Two Terrific (and Helpful) Books

Hi friends!  Apologies again for the hiatus lately, but starting a new school is turning out to be quite the time-consuming endeavor!

I won’t tell you it’s all been a breeze and things are spectacular every day (any teacher who tells you that is lying or not working hard enough), but we’ve been having our small victories and our school is growing in positive directions each day.

For this post, I want to tell you about one small victory that has felt like maybe the biggest victory I’ve experienced so far this year…

I’ve got a student who, at the start of the year, repeatedly indicated to me that she hates reading and has never enjoyed a book.  In the first week of school during independent reading time, she called me over to her desk and pointed to the book she’d taken off the shelf.  “I don’t understand it,” she said, looking exasperated.  (Note: Unlike some students, this girl wasn’t angry or irrationally negative about reading.  She was more overwhelmed than anything.)  I sat down to talk to her, and it quickly came out that she doesn’t understand what’s going on when a book starts in the middle of a scene and doesn’t set things up in a clear, linear fashion.  A very valid point, I thought.  I will also add that this student’s native language is Spanish, and while she is not officially an English Language Learner (ELL), she is not always 100% certain as to what she’s reading when she reads in English.

I told her that getting your bearings when you open a book and delve into a story can be a very challenging thing, and the only way to get better at handling this is to read more and more.  I then had a thought: I asked her if she’d ever read a graphic novel before.  She said she hadn’t.  I led her over to our classroom library and pulled a high-interest graphic novel off the shelf.  The book was Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol:

I pointed out that graphic novels can help a reader understand what’s going on right away because they give images in conjunction with the story.  My student’s eyes widened, and she immediately sat down to read the book.  At the end of the period, she eagerly asked if she could sign out the book to finish at home!  Overjoyed, I told her yes, and to my even greater delight, she came in the next morning and told me that she had finished the entire book overnight!

That victory in and of itself was huge for me, but our story continues with yet another success with this same student.

As part of our first unit, my students are reading young adult novels and discussing them each week in “literature circles.”  Early in the school year, I gave my students 7 choices of young adult books that they could read, and they had to choose one from that list (students are all reading different books – we’re not reading a whole-class text yet).  Over a period of 8 weeks, they are reading their books independently, submitting a written or illustrated response to the reading each week, and meeting for 20 minutes a week with other students who are reading the same book to chat about the reading in book club fashion.

All of the books on the list involve stories of teens or kids from cultures that are represented in our student body, so a lot of students are finding these books relevant to their lives.  The particular student I mentioned above chose to read the book La Linea by Ann Jaramillo, the story of a young Mexican boy who tries to cross the border to join his parents in California:

My student is Mexican, so the story felt especially exciting to her, and Jaramillo brilliantly weaves Spanish words and phrases into her text to paint a clearer picture for Spanish-speaking readers.

Anyway, my student, who was very much a reluctant reader, didn’t get started on the reading right away.  In fact, two weeks of literature circle work went by before she really started reading in a purposeful way.  She listened to her group mates discuss the text, and slowly the conversations peaked her interest.  She then decided to get started reading…

…and she couldn’t put the book down.  She came into my room first thing every morning this week to tell me what was going on in the book and to ask clarifying questions about the reading.  She told me she’s been reading on the train, something she’s never done in her entire life.  She told me her mom can’t believe she’s reading a book.  And she eagerly asked me for more book recommendations like La Linea.

What more could an English teacher possibly wish for?  Suffice it to say, this student’s response to this book has made my month!

Sadly, I can’t seem to find more books by Ann Jaramillo, but I’ve given my student Esperanza Rising as a good next read.  If you’ve got any recommendations that I can pass along, please let me know!