Add Student Choice in Curriculum

Hello and welcome to the third edition of my summer blog series all to get our middle school students excited about reading. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out

Today, you will learn all about the importance of implementing student choice in your daily instruction. 

Adolescents are more likely to invest in their education and learning when given a choice. Tomlinson and Allan (2000) state that students should choose at least a few factors with every assignment, including content, process, product, or conditions for learning. This means giving the students the opportunity to co-construct knowledge: a collaborative process where students learn from one another to expand their knowledge. When students are given choice, they invest in deep thinking needed for intellectual growth. Learning becomes more authentic and personalized. This creates a learning community where students’ lives and voices are intertwined in curriculum decisions and learning styles. When embedding student interest in all facets of learning, students will see and feel their lives are worthy of learning and reflection. Thus, they are more likely to engage in their literacy development. 

Giving students power over how they want to learn can feel scary and daunting. It can be hard to let go of the power, however, shifting your mindset will allow a beautiful transformation in your students' learning and yours too. Serving as a facilitator and noticing when you are needed as a presenter or instructor will help in fostering a learning environment where students see value in what they are reading, uplift their voices, help shape their identities. 

Communication is key when embedding more choice within your classroom. Gehr (2020) suggests communicating with students about what they are choosing and why. When students take ownership in their learning, including their mistakes, they become more self-aware when given choice in their learning. “By giving the students choice, you give them the choice to become independent learners with the autonomy to fail but also the autonomy for authentic engagement” (para. 5). 

Getting Started
Start small and learn from your mistakes. Doing a major overhaul of your instruction and/or curriculum will cause frustration and burnout. I have found that the more changes I make, the more confusion it leads to later for students. Here are some suggestions to get started

• Finding different ways for students to respond to prompts
• Pear Deck
• Google Jamboard
• Padlet
• Twitter
• Sticky Notes 
• Seesaw
• Flipgrid
• One-Pagers

Example of Google Jamboard provided by Hannah Schrempp

Example of using sticky notes to promote movement provided by Ashley Spratt

• Make a plan and stick to it. As you start to implement new strategies and approaches, students will need scaffolding. The more examples they have of what is expected during their learning time, they will likely succeed. 
• Choose one unit at a time. In my Freak the Mighty (1993) unit, students focused on the essential questions, “How do the relationships that you have with others shape the person that you are? What does it mean to be a friend?” As we read through the text, there are different opportunities for students to explore texts that share different types of friendships and relationships. This allows students to develop their own understanding of the essential question.

Student choice is more than choosing a topic. It is about empowering students through the entire learning process. By embracing students’ creativity, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, using different avenues to support and enhance student learning will foster a rich learning environment. Here are a few ways to incorporate student choice in everyday learning and reading.

• Project-Based Learning is valuable when implementing choice for students—After students read chapter 19 in Freak the Mighty (1993) unit, having students participate in the trial of Killer Kane. Students are placed in groups: defense, plaintiffs, witnesses, and jury. Students never find out what happens to Killer Kane, Max’s dad, after the scene in chapter twenty-one, and this is the perfect opportunity for students to be creative and allow evidence from the text to support their findings. 
  
• Give students topic options. At the beginning of the year, survey your students' interests. This will give you the inside scoop on what motivates your students to read. As you construct your units for the year, refer back to this information if you face a mandated curriculum reflecting on how you can bring light to topics or issues your students find important or interesting. 
  
• There is power in essential questions (EQ). EQs are thought-provoking questions that help students effectively inquire and make sense of important and complex ideas and knowledge. This technique engages diverse thinking and learners. It invites students into ongoing debates and conversations and requires this to read more in a way that is interesting and compelling. Remember, our ultimate goal is to get adolescent readers to see the value in reading to learn. Examples of essential questions are:
• Who is entitled to own what?
• What makes writing worth reading?
• To what extent is US history a history of progress?
• What is the value of place value?

Use this guide to help you construct your own essential questions.

