We’re finishing our first choice novel in class, and I always have questions from teachers about how I run choice reading. How do you know students are reading? How do you assess different books? How can you have meaningful discussions on a novel without a central text? The lack of answers to questions like these often keep teachers from experimenting with choice reading in their classroom. I understand: choice reading doesn’t have the structure and easily planned discussions that a whole class novel does, But choice reading has a big advantage that the whole class novel doesn’t necessarily have from the beginning: student buy-in.
One of my goals for the past few years has been to provide increased opportunities for students to read for pleasure. This can be tricky because I have specific objectives that we need to achieve. Class is not a book club. BUT there’s more to reading than the dissection of a book. Students should have opportunities to read in broad swaths without annotating, stopping for reading quizzes, and choose what they read. This helps build reading stamina and even fluency. Most importantly, students are typically more engaged and make good connections with their books.
So what does choice reading look like in class? I appreciate teachers who give students opportunities to read in each class period with zero strings attached. I’ve experimented with this in the past with good results but have moved to students reading on their own then providing structured opportunities to think about their books when they’re finished reading. Here’s what that will look like in class for the next couple of weeks.
1 – Choose books. For our first choice set, students chose from a list of commonly banned books. After scouring my bookshelves and the bookroom, I found enough of these copies for students to have books in hand and gave students some class time to explore and choose books. Why banned books? I thought it would be interesting to have conversations about why their books may be objectionable and if they should be taught in school. Not everyone has the ability to address subjects like this head-on in their districts.
2 – Students read. We have six weeks set aside for reading, and students will have time in class to read. I encourage students to put a sticky note and mark important ideas or points of interest so they can easily find them for discussion later. I have the AP Lit Enduring Understandings on card stock if students want to use these as bookmarks to help think about important scenes or components in a text. I share about my personal reading experiences that I often read and recognize that something is important but may not fully understand why until I finish the novel and reflect back. Not understanding or being able to fully unpack a whole novel on the first read is completely okay, and I want to acknowledge this upfront.
3 – Identify key scenes. Students initially work along to identify five key scenes in their book. These scenes should point readers to a larger meaning of the work. Maybe the scene includes a character resolving a crisis, an epiphany, or a scene where tensions come to head. Students identify the scene and why its significance. This activity can be used as an assessment or as a discussion tool – or both! I love to get students together in groups with other students who read their book and discuss their scenes and push each other in their thinking about the significance and importance.
4 – Provide Mini-Lessons. I’ll provide a few mini-lessons on character development throughout a novel and structure and give students time to think and discuss how these ideas play out in their books. My goal with the mini-lessons is not to give some broad base ideas for students to consider and let their insights guide their exploration. We have plenty of exercise in specific guided conversations on texts in class, so I want these activities to be more student driven. I’m thinking I’ll have some butcher paper for each book and let all classes record insights on a community sheet.
5 – Mini Socratic Seminars. Using the identified key scenes and insights from the mini-lessons which all point to larger ideas, students will create a series of 3 – 5 questions to explore in a mini Socratic Seminar. I am still thinking through how these work but I’m thinking they’re all occurring at the same time at different tables in the media center with me and another teacher or two walking around and observing. If this sounds messy and potentially chaotic, it is, but I love the idea of students exploring what they’re interested in and guiding their own discussions. How will this be scored? No idea . . . I’ll let you know.
6 – Research Book Banning. Students will find at least two articles on the banning of their book and identify the argument against the book taught . Using knowledge from their reading and considering their articles, students will decide if their book should be taught or not taught in high school and make a presentation for a (fake) school board meeting. I’m trying to incorporate more research – even at small levels – into what we do especially in real world application.
So back to the questions. How do you know students are reading? I don’t, and also don’t know if they’re reading when we do whole class novels. How do you assess different books? I use some universal activities and ideas that are broad based and work with any novel. Here’s an idea of a universal assessment I’ve used. How can you have meaningful discussions on a novel without a central text? This is the easy part: let students drive the conversations with their insights and interests.
Happy choice reading!
Susan Barber teaches AP Lit and Writers Workshop/Advanced Composition at Midtown High School in Atlanta, Georgia and serves as the College Board Advisor for AP Lit. In addition to reading, writing, and investing in the next generation, she loves watching college football with her family especially when Alabama is playing.
