Incorporating Choice into the Secondary ELA Classroom
presented by Tim Fredrick at the 2005 NYSEC Conference in Albany, NY
As middle and high school teachers, we drain the fun and life out of reading and writing. We force students to read books about topics or characters they don’t care about. We decide what they will write about - even what goes in each paragraph or sentence.
When was the last time you enjoyed reading what someone else forced you to read? When was the last time you enjoyed – and were successful at – writing on a topic that did not interest you or that you knew very little about? When was the last time someone told you what should go in each paragraph of your paper – or worse, what the first sentence should be and what the second sentence should be and what the third ... ?
No wonder we often stare out into our classrooms to find bored faces or realize that very few students read last night’s reading or read dull and lifeless writing assignments. We’ve killed reading and writing because we’ve taken the choice out of it.
I came to care about including choice into the reading and writing classroom from an action research project I did as a MetLife Fellow in the Teachers Network Leadership Institute. In the research that I did last year, I looked into how I could increase the engagement of the adolescent boys in my 9th grade English classroom. I teach at Thurgood Marshall Academy a public school in Harlem, New York. 80% of the students in my school qualify for free or reduced lunch, 90% are African American and 10% are Latino. 40% are boys and 60% are girls. We do not accept students based on past academic performance or test scores, but rather their willingness to do well now and in the future. We consider ourselves a second chance school. As such, our students generally vary in skill level – from those operating above grade level to those operating way below grade level – but a large majority of my students fall in the lower end of the spectrum. To be honest, most of them hate school, but I suspect they also secretly hope to find something they like about it and very secretly hope to be successful. I’m reminded on a daily basis, though, that this may be their first experience in a successful, safe, and academically rigorous school.
For many of my students, engagement is the first obstacle. They’ve suffered countless failures in school and are fed up. I can’t possibly hope to help them improve their skills if they don’t pay attention or do the work. This is a bigger problem with the boys than it is with the girls and this is what led me on a search to improve the boys’ engagement in our class.
I was led to Jeffrey Wilhelm and Michael Smith’s book Reading Don’t Fix No Chevy’s. I took two key points from that book – first that boys do read and write, just not what we read and write about in the typical English classroom and second that giving students choice in what they read and write about can allow them to bring in their out-of-school interests into the ELA classroom so that they become more engaged. As I conducted my research, I noticed that all students were more engaged when choice was incorporated into what we were doing.
Choice brought a new energy to my classroom and students were tapping into that excitement that we so often only see in little children.
Of course, there are reasons to include choice other than just engagement. First, we live in a democratic society and making choices is at the core of democracy. It is what freedom is all about – making choices without the input of authority. But, how do we prepare our students properly for a democratic society without teaching them how to make choices. When we select each aspect of students work for them the only thing we prepare them for is life under a tyranny – we prepare them to be oppressed.
Second, we need to be connecting what happens in our reading and writing classrooms with the reality of what it means to be a real reader and writer. In real reading and writing, we are not usually dictated about what to read and write. Yes, there are some professional circumstances in which we are dictated to, but for the most part, adults who are readers and writers dictate themselves what they are going to read and write. They choose every aspect of it. They are not forced to read a particular novel – or even a novel, in general. An adult can choose to read only newspapers his whole life if he wishes. What happens in our reading and writing classrooms needs to mirror what happens in the real world and in the real world, adults make decisions about what they read and write – they make decisions about the subject matter and how they plan to approach the tasks.
In this presentation, I will cover some ways to incorporate choice into your reading and writing curriculum, as well as general methods that work for students who need massive amounts of structure and for those students who can work more independently. Hopefully we will have some time left at the end for Q&A and discussion.
First to reading … There are two ways that I can see to incorporate choice into what students read. The first of those is independent reading, silent sustained reading, or whatever name it is called. There are several ways to structure this practice, but at the heart of it is that students are given in-class time to read material of their choice. I’ve heard various amounts of time given to students, but it usually ranges from 10 – 30 minutes. The more time the better, in my opinion – students cannot learn to be better readers if they do not practice reading free of the threat of assessment. The key, though, is the fact that students can choose what they read thereby increasing the chances that they will actually spend the time reading.
One model of choice during independent reading is allowing students to choose a book to read that corresponds to whatever genre, subject, or author is being studied in the class. This allows the teacher to continue lessons and provide additional practice time even though the entire class is reading different books.
