Just Right Books and the CROP-QV

     One of my biggest challenges when I dove into this Reading class was trying to match my high school readers with appropriate text for independent practice. Not one of my nine students are instructional above a third grade level, but I am not about to hand them 1st to 3rd grade texts and expect them not to run from the room in disgust. Fair enough! In my last post I mentioned scouring the public library for over two hours that first night, after they had shared their interests with me, to find a book that would fit each of them. I can honestly say that out of my 9, I was only truly successful in that pairing with four of them. The problem was not in the fact that I had chosen books they hated, it was the fact that they hated reading. Period. I understand the reasons why, but that wasn't helping me choose good books for them to practice with. I also spent countless amounts of time scouring the Internet for non-fiction sites that I could get topics that were age appropriate, engaging, and at an appropriate level. I went in that first day with an article that debated having seat belts on school buses in an effort to introduce Connections. It was awful. The article was awful. The kids hated it. I hated it. The whole period was a hot, struggling failure. I drove home that afternoon in a state of mild depression, but determined to make it better. I realized that I was trying too hard to make my instruction convenient, non-offensive to their age, perfect, and enjoyable for them. I was WAY over-thinking this! Rather than do what I know works, I forgot that they are the same struggling readers I taught in elementary school - just in bigger bodies. These kids are teenagers who hate reading because they can't do it. How in the world did I ever think I was going to teach them to love it with a debate on seat belts?  I came home and headed to the basement to rummage through the 8 large boxes (don't judge me...) of books that I purchased for explicit reading instruction in elementary school. I armed myself with 10 beautifully written texts that I had used to introduce the CROP-QV to my younger students.
     When the students came in, they saw the "picture books" on my desk. I held my breath. And then, the same readers who had just told me on that first day that they had no memory of books as children, remembered. They remembered Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, and some even remembered When the Relatives Came. I was encouraged, but the real test would come when I attempted to read them aloud to teenagers. Long story short - they hung on every word. Seriously. Teenagers sitting stone still listening to every word as I modeled thinking and reading. It was amazing. I had two of them miss the class for Speech, and when they returned they were insistent that I read the book aloud to them that they had missed. Here were two 17 year old boys begging me to read Ten Good Things About Barney!! And I did. Lesson: Just read them good books and they will come. :)

     I decided to use the trusty CROP-QV to introduce some basic strategies to the students so they could have some immediate options to use for support in their reading. Obviously they are all in high school, so it isn't like all of their other classes are waiting patiently for them to become more proficient readers. For those not familiar with the CROP-QV, you can Google it and read more about it than I probably even know. Basically, it teaches six strategies to support comprehension. Connections, Reactions, Opinions, Predictions, Questions, and Visualization. I introduced each one on a different day, modeled the thinking, and then had them practice it on their own with their independent text. I have them record the thinking on a Post It note and we share them at the end. I model deeper thinking and guide them to offer support for their thinking as well. For example, not just "I'm a girl and so is the character", but "I can completely understand why she felt bad when no one asked her to Prom. No one asked me last year and I was a wreck." Here is what it looked like after I had introduced them all:

     This is how I posted their examples on the wall along with definitions of the strategies. I had them add the definitions to their journals. 

     On the left is a picture of one of our first anchor charts. I always take pictures of the charts, print them out, and have them add them to their journals. That way, they don't waste time copying them down but can still have them for support.
     Here are some close ups of the CROP-QV definitions.

     I also did a mini-lesson to show my thinking out loud and how I used each strategy to support my comprehension of the story. This is the one for Connections. (PS: Grandfather is spelled wrong, I know. Ugh... I fixed it after I took the picture.)

     After I had introduced them all, I gave them a CROP-QV to complete. I explained that I understand that they won't use every strategy every time they read, and some strategies won't even appeal or be useful to some of them. I just wanted them to show me that they understood the basic concept of each and how to apply the strategies. Some did a great job and others still had some thin thinking without support. No worries! It is all a work in progress. I assigned a grade to show them how they fared, but I didn't record it. I also put tons of comments. Here are two examples. One isn't bad for a first attempt, but the other is weak. We discussed the results, and they came to the conclusion that it was because one student was engaged in her reading of Stone Fox while the other student was only mildly interested. That's progress!!

     We also discussed that The Hunger Games is well above his independent reading level so it was harder to follow and comprehend. He was relying on having seen the movie. I made a deal with them on that, though. I am not the Book Police. One of my students was told last semester that he couldn't read this series because it was too hard for him. Well, of course it is - but, he heard "You're too stupid to read the book everyone else you know is reading." I know that is what he heard because he told me that. So I told them they could keep one book they chose no matter what the level and one book that I chose or helped them choose. They had to use mine for their independent practice of the mini-lessons, but they could read theirs the last ten minutes of every class. It is nice to watch them read the books I have chosen and leave the harder ones alone in their Book Box, but who's noticing.... :) 

     I leave you with pictures of three of my students engaged in Reading. Arguably my favorite pictures of all. 

     Notice the pencil pouch on her desk in that last picture? I made them each a pouch of supplies with everything they will need in class. It stays in their Book Boxes with their books and journal. It saves a ton of time and didn't cost much. Hello Dollar Store! Their Book Boxes are set up like this: 

     My next post will be on Metacognition. That has been a huge hit. Who knew you had to think and read at the same time... Who. Knew. (PS: Cris Tovani..... seriously, a Reading Goddess.)

     Happy Snow Day #2 to all my Georgia Friends! Hope everyone stays safe and warm. 

Mrs. Beck

What do you get when you cross an EBD class and a Reading class..?

