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Some Reasons I Worry About Saying Goodbye to My Class
Note: This post started as an idea for a simple Top 10 List of my concerns for the future reading lives of my fourth grade students.. But after just the first two ideas I had written about 600 words. Not wanting to write a manifesto, I reduced my list to just four bigger ideas: Summer, Fifth Grade, Middle School and The Common Core.
The reality of saying good bye to another great group of fourth graders is racing toward me like an out of control locomotive. I really, really wish I could just flunk all my class so we could pick back up in the fall with where we are now. Together we have worked, laughed, learned and forgot, but maybe most importantly, we have collaboratively created a community of readers. This awesomeness is also why I worry about what their reading future has in store for them.
1. Summer Reading
My first concern is, will they carry their reading momentum into the summer? On Thursday, while trolling through Twitter I saw Donalyn Miller’s message: “Allington’s next session, Summers: Some are reading, Some are not.” This summed up my concern in 7 words. I have students this year who read between 2 and 4 hours a day. Some of this is in school, but a big chunk is outside of school. Will these children be able to continue this habit without reading mentors around them? I desperately want to believe the love for reading they have right now will carry them through the summer, but I worry that without the anchor of a community of readers, the daily practice of reading will fade. While we are together we share titles, push each other to read great books and celebrate the successes we have. How many of my ten-year-olds have developed the intrinsic motivation to read without the support of others?
2. Next School Year
Once my current group gets past summer and returns to our building in 5th grade I will still have some worries about their lives as readers. The main concern is that I know none of our fifth grade team is the book nerd that I am. Our fifth grade team does great things, but having a middle grade book nerd as a teacher is not going to happen for my kids. I don’t have any hard research to support the fact that having a NBC teacher really helps, but I have lots of anecdotal research that leads me to believe that a big factor that keeps 9 to 13 year olds in the reading club is having a teacher that pushes books on them like a crack dealer.
Another concern about I have for my class when they get to fifth grade is they will no longer be together as a class. I have seen reading relationships build between children who would probably not hang out with each other in a different setting. It is rewarding to see this happen as their teacher, but it is also rewarding for them as classmates. For example, I have seen some of my boy readers turn reading into a contact sport. It might not be the best way to be motivated to read, but I have a group of about six boys who push each other to, as Gary Paulsen says, “read like a wolf eats.” I wonder if the peer-to-peer social support for reading will still be there when they are split into four different classrooms.
3. Middle School
I don’t want to think about after fifth grade because I have seen too many of my former students tell me they really don’t read much in middle school. When I ask why, the usual answers are too much homework or too busy with sports. I know the lack of self-selected reading in middle school can be attributed to many causes, but my gut tells me that one of the causes is that middle school is not a place where you can freely share your love of books. The tribal nature of middle school culture is not the place, unless you have deeply passionate leaders and teachers, where you will find all the “cool kids” reading deep into the night. Based on what my daughter has told me about her middle school experience, she doesn’t get too much time to read books of her choice at school, nor does she have that many “reading friends.” Thankfully she has two nerdy book friends and loves to spend hours in her room reading whenever she can.
4. The Common Core
I have tried long and hard to look for the positives within the Common Core and thankfully I have found some. However, there is nothing I can find within it that champions reading books that you get to choose. I am all for reading more nonfiction, reading deeper and being able to critically respond to books. However, I fear that many teachers will abandon the idea of a workshop model (if they actually started using the workshop model) that includes self-selected reading because there is no explicit mention of this idea in the Common Core. Each day in my room, kids get plenty of time to read books they choose. Most days they groan when reading time is done. I secretly love these wails of despair and grunts of disbelief, especially because this happens during the last 45 minutes of our school day. Imagine 20 plus 4th graders not wanting to leave school because they are reading. So what will happen to them a few years in the future when they have been Common Cored?
Concluding Thoughts
It is tough to worry about the kids you work with for 180 days. You only want the best for them. I know they will be heading into fifth grade classrooms that will help them learn and progress as students. I know they will be heading to a middle school that will give them new possibilities to explore. And I know that many of my 28 kiddoes this year will continue to be readers in the truest sense of the word no matter what happens to them. My hope is the readers who need a Nerdy Book Club teacher, or a Nerdy Book Club group of peers, or just the free time in order to keep hold of the habits made this year will get exactly what they need.
Not much would make me happier than seeing some of the kids from my class in a few years and when I ask, “What are you reading?” The response isn’t, “Nothing” or “Not much” but a delighted, “Oh Mr. K. the book I am reading now is so wonderful. It’s about …….”
Tony Keefer (@tonykeefer) lives with his NBC family and teaches 4th grade NBCers in Dublin, Ohio. He also writes for Choice Literacy and on his own blog atychiphobia.
