February
23
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Around the Campfire by Donalyn Miller
While I teach two rotations of language arts and social studies, my homeroom stays with me until past noon because of breaks in our schedule for specials, lunch, and recess. When we return from recess, my fifth graders and I have 25 minutes together before students switch classes. It’s the perfect slice of time to finish up our work for the day and squeeze in our daily read aloud.
Students put away their notebooks and wander over to the classroom library rug—everyone moving to their habitual spots. Josh sits next to my chair. Destiny wedges between two bookcases in the corner. Mason stretches out prone behind the rest of the group. Caden and Alex bring clipboards and sketch while I read. Lauryn, Amani, Ryleigh, Kenzie, and Skylar form a chain—one behind the other—and braid their hair.
While a few students sit cross-legged, facing me, with nothing in their hands—our group norms for read aloud time—most of my students are doing something else. It used to bug me. Chiding the braiding chain members one day, I said, “Ladies, you should fix your hair in the bathroom, not the classroom.”
Lauryn wheedled, “Mrs. Miller, Skylar’s (red) hair is so amazing. Don’t you think it looks pretty with these braids?”
Skylar looked at me hopefully, big eyes asking, “You like it don’t you?”
I grumbled, “It looks nice. Now go sit down.”
I looped with most of my students, and they run all over me. They always dive in when it’s time to work, but they are very comfortable and take advantage of my affection for them. When considering classroom management, you have to ask, “What am I tolerating?” and I tolerate a lot. But for some reason, the hair braiding, sketching, and napping during read aloud time drove me up the wall. It was too much. I drew the line.
For two days, we didn’t move to the carpet for read alouds. Convincing myself that my students were too crowded, they sat at their desks and I read from the front of the room. Mason complained, “Can we go to the carpet today? I concentrate better when I close my eyes.” The other kids begged to move back to the carpet, too. Neil said, “We can move some of the desks over there to make more room, Mrs. Miller. It’s not that crowded.”
Begrudgingly, I agreed we could move back to the carpet, but I insisted, “Everyone needs to sit up and stay still.” My students tried to obey, but they looked sad and resigned with their hands folded on their laps, staring straight ahead. We still talked about our book and enjoyed the story, but our read aloud time lost its zest.
A few days later, we were sitting on the same carpet during a lesson. Reading several fables and discussing the characteristics of fables and other traditional literature stories like myths, tall tales, and folktales, Jeremy asked, “Mrs. Miller, how do we know so many of these stories? They’re so old.”
I answered, “ Well, people shared these stories with each other. Families and neighbors sat together at the end of the day and told stories. That was their entertainment. We know these stories because they were passed down through generations of people through storytelling. Imagine what life was like a long time ago. People worked all day to find food and take care of their families. Sitting around a campfire at night gave them time to relax, visit, and enjoy the end of the day, “ I said.
“So they just sat around telling stories?” Kenzie asked.
“I imagine they could repair tools or prepare for the next day’ s work while they listened,” I said. As I spoke, I suddenly saw it. Huddled on the carpet, listening to stories, our class family was doing the same thing that ancient families did. At the end of our workday, we gather together to bond as a group and share stories. When my students braid hair, draw, or stretch out to relax during read aloud time, they engage in the same activities people always have during story time.
Our classroom community matters more to me than enforcing rules for the sake of having rules. Does it really matter that my students aren’t sitting like good soldiers during read aloud? When I made our read aloud more like school and less like hanging out with our tribe, we all enjoyed it less.
Smiling sheepishly, I said, “I bet some of them sat around braiding hair, too. I guess this carpet is our campfire.”
My students laughed and Mason called from the back, “Does that mean I can lay down today?”
“Yes, Mason, yes it does.”
