One of the biggest challenges as a secondary teacher is how quickly you need to get to know your students. You have a lot to do, but know the value of taking the time to get to know your students – not just who they are personally but their who they are as writers and readers (their reading journey).
It is easy to assume that students entering 7th, 8th or even high school come with a specific set of skills or believe that students can do this or that simply based on their grade level. But the reality is that students, no matter their grade, come to us with such a variety of skills that we would miss the mark if we simply worked based on an assumption of what students in a particular grade “should be able to do.”
In addition to team building activities, I like to incorporate activities at the beginning of the year that help me learn about how my students feel about reading and writing. What do they like about reading, what books or genres do they gravitate towards, how do they feel about writing?
I like to do this through a variety of activities Because by the time students reached middle school, if I just give them a survey, they will often answer questions the way they think I, the teacher, wants them to
A Written Response
Instead of asking students what they did over summer break, which is not an equitable practice, ask students to tell you about a favorite book or a memory about books (library trip, bookstore or someone reading with them, etc…)
This will not only help you learn how your students think about reading, it will give you a good sample of their writing. You can begin to see what skills your students have and give you a better jumping-off point when you are ready to begin your writing unit.
One assignment – two goals/objectives – what could be better?!
Reading One Pager
One pagers are a great way for students to demonstrate what they know about any topic. At the beginning of the year, I like to give my students a one-pager activity about their reading journey. It allows them to be a little creative but gives me valuable information about each student and who they are as a reader.
To help them think about their reading journey, I provide them with some ideas…
- My favorite way to read is…
- Books I enjoyed reading last year are…
- I would describe my attitude about reading as…
Surveys are still a valuable tool!
While not my first assignment of the year, I do like to give students a survey about their own reading history.. After I complete the written task and one pager – after students have done some thinking about their reading journey, I will have them complete a survey.
I found that by having students complete the survey last (instead of first), I get more authentic answers that better represent how they view reading. It gives me a better starting point with students as we dive into reading for the year.
You can find the activities I use at the beginning of the year by clicking here.
These activities are nice but how do I use this information?
Initially I use the information to simply gather general information about each of my new classes. Is there a general love or hate relationship with reading? Is there a class that will need more support to further their love of reading? Is there a class that already loves reading that I can challenge – no two classes are ever the same!
By the third week of school I am already beginning reading conferences. At the first conference I want to help the student get comfortable with me and begin to build that relationship centered around books. I want students to feel comfortable talking with me about what they are reading.
I bring to each conference the assignments students completed in the first weeks of school and use those to guide my discussion with them. I simply pick one thing from the assignment and as the student to tell me more, then I just listen! These are judgment free conversations about the students’ reading journey – if they are not used to conferring with the teacher they will be nervous so remember to be gentle with them!
This first conference sets the tone. It lets students know I’ve read their work and have a genuine curiosity about how I can help them grow as a reader. I will use these assignments for the first few conferences as students are getting into their choice reading books.
It can also be fun to bring the assignments out at the end of the year and let students reflect on how they have grown as a reader and how their reading journey has evolved.