• Allow students to choose what they read. In my recent blog post, The Classroom Library I talked about the importance of independent reading. When students have the ability to self-select texts and are provided time to read independently, this alone motivates, engages, and fosters habitual readers. Giving students options to select texts during instruction time in the form of book clubs is another way to embed student choice. Book clubs tie into the overall “big idea(s)” of the unit. Adolescents are social creatures. Gallegher and Kittle (2018) state book clubs strengthen classroom community, causal, and academic conversations between students. When students have the opportunity to choose which topic they want to dive deeper into, students will take ownership over their learning and be eager to share their thoughts and opinions with their peers. Keep in mind that book clubs will need:
• High-interest books
• Provide a wide range of text complexity
• Provide scaffolding support
• Observe groups frequently to monitor progress and comprehension 
• Have group members create goals and jobs

Some teachers work best when they have a resource that allows me to get my thoughts on a page. Reflecting and goal setting is a critical component of teaching. Here you will find two versions, trimester and quarter breakdown, of a professional goal setting sheet. After accessing the sheet, think about the following questions:

• How can you bring student choice into your classroom?
• What resonated with you and pushes you to make immediate changes? Remember, it’s important to start small and work your way up!
• What scares you most about making changes?

This post is a part of a four-week summer series all focused on getting your middle school students to see the importance of reading. Head to the next in the series titled,

Connect with me!

mrssclassroomcraziness@gmail.com

@mrssclassroomcraziness

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Want to learn more? Check out these reads!
Tomlinson, C. A., & Allan, S. D. (2000). Leadership for Differentiating Schools and Classrooms. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.

How to Give Students More Choice
5 Ways to Give Your Students More Voice and Choice
10 Ways to Incorporate Student Choice in Your Classroom
Using Project-Based Learning to Boost Online Engagement
Using Project-Based Learning to Boost Online Engagement

Connecting with Families

Hello and welcome to the fourth and FINAL edition of my summer blog series all to get our middle school students excited about reading. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out

Today, you will learn about the importance of involving families in their children’s reading and strategies to use to get middle schoolers reading at home. 

Families are a student’s first teachers and they remain central throughout students’ academic careers. For many middle schoolers, their first encounter with literacy is at home, however, this isn’t always the case. Many of our students are primary caregivers after they leave our classroom, leaving little time to focus on academics and personal activities, such as reading. The American Psychology Association (2010) found as many 1.4 million U.S children between the ages of 8 to 18 are caring for a parent, grandparent, or sibling(s). Most of our adolescent caregivers are from low-income, single-parent households (para. 2). 

There is also a strong correlation between the families’ perspectives and beliefs about reading that impact an adolescent’s view. Our students develop their interests and attitudes towards reading through experiences and actions they see at home. So, how can we offset this trend? How can we support our families so that our middle schoolers are reading outside of school? 

Developing a plan to communicate with families often is a critical step in increasing reading engagement at home. This can be done in a variety of ways, such as monthly phone calls, parent-teacher connection apps, newsletters, and family surveys. 

Phone calls home are one of the most effective ways to keep an open line to families. Although texts and emails are a much easier and faster way to communicate, phone calls can make a greater impact. In my eight years of teaching, I have made it a personal goal to call home for every student each month. Most parents expect negative news when they receive a call from a teacher; however, consistently communicating their child’s academic progress will increase at-home engagement. You can also take this opportunity to clarify anything caregivers are finding difficult or confusing. 

Parent-teacher connection apps are another great tool for educators to use to keep an open line of communication with our students’ caregivers. Apps such as:

• Klassly
• Classting-allows you to share videos and files
• ParentSquare
• Remind
• TalkingPoints- Multilingual texting feature
• ClassDojo
• ClassTag- Multilingual texting feature

Many come with multilingual features so that you can communicate with any caregiver in the home. 

Newsletters are another great way to keep caregivers informed of what’s happening inside the classroom. You can give reading tips and tricks, information about local library events, and information about what their child is learning. If at all possible, provide this information in the home’s first language. 