Donalyn Miller is a fifth grade teacher at Peterson Elementary in Fort Worth, TX. She is the author of The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild. Donalyn co-hosts the monthly Twitter chat, #titletalk (with Nerdy co-founder, Colby Sharp), and facilitates the Twitter reading initiative, #bookaday. You can find her on Twitter at @donalynbooks or under a pile of books somewhere, happily reading.
**Donalyn and her class are currently reading Doll Bones by Holly Black during read aloud time.
Nerdy Book Club 
So interesting. I’ve mellowed too on allowing kids to doodle while I’m reading aloud. They too push the rule –lately there has been some paper construction and origami going on. I’ve nixed it because I feel that they are giving too much attention to the building and not attending to the reading, but I may rethink that if I’m convinced they are paying attention.
I have to say I wouldn’t agree to the hair braiding though. Here’s why. In my experience that sort of thing is very socially provocative. (Not unlike social grooming for other primates:) And so who braids whose hair become a social act and relates to the complicated dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in my classroom. I too have seen a line of girls braiding hair and it always involves some girls and leaves out others. Those doing it too often seem to be doing it as an act of power. Maybe I’m totally wrong, but that is why I don’t allow it. When it comes to storytelling in cultures where it happened at night and around fires, I think it is very different. In Sierra Leone among the Mende, for instance, it would be familial. So it would be braiding in a very different sense, a mother braiding as a form of comfort (I used that image in one of the poems in my book) and so on. Not the sort of power play I’ve seen among girls in my class. (And it is always girls.)
Sorry to go on, but I too spend a lot of time thinking about how kids should be during my read alouds and also about the complicated issues around social aggression.
I agree that we don’t want any activity to exclude students. I’m watchful, though, about the hair braiding. All of the girls have been braid chain participants at some point. Destiny doesn’t participate because she has corn rows and extensions. I heard one girl say to her, “Your hair is so pretty already, Destiny. Can you show me how to corn row mine?” Thank you for your insight and advice. I will watch out for exclusive behavior.
I hope I didn’t come across as critical. I had just noticed hair braiding among certain girls and not others in a way that made me uncomfortable. If they’d all been doing it no doubt I’d have felt quite differently. I’m very glad you discussed the issue of what kids do while listening. Thanks!
This really made me think of my own practice. I have large pillows and get annoyed when I see the kids laying on them rather than sitting up. The question I should ask myself is….Are they enjoying the story?
My students are totally engaged with our read aloud and complain when I close the book each day. I am a diligent kid-watcher and I am convinced they are all still listening and participating! If they weren’t we would have a group meeting and discuss it.
This is something that I struggle with and recently, I’ve come to the same conclusion as you. Some students doodle, some fold paper, and some sit there and listen during the read aloud. I tried requiring that they all, “Put everything away, face me, sit up, and listen!” And I, too, immediately noticed the joy drained from the experience. For a long time, I was embarrassed because when other teachers or administrators would come into my classroom, they’d comment on how “chaotic” things looked…when I looked, I saw the students were getting what they needed. I’m confident that hair braiding and doodling going on in your class will add to their experience and not take away.
You’ve hit on something big for me…going to write more about this! Thanks Donalyn for the inspiration this morning!
I could teach forever and never learn everything my students need to teach me.
My first internship I was sitting at the front of a second grade class reading a book “Stone Soup”. The teacher sat in the back smiling as I asked the kid next to me to sit on his hands. He was moving his had like he was forming a rainbow. When I finished I turned to him and asked the little boy what he thought of the story. His reply taught me the best lesson ever. He replied, “What story”. He needed to move his hands and illustrate the story in his mind to actually hear and interact with the story. The teacher in the back could have told me this but I don’t think I would have learned it as quickly or remembered it as well. That was 22 years ago. I’ve been in many schools where kids were told to sit up straight, don’t doodle, etc. Think about it thought, when we attend conferences, what do we as adults do? Great lesson Donalynn.
