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MUGGLES CAN MAKE MAGIC, TOO! Turning Non-Readers into Readers and Writers by Dennis Jolley (with Justin Jones)

Posted by on December 6, 2013 in Pay It Forward | 17 Comments

When a friend and I decided to implement a new reading program in our high school classrooms several years ago, our goal was to create a true culture of reading. I’d been guilty of saying to my teacher friends, “These kids just won’t read.” But when I landed a job at the Atlanta area school I graduated from and teamed up with a fellow graduate, we started thinking about why we became English teachers – for the love of literature. How could we teach that love to our students? What we did – described below –  brought amazing results:

In a three-year period, we increased our SAT Critical Reading scores by 30 points, while other schools in our county increased at an average of 8.5 points. On the 2013 SAT Scores, we topped all six high schools in our district in Critical Reading (National—496, State—490, District—528, Our School—542) and jumped to third in the district in Writing (National—488, State—475, District—511, Our School—514). Our media specialists reported an increase in circulation from 9,510 in the three years prior to our program to 19,763 in the three years of its implementation. In one year, students checked out more books than they had in the three years before. Students who said they hadn’t read a book since fifth grade were reading twenty, thirty, or sixty books a year. These gains were achieved in a school with over 60% on free and reduced lunch, a high minority representation, and a very large population of students served by special education.

How did we accomplish this? We worked hard to create an atmosphere of literacy at our school through a four-pronged approach:

Step One began with a commitment to having our students read in silence for ten minutes a day. I’d tried this the year before and failed, but I’d learned two things since then. Kids will not read stuff they aren’t interested in – and you have to meet them where they are. I was willing to give it another go. I knew that practice time is essential. Just as an athlete or musician has to practice to improve their skills, a reader must practice on a regular basis.

A funny thing happens when you tell kids there are no book reports, no quizzes, no tests. They  start reading. They were told they would be given a participation grade for the day, totaling 100 points per week. If they were talking or not reading, they would receive a zero for the day. In the beginning, these grades were important motivators, but they quickly became unnecessary. Within a few weeks, students were eager to open their books and dive in – an  amazing transition. Other English teachers noticed and asked what we were doing. They began to follow suit. By the end of that first school year, we had hundreds of students in our school reading.

We modeled good reading habits by reading with our students. If we tell students reading is important, we have to lead by example. We read widely in the young adult genre so we could recommend books our students would enjoy, especially our low-level and reluctant readers. The results were well worth our efforts as we watched our students become active and engaged readers. Many of them began reading for pleasure for the first time in their lives. They began to share recommendations with each other. When one kid became enraptured by a book, its popularity increased exponentially. We rewarded their progress with bulletin boards with print-outs of covers they signed after reading or with photos of students with the books they’d read.

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Step Two: Easy access to books is critical, so we built extensive and fluid classroom libraries. We worked with our wood shop to build shelves designed to front-face the books, tremendously important in capturing their attention. There is something magical about being drawn in by a book’s cover, then thumbing through its pages. The shelves are placed all around the room; being surrounded by incredible books all day long stimulates their interest.

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Used bookstores, especially in libraries, are good sources for classroom collections if accessing PTA funds or gathering financial support from parents or businesses is difficult. The out-of-pocket cost isn’t overwhelming, and it doesn’t have to be done all at once. I started with 20-30 titles and grew from there over a four-year period.

Our media specialists were a little worried that our sizeable classroom libraries would take “business” away from them. We assured them that if they added YA titles to the library, they’d see a tremendous explosion of readers. They trusted us – and now we have a media center that rivals any in the country. Kids flock to them because they know they’ll have the book they want. They are a destination.

Step Three in our current program is our author visits. I’d never met an author until I was in college, but I knew it would help make literature more real for our readers, especially new readers. We host two to five young adult authors a year. We make a big production of their visits and require that students read one of the author’s books in order to be part of the experience (which includes lunch provided in the library, a presentation by the author, and time for Q&A and signing.) Routinely, we give authors 100-150 students who have bought and read the book when they visit, and the kids are able to see literature as a living art instead of something that belongs to those crusty old guys from long ago.

Dennis Jolley, author Beck McDowell, Justin Jones

Dennis Jolley, author Beck McDowell, Justin Jones

It’s been absolutely amazing to watch them join in a discussion with authors Laurie Halse Anderson, Chris Crutcher, Simone Elkeles, Ned Vizzini, Matt de la Pena, Jessica Khoury, Beck McDowell, and many others. This spring we’ll host Mike Mullin and Jay Asher. We can’t even begin to tell you the impact these events have on students. (Author visits can be funded through grants, donations, fund raisers, and administrative support, and many authors agree to come at a reduced rate when our students purchase 150+ copies of their book.)

The author visits inspire our teachers, too – to spread literacy to students before it’s too late,  before we lose them as potential readers. We often focus too much of our attention on the curriculum and forget that instilling a love of literature in our students has to be our primary goal no matter what standards are dictated or which standardized tests are required by the current government or administration. We must teach them to love reading as we do and inspire them to become life-long learners.

Step Four was adding a Writer’s Workshop as an English elective for students who want to devote class time to developing their craft. These students have entered and won various writing contests and are embarking on NaNoWriMo for the first time this year – a challenge we’re sure our students are up for.

We’re proud to report that you can walk around our campus any time of day and find students reading. Not because they have a project to do or a book report to complete, but simply because they are readers. They’ve fallen in love with the written word and are clamoring for more. Students we’ve never met come to our rooms to ask for a book they absolutely have to have. We’ve made books available and they’ve responded.

Dennis Jolley is a high school literature teacher and pre-published MG & YA author from the Atlanta area whose  passion is getting kids to read. You can find him online at http://www.djolleywrites.com/ and on Twitter as @djolleywrites.