Nerdy Book Club 
Man, Tony, you nailed exactly what I have been thinking … worrying about.
Kevin
It is bittersweet to have big concerns at the end of a great ride with a group of learners.
Tony, you’re a REALLY good teacher. 🙂 Here’s a Summer Reading Idea and a Next Year Idea. 1. Maybe you could make a list of your top 10 Summer Reading books and give all your students the list and a postcard addressed to you (hm, WONDER where I got this idea) and when they’ve read all 10 they send the postcard back to you and then you mail them The List of Secret Book Stuff–anecdotes about the first time YOU read the books, your favorite scenes, cool trivia about the authors, etc. (And, of course, a list of another 10 books and another postcard…) And for next year, maybe your school would let you do a “Book of the Month” hallway poster where you highlight a book, with space for students (and teachers and staff) to sign their name, age, and grade underneath. Then ANYBODY who’s read the book can find and chat with other students, etc. who’ve read the book. Maybe there could even be a monthly Book Chat day! That would be awesome!
Thanks for the ideas Ame
Yep- I share these concerns as well…I’m planning a book party for the week before school begins to share summer reading with entering and exiting students, have never done it before so I don’t know it will be successful. I love the postcard ideas shared by Ame in the comment above as well. Plan to work that in somehow….
Book party, sounds like my kind of place. Hopefully you gets lots of kids back.
Tony, balance your perspective with the affirmation that you gave your students the best possible reading experience in 4th grade that they could possibly have. It will stay with them for a lifetime. It is up to them to find their way in the reading world, and it seems to me that you armed them with some hefty tools. You will have a brand new set of readers to cultivate next year. If you keep this up, I imagine those upper grade teachers are going to begin wondering what the heck is going on, when students keep arriving in their classrooms as established voracious readers. Tip of the hat to you, sir.
Thank you for the hat tip. I do try to keep things in perspective. But it is hard at times to not slide into the worry wart mode.
Hi Tony – I hear your concerns…….. I am a middle school reading and ELA teacher for grade 6. Some middle school teachers do use a Reading Workshop model, encourage Free Choice reading, do regular book talks, match students with books, get excited about new books, and have the same concerns that you have discussed about students moving along to 7th grade. It appears that it is too easy to suck the joy out of reading! That is especially disappointing when a teacher spends so much energy infusing the joy of books and the love of reading into students!
I know there are many, many teachers out there who cultivate passionate readers, what is alarming is your line of “it is too easy to suck the joy of reading” How does this happen?
It happens when there are paradigm shifts…. such as Common Core Standards and more assessments than a teacher can ever use to inform instruction. The joy of books and reading get sucked dry when teachers are mandated to use basals, or when non fiction becomes the end all, be all. When the choice of what to read is dictated……then reading becomes a task. I agree with so many who have commented. Balance is needed. Teachers need to be readers and writers. Book talks need to happen regularly. There needs to be an excitement that pervades….. and teachers need to keep in mind that the most important thing to remember is that our job is to create life long readers!
Had to laugh– when our 8th graders leave, I am always tired of them, even my own personal children. 4th graders are just becoming real people! It depends so much on the middle school. Reading is VERY cool at our school, but I also have concerns about common core and the fact that our students will not have a thirty minute Sustained Silent Reading period next year. Okay, now I’M worried! We all do what we can, with whatever students we have, and hope for the best!
So sad that you are losing the SSR time, keep up the good fight!
Tony- I feel the same way. I’m also going to use the postcard idea that was mentioned. I have been in contact with some of my former students and they are asking for book recommendations. They are also sharing with me what they are reading.
So glad to hear that some of your former students reach out to you. I know I love it when that happens.
Eeek, you summarized so many of my worries as a third grade teacher! I am glad not to have the test/Common Core pressure that you face. Every year I am amazed at the community of readers the class has become. At this time of year I always wish I were looping with my class. Just today I scoured a used book sale ad thought of the students who will love these books- but there are only 24 school days left.
I know the feeling of seeing books and instantly thinking of who from my class would read them.
I’m teaching 9th grade English and I have very similar concerns. So many of my students love the time I give them to read in class, but I worry if they’ll make that time once they’ve left my classroom. I try to keep them going by providing them a list of recommended summer reading along with a list of books I plan on reading this summer. It includes my blog, and now I’ll include my blog’s Facebook page so hopefully they’ll see my updates on Facebook or more importantly, they’ll update *me*. It sounds like you’re a fantastic, passionate teacher, so I’m sure many of your kids will come find you in the fall to tell you about the great books they read this summer 🙂
Thanks for sharing the idea of linking your blog to a Facebook page. I will have to share that with some of my MS/HS friends that are looking for ways to keep the reading fires lit in their students.