Another model of choice is to allow students to read whatever they want – from novels to magazines and biographies to newspapers. Students are simply given time to read and the only requirement is that they read. Varied materials are made available to them – novels on all subjects and genres, non-fiction books of all types, books that correspond to their interests, poetry books, magazines, newspapers, comic books, and so on. The more choice they are given in what they can read – and the more varied reading materials that are made available to them – the more likely they are to read in class and, hopefully, after finding out that reading is something that they enjoy, the more likely they are to read outside of class.
It is up to the teacher how students are held accountable for their reading during this time. Many teachers have students complete book reports or other projects after finishing reading. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of book reports as they are so easily forged. I’ve also found that these types of reports, projects, or even the more alternative creative reports and projects kill the fun aspect of reading. It is the goal that students read because they like what they are reading. Some students will need help with identifying what they like to read, but once that is done, I’ve found the report or project makes the act less enjoyable and less likely to be done. If I feel I need to hold the students accountable for reading (and oftentimes, the students like it so much that I don’t have to), I simply take a pass/fail grade for the independent reading time. If they read the whole time, they pass. If not, they fail.
My first year of teaching, I had true independent reading choice – no book reports, no projects – and they could read whatever they wanted. Students, years later, reported to me that this helped them learn to love reading again. Teachers in the school commented that they saw - for the first time - students carrying books around with them and reading in their free time.
The second way that we can incorporate choice into reading in our classrooms is through literature circles. Literature circles are one very important way to help students select reading materials that conform more to their personal interests, while allowing us as teachers to be more instructive than we can during independent reading. When I started using literature circles, I was initially concerned about how I could incorporate whole-class mini-lessons and NYC performance standards into a curriculum where the students were reading different books. How could we have a class discussion? How could I continue to teach character analysis when there were six or seven different books, each with different main characters? How could I overcome not having enough books for students to take home and read? My solution was this.
I see each of my 9th grade classes every day of the week – 3 times a week for 45 minutes and 2 times for 90 minute blocks. My first goal in planning was to schedule in-class reading time. For each 90 minute block, students were scheduled to read for the first 30 minutes and respond in writing for 15; in addition, they would read and respond for one of the single period classes. I also decided that the groups would meet and complete activities about their lit circle book each Friday.
But, the biggest challenge was in continuing the necessary work of character analysis, which I would need to teach in mini-lessons using whole class texts. I decided that these mini-lessons would occur on Wednesdays using a short one-day text. Then, during their Friday meetings, they would apply the Wednesday mini-lesson to their lit circle books.
For instance, I wanted to discuss character goals and motivations, as well as the obstacles they face in reaching those goals. During the Wednesday lesson, we read a short chapter from a memoir and completed Somebody Wanted But So’s as described in Kylene Beers’ When Kids Can’t Read What Teachers Can Do (2003). This was a structure which we had used before and asks student to create sentences like, Steve (Somebody) wanted to be acquitted of the crime (Wanted), but no one believed him (But) so he began to write in his journal. I then used their SWBS statements in a mini-lesson to identify goals, obstacles, and the character’s reactions. During their Friday Literature Circle meeting that week, the groups received a chart that had the following columns:
A. What does the character want?
B. Why does he/she want this?
C. What stands in his/her way of getting this?
D. What is the character’s reaction or predicted reaction to the obstacle?
E. What is your opinion of the effectiveness of this reaction?
In this way, students were doing a task similar to a SWBS, but it appeared more advanced to them and also asked them to evaluate what the character did. It became my goal for each Friday Literature Circle meeting to make the work just slightly more challenging than what we had done together on Wednesday.
With this structure, student engagement in their lit circle books is remarkable. During each reading period, students are engaged in reading their books; their engagement and comprehension are evident in their contributions to the Friday Literature Circle meetings. With students who have such a variety of interests and tastes, Literature Circles helped me match the best book with each student – both in terms of reading tastes and reading abilities. Students were able to read at their own natural pace, rather than at the pace I had set - one that would be guaranteed to be uncomfortable for some students no matter what it was. I had no complaints from students about their book, which was not the case when we did whole class novels.
The thinking and analysis skills the students developed during the Wednesday whole class mini-lessons and the Friday Literature Circle meetings were also significant. Because in planning my curriculum I was forced to think about the sequence of activities and how they taught the skill, the students learned the skill rather than “the novel”. There was much less danger of my interpretation of the books leaking into their interpretations, because during the majority of their work individually and together, I was not with them. They were able to help each other and work together towards interpretations – most of the time being forced to do so without relying on the teacher’s interpretation. Students were also able to focus specifically on the thinking skills I was asking of them because the books they were reading were at the right level for them – something that could not have been done with a whole class novel. With a whole class novel, the book may have been too difficult for them to even have understood the basics of the story, not to mention doing critical analysis of the character. When I held a whole class discussion on a novel, not everyone got to participate enough; but in literature circles, participation in discussion is almost constant - there are fewer people involved in the discussion and they are less afraid of making mistakes or embarassing themselves in front of the whole class so they participate more.