I once had a student rolling around on the floor during every library lesson. Sometimes I would ask her to sit up and other times I left her because she wasn’t being disruptive and I had recently read an article that suggested I just leave it alone. I worried that I wasn’t getting through to her. At the end of the year I played a review game and she knew everything. In fact she carried the whole team, showing them how she arrived at the answers. I wish I could find that article again to read again and share with others.
Beautiful to experience a glimpse of your class… good lesson to reflect on as well… have to think on my storytime setting now… Thank you.
Donalyn, you’ve made me think again – as always. It’s clear that I need to reflect on my own expectations of read aloud time. One thing that my classes this year are doing that has driven me up the wall is that many don’t like sitting on the floor. They prefer to get chairs and circle them around me, which has frustrated me because it doesn’t “seem” like real read aloud time to me with chairs. But, I have tried to go with it as it seems something they desire and as you mentioned, it hasn’t affected their engagement in the story. Another related frustration for me this year is it seems the kids like to comment as I am reading and react aloud. How do you feel about that in your classroom? I am reading them Sideways Stories from Wayside School, which is a hilarious book, and many of the kids are reacting and humorously commenting to one another as certain events occur. My instinct has been to say, “Keep your reactions/comments in your mind”, but again – the book is completely silly – and their reactions show me they are engaged and enjoying the story. You’ve got me thinking today!
My experience has been that if stopping and letting students talk over the story was an easier way for me to see that they were meeting specific standards in a unit (inferring, and so on), as well as helping each other get to a deeper meaning of the story and creating community. For example, while reading “Coraline” to 8th graders, one student wanted to know why she was trying to hard to rescue her parents when they had been ignoring her. Wow, did we have a conversation about families and parents that day!
I tell my students that we will stop and talk about the book during natural breaks in the story such as the end of a scene or chapter. I explain that I get confused as a reader if I’m interrupted. They understand that because it happens to them!
I would suggest that students who were bothered by movement sit in the front, while those who needed to move around (dare I say fidget?) should be toward the back. As a teacher librarian I didn’t have the intimate knowledge of how each student learned and listened best. This seemed to work.
You are so nice to tolerate the hair braiding after all! My daughter would have been one of the culprits if she were in your class. She also has a lot of restless energy so doing hair helps her concentrate. She doesn’t have special needs but she’s always moving and obsessed with hair but also a good multi-tasker.
What book are you reading?
We are reading Doll Bones by Holly Black. Great read aloud for upper elementary and middle school readers.
Wow, this has spurred quite a conversation! We’re all thinking about our tolerances, wishes, and reactions to kids’ behaviors during read aloud time, thanks to this post, Donalyn. Thank you for challenging us. I also love that we can all connect – kids may have their differences, but reading your post and all the comments, it’s clear that they also have many similarities. I can remember scratching backs and braiding hair during movies when I was a little girl in elementary school, too, and I don’t remember teachers telling us not to. I do think the first commenter has a point, and we need to watch out for exclusion. Ryan – I struggle with some kids who want to comment constantly throughout read alouds. It can be exhausting. 😉 I’ve also wondered about laying down and whether or not that’s ok. As for doodling, I know I don’t want to be the one squelching young Jarrett Krosocszas or Raina Telgemeiers. 😉 Doodle to your heart’s content! Anyway, great food for thought this morning!
I am glad that I wrote this post, so I can learn from all of the great comments here. Who knew this was such a passionate topic for so many?
Thank you, Donalyn! I think there’s this picture of what engagement looks like that we think if students are sitting in seats upright & still that they are more engaged with the story than if sitting or laying on the carpet. At least this is how it is where I am & the unfortunate piece is that I’ve bought into it. I know I’ve walked into a beginning teacher’s classroom & observed with disdain the students who are doodling – the assumption is that they are not listening. Or are they? Your post is helping me shift my mindset. It seems that I support teachers developing a tribe-like relationship with their students except with the read aloud. I may not verbally discourage them but I’m sure my vibe gives off disapproval. No more! I appreciate your post & how it’s helped me reflect on how I may have removed the joy of the read aloud with my own students & maybe for those I now mentor. We are a tribe and now I need to step out of the way & let everyone behave like they belong in the tribe.
