middle school teachers came on board. In an email exchange, Reynolds said the independent reading initiative is supplemental to the approximately six titles the seventh grade reads as a full class. ‘‘The aim is to foster a love of literature and choice, increasing empowerment and accessibility for students to find books they will love and that will also challenge them,” he said. The program allows students “to learn to enjoy literature without turning reading into a stressful assessment,” he added. The independent reading program is now an integral part of the eighth-grade language arts experience, said Hodgens. Students are expected to read at least one independent book a quarter, in addition to the all-class novels.
Integrating with curriculum
Bragg knew that the independent reading had to be integrated into the school curriculum—teachers couldn’t just tell the students to go home and read. Kids have no time for additional reading on their own, she said. So the question arose of how teachers could find time for choice reading in the schedule, without giving up something else. Fortunately, middle schoolers have a periodic common-time block in their schedules and this could be used for the new reading program. Hodgens said her students also have sporadic silent reading time in extended class periods, occasional parts of regular in-class time, activity period, and evening homework time.
Bragg said another factor was that the choice reading needed structure; one way to give this was for teachers to provide a variety of choice books around a particular theme. Over the summer, Hodgens was given professional development time to research books with appeal to an eighth-grade audience and to recommend high-interest, young adult books across eight genres. She said that Brown also provided expertise on titles specific to eighth grade and helped in securing a new bookcase. Using grant money for the purchase and teacher input for the titles, Bragg ordered 150 books, some titles in multiple copies.
“There was purposeful thinking about the ordering,” said Bragg.
Hodgens commented, “The moment when the books arrived, early fall, to form the backbone of an emerging classroom library—that was a great moment.”
Having found time and structure, the next big question was how to hold the students accountable for the independent reading. The teachers have found a variety of ways to do this. Reynolds said, “I talk with students about the books they are reading and try to help them make choices or increase awareness about different kinds of books. I love roaming the stacks with students, and that’s when a lot of magic about book connections occurs.”
Hodgens explained that students write and speak with each other and with her about their books, oftentimes drawing on independent reading as they discuss full-class novels. She added, “There is nothing better than hearing a student spontaneously rave about “The Bitter Side of Sweet” with a huge smile spread across his face—these kinds of moments have happened a lot this year, and they are priceless.”
Collaboration is key
All parties agree that a huge part of what Hodgens calls a “mini-coalition of literacy partners” is the public library. There was a great deal of collaboration among teachers and librarians prior to the launch of the program. Once a month, each grade goes to the public library and students choose a book for independent reading and spend time reading there. “One of my favorite parts about the initiative is our First Friday visits to the public library here in Harvard,” said Reynolds. The teachers emphasized that Bromfield librarian Cricket Segaloff and public librarians Lisa Gagnon, Jill Hayes, and Abby Kingsbury have been indispensable in finding books of high interest and in steering students toward books they will enjoy.
Library Director Mary Wilson observed, “We are seeing middle school students engaged in a pursuit that will last them a lifetime—discovering the pleasure of reading! At the same time, it has afforded a number of students who may not be regular library users the opportunity to become familiar with the library staff and the library’s resources.” On a more personal note she added, “One of my favorite moments was seeing a student who had checked out a book on his class visit one Friday return the following Monday excited to get the next two books in the series he was reading because he had already finished the first one. That made us all smile.”
Bragg sees many ways of expanding the program, one being by using technology. A student could have a book chat with a student in a different country. And Brown had this to say: “As English Department leader, I am passionate about building and supporting programs that encourage choice reading. A novel’s impact knows no bounds: Passions are born and an appreciation for our diverse world can be found within the pages of a book. As our choice reading program grows, so too does the richness of our curriculum.”