One caution here, though: If you want to maximize the benefits of choice, then you need to make sure that you are offering a menu of book choices that vary enough to reach almost every interest in your class. The first time I selected a menu of books for literature circles, I later realized that I had picked all books that would appeal to the successful girls in my class. This was just as bad as if I had selected one book for everyone. I learned that the books I selected needed to vary in terms of the reading ability that would be needed to comprehend then as well as content interest.
Where choice can be even more successful and I would argue is even more necessary is in writing instruction. Writing is a creative process - even if the writing assignment is not creative. When you write, you are creating something. Nothing is more difficult to create than something you have no choice over. Giving students choice in writing assignments can help them become better writers by giving them similar circumstances as published authors - that is, having at least some say in what they read.
What is the worst, though, is the writing assignments that take all choice away from students. These are the writing assignments that are actually fill-in-the-blank exercises. "Essays" that tell students what to say in each paragraph - I've even seen assignments where students are told what to write in each sentence. This may be "easier" and it may give teachers the writing they're looking for, but it does not teach actual writing skills. In actual writing, writers make choices about their topic, the format they will write in, and the style they will write in. It is our jobs as writing teachers to teach students how to make those choices. It is more difficult than the five paragraph essay or the fill-in-the-blanks essays, but it will actually teach students how to be writers.
So, when looking to incorporate choice into your writing assignments, look at the same areas that actual authors have choice in -- the content, the form, and the style. You can give students choice in any or all of these three categories - but be warned that some students - especially those who have been learning to write by filling in the blanks, will need lots of instruction on how to make those choices - for them it is easier to start with a little choice at first and then work up to more and more choice.
First, the content. This is perhaps the easiest way to include choice. There is evidence that shows that students even prefer just being able to choose between two topics they could write about. In my own research, though, student prefer having as much choice as possible in what they write about. But even a little choice is better than having no choice whatsoever.
When we do offer choice of two, three, five or however many topics, we need to be sure that students have an actual choice - just as when we are thinking of the choices they will have in literature circles. Offering five choices all on the same basic topic will not be as engaging as having 5 fundamentally different choices. Of course, in certain situations, there are times when we cannot offer as wide of a choice in content as we'd like - either because we are teaching a certain content, or our curriculum mandates prohibit it. More real and different choices is better when we can manage it, but even smaller choices is better than nothing.
To give you an example of a writing assignment in my class that incorporates choice in content, but not in form is what my students are working on right now - hopefully even as I speak ... a character sketch. For the first semester of their 9th grade year, students do character analysis using narrative texts. One of the formal writing assignments asks them to create a character of their own. One way I incorporate choice into the assignment is the way in which they can create their character - they have the choice of drawing their inspiration from someone they know, from a character in the book they are reading for literature circles, or completely from their imaginations. Many students - those who see themselves as super creative - choose to create one from thin air. Others, less confident in their ability to create a character completely from scratch, choose someone they know or a character from their book (though the latter choice is often the less chosen). I lead students through different brainstorming exercises where they list possible characters they could choose from - they brainstorm on all the possibilities, then they pick one or two of the best possible characters and brainstorm further until they select their best character. After the character is selected, students then create a biography back story for the character -- all this time, they are free to add as much from their imagination as they feel comfortable. Some students who pick someone they know stick very closely to the actual person - others simply use the person they know as a starting off point finding that the person serves only as a beginning and the character they create is nothing like the person who was their inspiration.
The next formal step of choice comes in the situation or story in which students will put their character in to show certain traits and emotions. I offer a large menu of situations that I think students would find interesting. They can choose from this menu, or they can make up a situation on their own. Students still need to write in a narrative form, even though they many not tell a full story with a full plot.
Second, students can have choice in the form their writing takes when they cannot control the content. There are many forms to write in - narrative, expository, compare/contrast, explication, poetry, letter, ad, song, argument, and so on and so forth. Often authors choose the form of their writing based on the content and almost everyone recognizes that different forms can serve the same content wonderfully. And, this isn't even taking into consideration using multiple genres in the same text.
If we want our students to be real writers, than they need to know the different forms of writing and how to choose different forms for different content and effects. This is the work of real writers and should be the work of our student writers. Again, this takes more effort on our part and on theirs. The process many not be pretty or easy, but the process of real writing never is.