PS. I loved Doll Bones! Hope your students are loving it, too.
I went through a similar reflective period earlier this year with respect to my class’ read aloud habits. We were reading The False Prince in September and anticipating a great Skype discussion with Jennifer Nielsen in October. Although we don’t have a carpet in my room, nor a place for us to gather and sit on the floor, on day one I told students that they could draw or doodle at their desks during the read aloud if they wished. A couple of students got into the habit of chatting about their doodles, sharing coloured pencils, asking one another for the colour they needed, etc., and I became a little frustrated with the level of focus on the story. So, I withdrew my initial offer and asked students to sit quietly and listen to the story. It wasn’t long before I realized, though, that some students really needed to keep their hands busy during the read aloud. We decided as a class that if we were going to include drawing and doodling during the read aloud, materials had to be at the ready beforehand, and that chatting would not be permitted. I also asked students to make their drawings or doodles relevant to the story. Students took pride in illustrating the scenes and characters in The False Prince and after each read aloud we shared our drawings and doodles and made a space to display them on blackboard in our classroom. They loved that I tweeted their drawings to Jennifer Nielsen! It worked well and we continue to doodle or draw during other read alouds as long as there is a connection between the two.
Have you seen that TedTalk devoted to doodling/drawing during class? Fascinating. If I can find it I will post link.
Donalyn, you always reassure me. I’ve always gotten some looks from admin/other teachers because I’m not a big fan of enforcing rules just to have rules. If my kids are engaged and paying attention, I’m ok with them walking, braiding, even doodling during class. Thank you for this post!
We are teaching kids! They are people, not widgets. If you agree with me, I find it reassuring that I am on the right track, Sarah!
I don’t think I would have ever really thought about any of these things – and the implications for my classroom – if I hadn’t seen my son “multitasking” successfully while I was reading to him. I used to get upset that he didn’t look like he was paying attention to what I was reading – what with all the Matchbox smashing and sound effects going on. BUT every single solitary time I stopped to see if he knew what I was reading he could tell me down to the smallest detail. I know that I just can focus better on audiobooks if I’m are fidgeting, moving, doodling, painting my nails, cleaning the house, upgrading websites… Why does it seem so strange that our students might just do the same things we do?
Don’t you believe that this is a part of helping students begin to know themselves as learners, to understand what helps them concentrate and “hear” the story, the lesson, etc. We want them to take this up for themselves, not have the teacher always telling what to do/how to act. In the classroom, many of my students brought their sketchbooks to sketch while I read. I love the metaphor of sitting around the fire, never connected in that way-a beautiful thought of community/family time. Our classrooms are the students’ home away from home, at least that’s how I thought of it. Thanks Donalyn!
Your post shows that we can learn so much from our students. I just went back and read your non-review of The One and Only Ivan posted Sept. 14th, and it certainly is evident that your kids are active participants in the read aloud. The one laying down is not tuning out, the braiders are with you as you turn every page, and I love the fact that Daniel would bring you the tissue box. How would he notice your need if he was not paying attention. Just wish he was here to pass that box to me.
Daniel moved last week and we still feel his loss in our classroom community. No one has taken on his tissue box role…
I have a girl who always braids while I’m reading. What I really need to figure out is how to get her to braid MY hair during that time.
I came to the comments section to say what most other readers have already said. You have definitely given me food for thought today. And maybe my toes are hurting a bit….
So many comments and thoughts. I have always let kids draw and stretch out on the floor when I read. It does build a strong community over time. I have had to stop the hair braiding due to head lice that shows up once in awhile. We have learned to just leave hair alone. I also really watch when new students enter the classroom. They often mistake this casual setting for a time to just zone out. ( I think our admin. also has that mistaken thought). So I am careful to take time to review why we read aloud, why it is important as learners and that it is important to enjoy our stories as well. I love your discussion of storytelling around the campfire. Perfect!