     What do you get? Well, if you are me - you get sheer bliss, joy, and happiness! I find myself to be one of those fortunate people who love their job. I mean love it. I swear if I won the lottery, I would finish the year and then still wonder if it was really the best time to leave the kiddos to someone else's care for the next year...and the year after that...  I adore the students. I do! My husband lives in fear that one night at the dinner table he will look across and see the 16 year old face of a student whom I have brought home. To keep. Okay, not really, but I would consider it. I love to teach the ones who aren't always making the best choices. I love behavior management. I love the ups, find the downs challenging in a good way, and truly never have a dull moment. Never. All that said, I also love, love, LOVE to teach Reading. Two passions in one career? I told you! One lucky girl here.
     I had resolved myself to pursuing one love, EBD/Behavior Management, in my current position. I moved to high school for a change and have truly loved it. Part of me did miss Reading instruction, though. I began to notice that there was a need for more engagement in our lowest readers. Many of them have been doing the same program for years and really had made little to no progress. So, in true "let me give it a shot - I'll try anything" fashion, I asked if I could teach Reading for a period this semester. And my department chair said: YES!  She is a passionate "change is good" person who truly wants the best for these kids. If you don't have a principal/AP/Department Chair/Grade Level Chair person like that: GO FIND ONE! Remember...life is too short to be around people who suck the life out of you. I digress....
     For this post, I wanted to share how I started the Reading class. Remember, I am diving in head first into cold water so I relied on what I knew from working with low readers in the past. They weren't high school students, but I have read enough Cris Tovani (read her, she is amazing!!!) to know that they are just the same poor readers in bigger bodies. The first day, they all came in and I was beyond excited. I had all my little sticky notes on the desks (1 each) and a half sheet of folded paper for an engaging, amazing, Teacher of the Year activity! And the students came in angry. "Hey Miss! Why did they switch my lunch?" "I got first lunch now, too!" "Nobody has first lunch! It sux!" "I want my old schedule back..." Yeah, you get the picture. I sat in my director's chair, listened to their complaints, and changed my Day 1 plan completely. I acknowledged that they were in the worst lunch in the history of lunches, the new schedules must be a nightmare, and boy did I wish I could help them get it all changed back. (Okay all white lies, don't judge. This was survival mode people.) Then I asked them what they needed from a reading class. They all wrote vigorously on their half sheet. We talked about what they liked about their old reading class and what they thought helped them as readers. It took some guiding questions, but they were eventually honest. Brutally honest. I talked to them about books they remember as children and they came up with (again, after some guidance) The Cat in the Hat. I guided some more and eventually they remembered the bears who lived in that big tree (Berenstain Bears), that big dog (Clifford), and Goosebumps books from middle school. I asked them what kind of readers they thought they were and it was then that my heart broke in two. These kids are older. They know. They know that they are all between 15 and 18 years old and cannot read. They told me all about fake reading, how to get away with faking book reports (PS: I hate book reports), how to fool teachers into not having them read out loud, an how to get through a text book reading assignment without reading one single word. Try passing that test, huh? I had them write on the sheet what they do when they get to a tricky part in a book. Then I had them tell me what interests they had. And then the bell rang. Basically both the fastest and saddest 50  minutes of my life.

This is the anchor chart I made for the next day so we could discuss what they wrote. 

     I have 9 students in the class. To choose who we put in there, I gave them DRA assessments and a Spelling Inventory. Let me be clear... Not one of the nine were instructional at a 3rd grade level. Two of them were actually instructional well below that, but I only had assessments as low as third grade. And I don't mean comprehension alone. I mean readers at 17 years old who read below 70 words per minute at 3rd grade level. When I gave them the Spelling Inventory to get a look at how they used patterns, I had to use the elementary version. They were all either in the Digraphs and Blends stage or the Short/Long Vowel stage. And the worst part: They have no idea how to make it better, but really do want to make it better. Well then suit up, Friends! We've got work to do. (See: Diving head first into the icy cold water...)

     I decided to start with the basic CROP-QV strategies to give them something to hold on to and maybe even start using right away. I went that first night to the public library and took all those papers telling me their interests. I looked at books for over two hours. Trying to balance their reading level without being insulting with the content or style of book is challenging to say the least. I checked out 23 books and headed back for Day 2. 

     Day 2, I was ready. They were excited about their book choices and actually thanked me for getting them. I had them all choose a book (after I shared my recommendations for each of them) and then asked them to just read for about 10 minutes. I wanted to observe reading behaviors. I jotted them down and at the end of the time, I told them what I noticed. We talked about Real Readers and Fake Readers. They laughed about being trained professional Fake Readers, and smiled when I called out their Fake Reading habits. I made this anchor chart for the next day.

     The Fake Reading examples are all things that they did that day. I added the things at the bottom as a preview for what was to come. Day 3, we dove right in to the CROP-QV. 

     I will save the CROP-QV post for next week after I have introduced all of the six strategies. This post is already L-O-N-G! In the mean time, one of the things they said they were really struggling with was the Driver's License Manual. (I had asked for examples of when they needed to read in life.) They brought me the manual and let me tell you... it is horrible! Full of advertising, poorly laid out, and in tiny print. It was confusing to me and I'm a reader!! So....I committed to them that I would retype it in a reader friendly Cliff Notes version, larger print, and no distracting ads. Welcome to my weekend..... :) 

     I am so excited for this adventure and truly hope to give these kiddos some tools to use that will help them feel ownership of their reading and the power to change the hand they have been dealt. I will leave you with a picture of our first lesson, Connections. I am using picture books to introduce the strategies. I told them they were easier for me to use as introductions because I didn't want them to be insulted. Guess what. They love them. They listen to every word I read. Check out the fist book we read. Now go read it for yourself. Mr. George Baker by Amy Hest   Inspired yet?  

See you soon, friends. Happy Martin Luther King Day!!
Mrs. Beck