Lastly, surveying your families is another effective way to better understand your students' needs at home. This strategy will provide you information on how reading is viewed inside the home, reading habits, and resources available within the home and community. You will be able to adjust your support and provide materials so that your students are engaged in reading at home. Here is an example.

Neuman and Celano (2001) support that limited resources can and do hinder reading activities within the home. Although access to reading materials is an important component of a literacy environment, it is not the only component that fosters reading motivation. Cultural differences, parental illiteracy, family problems, negative educational experiences, job-related issues, economic conditions, health, and living arrangements all contribute to accessibility within the home (Plevyak, 2003). Reading motivation and achievement within the home are interconnected with the activities' actions, goals, and circumstances. 

Educators must have empathy and understanding of each student's background. By being open and aware of linguistic and cultural differences teachers can provide caregivers with resources and support to help foster a positive relationship with their child’s education at home and school. Here are a few ways educators can bridge the gap between home and school reading. 

Build a classroom website. In a digitized age, giving caregivers easy access to classroom resources through a website is a beneficial way to keep them up-to-date. Through this portal, you can place tutorials of strategies being used in class, provide quick links to literacy resources in their communities, online reading supplements, and links to online activities.

Images provided by Hannah Schrempp

Make reading at home interactive. If you’re like me and your school requires homework for all students, take a second to reflect on what kind of homework you are assigning around reading. Does it require mundane tasks such as recording when reading has started and stopped? Does it require a caregiver’s signature? Reading logs, in my opinion, are not useful. Most of the time students lie. You can easily replace this task with reading conferences within the classroom. You can learn more about it in The Classroom Library blog post if you would like to learn more.

Image provided by Hannah Schrempp

Reading choice boards are a great way to embed writing at home with reading. Allowing students to have power over the method of their homework will increase engagement. Adding tasks that connect to students’ Linguistic and cultural backgrounds, interests, and even their suggestions is a great way to make your own reading choice board. Here you see that a student of mine chose to reflect on the symbols in Insurgent (2012). 

Include caregivers in on the fun. Give students options to interact with family members with their reading.

Example of reading choice board student response provided by Hannah Schrempp

Encourage asking questions and promoting discourse at home. Developing a student's vocabulary and background knowledge in any language are two of the greatest contributors to success in and through their literacy development. Encouraging students and parents to sit and watch documentaries, the news, Netflix, or shows on any other streaming service promotes understanding of concepts. It develops 21st-century skills such as innovation, creativity, problem-solving, reasoning, communication, and collaboration. Here are a set of questioning cards you can give to families to use at home. 

In conclusion, we have to provide our students and families with the resources to promote and support reading at home. If you are sending home materials for students to read, make sure families are made aware of how to support their child at home and make sure it’s accessible to all students.

Questions to consider:

• What is your biggest struggle when it comes to families?

• If a parent is not fluent in English, how can you support their child?

• What ideas do you have after reading this post that might alleviate your struggle?

• What are ways you have found success when connecting with families and building a positive reading relationship?

Throughout this summer series, I have asked you to reflect on many components of how you teach, what you teach, and how you foster positive reading environments and experiences. As you finish up this series, please take the time to fill out my survey.

Connect with me!

mrssclassroomcraziness@gmail.com

@mrssclassroomcraziness

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Want to learn more? Check out these reads!
Little-known caregivers
How to Promote Family Involvement in Literacy Education

Neuman, S., & Celano, D. (2001). Access to print in low‐income and middle‐income communities: An ecological study of four neighborhoods. Reading Research Quarterly, 36(1), 8–26. https://doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.36.1.1

Plevyak, L. H. (2003). Parent involvement in education: who decides? The Education Digest, 69(2), 32–38.

The Classroom Library

Welcome to the second post, a part of the summer series all focused on getting your middle school students to read! If you haven’t already, be sure to head back to my first post where you learn all about the importance of a print-rich middle school classroom.