I, too, struggle with having everyone sit properly. The students want to get comfortable physically, yet I always force them to sit in our perfect circle. Maybe I need to re-think the reason behind my wanting them to sit up straight. I think it’s more for show, and because it’s what my colleagues do. I think I’m going to have a different feel in reading workshop tomorrow. Thanks!
Christina
It is so wonderful to hear the reality your classroom. Il have this idea of how it should be and I think that’s where I go astray. You ask the great question of where are our lines. What battles do we need to fight and what doesn’t really matter that much. The goal of community is a huge one.
I have my students on the carpet and sometimes they get annoyed with each other, they are too close. They need space and move a little off the carpet. They jot notes and quotes (I project the text on the smart board so they can), draw, talk when I stop for it, react (when they can’t help it), beg me to not stop reading, question when they don’t understand and most of all love the story. Some don’t like it when I stop and ask them to think; they just want to know what comes next. These students don’t like my control of text. I get their passion, but I want them to develop the habit of thinking more as we read. I hope that model transfers to their independent reading work. Thanks so much for sharing your classroom, your thinking always helps me think more about my classroom.
I agree that we are modeling how to think and talk about books during read alouds. Thanks for sharing your students’ behaviors and attitudes with us!
I love this post! I let my students sit around the room during read aloud. They can draw etc too. Haven’t had the hair braiding, but have had that other times though.
Love, love, love this story of you and your tribe! Children who feel more like their class and teacher area second mini family tend to learn more. Kudos to you for realizing this and making their reading time special. Thank you for all you do for children and to promote reading!
Wish I could time travel and be a kid in your classroom!
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Funny – I did a 4 week “experiment” with my masters level children’s lit course. I read aloud from Gaimen’s The Graveyard Book. Week 1 – Read aloud at end of class, all expected to sit at desks/tables, no discussion. Week 2- Read Aloud right before break with 15 min discussion right after break, still at desk/tables. Week 3 – just like week 2, guiding question before reading. Week 4 – week 3 repeat but I encourage them to get comfortable. Guess which week has the engagement, retention, and detailed discussion? Week 4.
This story made me wish read aloud time so much. When I was a teacher, it was mine and the kids’ favorite time! (And Doll Bones–fabulous!)
Phew…I am not the only one with high tolerance. I also looped with this group of 8th graders and we are very comfortable with each other. I loved your post. Thank you.
Props to you for recognizing a mistake, and fixing it. I, too, liked a Really Orderly classroom when I was teaching, and I, too, sometimes erred on the side of rules for rules sakes – but I hope I always remembered in time that I was teaching KIDS and they engaged in their own ways. I miss the read-aloud time. Maybe need to find time for a volunteer classroom! Thanks for sharing.
I loved this post. Your students remind me not only of ancient campfire-sitters, but also of 19th-century folks who would sit round the drawing room in the evenings while someone read aloud for entertainment. The ladies usually did embroidery or some other type of sewing. There’s something about keeping one’s hands occupied that facilitates listening. And, as someone who’s been a mom to an autistic student, I can tell you that being able to doodle helps some kids pay attention. Bravo to you for being a flexible teacher!
THANK YOU. Even though it makes me crazy, they are drawing, playing with playdoh, coloring, and laying around while I read. THE rules: no moving, just listening. And they take advantage of my love for them too…..
Susan Nash
Thank you for your post Donalyn! As a District Administrator, it is posts like this that help me keep in touch with classroom when I’m buried behind my desk in paperwork!
You are a breath of fresh air!
I love that you are letting the kids discover what they need in this situation. They will be spending a lot of time listening in the coming years of their education and it will likely help them to know that doodling or doing something with their hands helps them concentrate. Why do you think so many adults knit in similar situations 🙂