I work as my district’s Secondary English Language Arts Coordinator and we’re on the road with Common Core. It’s my thought the independent reading is going to become even more important for students so that they can do the type of reading required by CC. I think independent student choice reading needs to be emphasized so that students can build their stamina, background knowledge, and appreciation of how enjoyable and meaningful reading can be. I am always sharing books I discover, many from here, with the teachers I work with. Teachers need to know about great books to recommend. That’s why this is such a resource for me. Thank you for all the contributions you make here…..
Your comments about independent reading being soooo important ring true to me. I am glad to see a district level coordinator being a advocate for this idea. Thanks for sharing.
I’m sooooo connecting with your blog and with many of the comments. I’m a passionate book nerd and very passionate 6th grade reading teacher. I’ll be blogging with these kiddos all summer long about what we’re reading…but my heart still aches saying goodbye. I do worry about their experience next year…but I’ve planted the passion and when it’s well planted…well, I have faith that it will continue to grow.
I want to have the faith the love of reading will continue to grow as well. I am glad to see you are trying the idea of blogging with your class over the summer, we are doing that as well.
Like Sarah above, I know a teacher who has begun a blog just to review YA books for former students. I don’t know if you believe 4th into 5th graders would access a blog special for them to read about & to share books they’re reading, but maybe? I too believe that if you’ve started them well, most will find time to read. I liked the way you spoke about the near, then far issues. They are there each year we say goodbye.
I think the kids who have found that books are as important to them as food and water would definitely read online sources to help find new books and communicate with others. My bigger worry are the kids that are close to be die-hard readers and when the community support fades, their love of reading also slightly fades.
Love your post, Tony. My students have begun to refer to myself and a co-teacher in the room as their “mother birds” who are “flipping out” because we have to shove them out of the nest and see if they fly. 🙂 This is a hard time of year, my friend.
Somehow I don’t think I fit the role of mother bird, but I get how you feel completely.
I worry the same about summer, but I know that with my ninth graders I will still see them in the halls over the next three years to see how they can ask the question: “What are you reading now?” My heart flutters when they stop back and make recommendations and ask what I have been reading because I know that I have made a difference. It’s my seniors that get my stomach all in knots. I wrote before that college was my Dark Reading Night – a long four years with little opportunity to read what I wanted to read just for fun. Some will suffer from the same; others will be working, moving, juggling new responsibilities. When I get a Facebook message or friend request from them – or even an email at school – I smile because it’s usually to continue our reading connection. I hope that all of our students continue down the path of the Nerdy no matter what bumps they may encounter. 🙂
So can I open enroll my incoming freshman daughter to your classroom. It would be a long commute but it might be worth it. Or could you move to my neck of the woods for a few years 🙂
You can’t see me blush, but it’s there. Thank you! Something tells me she wouldn’t be up for the 7.5 hour one-way commute…
Loved your post! I absolutely feel your pain! Sending my third graders on is always so bittersweet…. I worry about the same things, all except the core. Compared to the Utah core, it allows more flexibility, and I think that anyone who has seen the miracle of reader’s workshop will continue as always. I know I will! Compared to my third grade colleagues who do less RWS, my dibels scores are consistently higher…. And my kids become book lovers! I’ll never cut it back.
Love the fact your kids love books and they do better on what I think is a rather silly assessment tool. That is awesome!
Tony, I hadn’t read more than one line before I realized who the writer was. You definitely have a clear writing voice. 🙂
I’m feeling your same pain right now, knowing that choice and time are not honored as much next year. We’ve worked so hard to become two classes of readers, and I’m not ready to give up that ideal. It’s been amazing to listen to the passionate conversations (arguments) that they have been having as we try to decide a champion for our May Madness (loved your March Madness!). Kids that read, recommend, and talk about books – that is something quite special! You’ve given your students a gift.
Thanks for the kind words, but the idea that I have given them a gift is kind of sad. All kids, especially elementary students, should be in a class community that is passionate about books. Teachers who cultivate that passion should be the norm.
This is such a thoughtful post. Thank you, Tony. I am a middle school English teacher, and I share many of the same feelings as you when the school year begins to culminate. I am one of those middle school teachers who gives her students independent reading choices on top of our required class novels. If it was possible, I’d scrap all other lesson plans and just read!
Something else that you said made me think… “The tribal nature of middle school culture is not the place, unless you have deeply passionate leaders and teachers, where you will find all the “cool kids” reading deep into the night.” I never thought of middle school as “tribal,” but it really is!
🙂