Today, you will read about the importance of the classroom library. When you hear the words "classroom library" what do you visualize? The school library? A small corner of the room? Leveled readers?

All classrooms need libraries, and, no, I am not talking about the communal school library. NCTE states that classroom libraries play a pivotal role in providing access to books and promoting literacy. Libraries increase student motivation, engagement, and achievement.

Classroom libraries should: 

• Offer a wide range of materials to appeal to and support students with different interests and abilities.
• Provide access to multiple resources that reflect diverse perspectives and social identities; this includes magazines, newspapers, and posters.
• Open up opportunities for students, teachers, and school librarians to collaborate on the selections available for student choice and reading. (NCTE, 2017)

Building your Classroom Library

A significant limitation of building your classroom library is funding. Building a library takes time and money. However, the reward is worth it. There are many free or inexpensive resources available to start building your library. Building your classroom library is also a great way to get families involved. Here are some ways to make a classroom library more economically:

• Use book fairs and clubs point systems
• Second-hand book stores 
• Garage sales
• Ask students to donate 
• Create wish lists and share them with your friends and family
• Retiring teachers/teachers switching grade levels

Libraries cannot be built in a day. Continue to seek out books that represent who is in your classroom, people within the community, and worldwide.

Image from Megan Glidden

A classroom library aims to provide accessible and diverse reading material that strengthens and encourages authentic experiences and discussions between peers and teachers. You can do this by including texts with characters similar in age to students in the classroom and who share experiences they have had. This will generate interest and foster self-to-text connections. The cultural and linguistic backgrounds of students are another factor to consider when selecting books.

Image provided by Elizabeth Moklestad

Image provided by Sarah Krall

Organizing and Creating a Sorting System

A well-organized, labeled classroom library conveys that reading is valued and a part of the classroom environment. Brassell (2005) notes that regardless of the size or condition of the space, decoration and organization can make all the difference. Add pillows, comfy chairs, rugs, and aesthetically pleasing decor to create a warm and inviting place for students to gather. 

Books should be visible and accessible for students to select. Facing books forward and creating a unique display will help generate more interest. This section can emphasize student recommendations, books recently read aloud, or literature centered around a theme.

 

Images provided by Hannah Schrempp

Every few weeks, rotate your book display. Catapano and colleagues (2009) share to always leave some favorites in the library and add new books that represent the current topic of the curriculum. Also, include books that represent future topics in the curriculum so that students will start to form ideas about what they will learn and offer what they already know about the topic as they begin a new project or theme.

Choosing how to group books together and creating a labeling system can feel like a daunting task; however, it will help students navigate the collection. Grouping books based on student interest is another way to generate interest.

Images provided by Hannah Schrempp

Images provided by Hannah Schrempp

Whether you choose to separate your books by genre, themes, author, series, special features, or topic, label books with colored stickers or tape.  Labels will represent categories as well as indicate the relative difficulty level. Use student-friendly, non-stigmatizing labels to refer to different levels.

Image provided by Hannah Schrempp

Here is an example provided by Hannah Schrempp of a labeling system. The top of the spine is labeled with the book's genre or form, and the bottom colors represent the book's “level”. I say the term level loosely because students should not know a book’s reading level. The color system you see in the image on the left indicates the type of language used (inappropriate or complex vocabulary) and topics focused on inside the book. I determine this by either reading the book or doing a simple Google search.

Representation matters

Bishop (1990) states that our students need books that are mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Meaning, students need access to stories that match who they are (mirrors), stories that offer views of the world that may be imagined real (windows), and stories that invite readers to step through the window and step into the characters’ shoes which will ultimately build empathy. When students are immersed in diverse texts, it will help reduce prejudice and misunderstandings, teach students to appreciate their peers' similarities and differences, and inspire students to want to make a change.

When selecting texts to place in your classroom library and curriculum, it is important to understand that there are common biases within texts.