The most common way of giving students the choice in form, but dictating content is to give students the topic and then give them a menu of choices of forms. For example, the first writing assignment that my students complete in 9th grade is a mission statement. In this assignment, they must: (1) tell me what their goals are (2) explain how they plan on reaching their goals and (3) tell me what kind of character traits they think they will need to reach their goals (this ties into the reading that is happening in the classroom at the same time as we are discussing character traits of the characters in their literature circle books). But, when we start the assignment, we examine several different forms this could take - the traditional essay, the poem, a letter to self, etc. These are the three most common forms and I want to point out that the letter to self actually was an idea of a student's and others got really excited about it. Many of the students mix these forms, doing essay-poem hybrids that are truly moving.
Giving choice in form is often very effective for those times when we cannot dictate the content - the mission statement was an assignment that the principal requested we do.
A more advanced form of choice is combining choice of both content and form. This is often easier for students who are used to making choices in their writing, but I've seen the lowest skilled writers really take to having this much choice as well.
What comes to mind first when I think about combining choice of content and form is Nancy Atwell's writing workshop where students are journalling about their experiences, selecting seeds, and developing them into full blown pieces. Someday I wish to have a classroom that is like that - but in my current development of teaching skills, I haven't figured out how to do that with the students I have - students who are so used to being told what to write in each single sentence. Someday, though, I will figure that out.
But, you can still give out the traditional assignment that incorporates choice in content and form. Let's look at another example - The object of personal significance assignment. I want to preface this discussion by saying that I did not make this assignment up. I took it from an article I read in NCTE's Language Arts journal. Of course, the original article got lost among all the professional readings I have and I do not know who to credit for this. I wish I did because this assignment has been one of the most successful assignments I've ever done.
For the OPS assignment, students select an object that has some personal meaning to them, but perhaps to the rest of us just seems like a regular object. Students have brought in trophies, dolls, key chains, headphones, ... you name it - but it cannot be a photograph or a yearbook. Students brainstorm all the things that pop into their mind about this object - the significant ones and the ones that seem incredibly insignificant. I use this as a way to teach students about selecting topics. I have students do this brainstorming in a web and I do one too for an object I've brought in. I put my web on the transparency machine and I demonstrate how I would take all the ideas spinning in my head and select one that seems the most interesting. I circle that part of the web and then freewrite on it. Students do the same and come up with ideas for their writing. What form that takes is up to them - the most popular forms are narratives or plain expository essays or a mix of the two.
The writing I get out of this assignment is incredible. It is personal and often times incredibly moving. It has shown me a lot about my students and the lives they have. The writing is often powerful because they had so much choice in what they are writing about and how they go about it.
There are a variety of structures or assignment types we can use in our classes regularly.
A Tic Tac Toe activity asks students to select from 9 choices either going down, across, or diagnolly. This come from Differentiated Instruction in the English Classroom by Alyce Hunter and Barbara King-Shaver and it is a technique for differentiating instruction for skill level. Often activities for differentiating for skill level are also activities of choice. There are different ways to use this tic tac toe. The columns could be activities of different skill levels. You place an X in a column that corresponds to the individual student's skill level. They have to use that box, but they have choice to go up and down or across. If they go up and down they stay within the same skill level. If they go across, they wind up doing activities of all skill levels. You could also make the different columns signify different content and the rows signify different forms. Students then choose all the same content, all the same form, or (if they go diagnolly) all different.
Double sided activities are two different activities copied back to back on a piece of paper. These are good for students and teachers who are not completely ready for complete choice in activities. You can make the two activities as similar or different as you feel comfortable - but your students just pick one side to work on.
Free work periods is something I've been experimenting with this year and so far it is going well. I give students a specific menu of activities to choose from. They can only do those activities and I make sure that there is a wide variety of choices so that everyone finds something they like. I've found that it is most useful to have these be individual, quiet activities so that all students are working quietly and independently and it does not turn into a free period.
Learning Centers and Independent Study Projects are other activities I see giving students more choice in their work, but I have not worked with them in my classroom yet.
Those are some structures we can use to incorporate choice into our curriculum. You do not have to do choice activities every day. Do them as often as you feel comfortable with and as often as you think students can handle them. Starting small is the best way to approach it and make sure that students understand your expectations of their work ethic during these times. Personally, I've found that if I approach it slowly with students and limit the choices they have and then gradually give them more and more choice, they do very well with it.
Q&A
All men and women are born, live suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about... We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live. – Joseph Epstein
Teaching students how to make choices, how to consider alternatives, how to weigh the pros and cons, and how to take responsibility for the outcomes of their choices is one of the greatest gifts we can give to our students as we teach them to be readers and writers - as well as how to live in the real world.