1. Stereotypes: Shortcuts to bigotry 
2. Tokenism of underrepresented groups
3. Invisibility: the complete or relative exclusion of a group
4. Intersectionality: creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage (Oxford Languages)
5. Look at messages about different lifestyles
6. Consider the Author’s or Illustrator’s Background or Perspective 
7. Look at the Copyright Date  

Adapted from the Wisconsin Department of Public Education and Hamline University's Summer Literacy Institute, this graphic organizer provides guidance when examining books you select to place in your classroom.

Image provided by Hannah Schrempp

Foster Student Buy-In

The image on the right is an example of another feature within my classroom. Students can scan the QR codes and learn more about the author. This is another great way to get students interacting with books inside your library. 

Fountas and Pinnell (2001) stress the importance of both ownership and independence in establishing an effective classroom library. Students should be involved regularly in helping organize the space and materials, monitoring effectiveness, and troubleshooting problems. The library should be organized for student independence. You can involve students by:

• Assigning students to be the classroom librarian. This builds and promotes student responsibility and ownership
• Give students the task to choose what books should be spotlighted
• Display student book reviews and recommendations in and around the classroom library 

The image below shows a way to store student reviews. Provide students a clear example of what a good review looks and sounds like and then encourage students to do it often. This is an effective way to build community around your classroom library.

Image provided by Hannah Schrempp

Image provided by Elizabeth Moklestad

The image above shows how Elizabeth builds interest around books. Many students struggle to move onto other books once they finish a series. Pulling and displaying books that are similar to other popular series will show students that there are more amazing books out there.

Image provided by Hannah Schrempp

Images to the above and below show displays based on specific interests. Themes or topics can be easily changed each week or monthly!

Images provided by Hannah Schrempp

The Importance of Independent Reading 
NCTE states “Independent reading is a routine, protected, instructional practice that occurs across all grade levels. Effective independent reading practices include time for students to read, access to books that represent a wide range of characters and experiences, and support within a reading community that includes teachers and students”. 

When students have the ability to self-select texts and are provided time to read independently, this alone motivates, engages, and fosters habitual readers. It is pivotal that educators protect this instructional time so that students can build their reading stamina and have the opportunity to construct meaning through what they are reading. Independent reading opens up opportunities for adolescent readers to experience topics they might not otherwise have a chance to and builds empathy for the world around them.

To ensure student success during independent reading, educators need to provide students with:

• Designated time to read self-selected texts
• Access to a wide range of texts that provide multiple perspectives, interests, and topics 
• Support students through 1:1 conferencing and small groups
• Model and instill enthusiasm about texts you and the students are reading
• Build “community of readers through modeling independent reading and conversations about reading” (NCTE, 2019)

Check out this Classroom Library Survey. As you build a classroom library, frequently refer to this survey to support your decisions. 

As educators, it is critical that we reflect on our classroom practices. After reading this post, consider the following:

• What cultures, topics, themes, or communities do I need to add more voices of in my classroom library? 
• What texts can I add that support cross-curricular topics?
• Do I own any texts that are problematic or contribute to a single story? How can I use these texts to open up conversations with students? 
• If you do not have a classroom library, what has held you back and why? How can you ask for support from fellow colleagues, school community, and administrators?

This post is a part of a four-week summer series focused on getting your middle school students to see the importance of reading. Head to the next in the series titled,

Connect with me!

mrssclassroomcraziness@gmail.com

@mrssclassroomcraziness

 -----------------------------------------------------------

Want to learn more? Check out these reads!

Statement on Classroom Libraries
How to Build Your Classroom Library
Building an Effective Classroom Library Susan Catapano Jane Fleming Martille Elias

NCTE Position Statement on Independent Reading

Brassell, D. (2005). Building a library from scratch. Teaching K-8, 35(4), 56-57.

Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell, G. S. (2001). Guiding readers and writers: Teaching, comprehension, fluency, genre, and content literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Bishop, R. S. (1990). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Perspectives, 1(3), ix–xi.